Swim breathing question

Breathe out through your mouth and nose. Do it in a steady rhythm. I am usually on a four count, so it's BREATHE, blow, blow, blow, BREATHE, etc.

I usually try to time it so I'm almost out of breath as I hit the 4th stroke.

John 

The most common cause of getting winded when swimming is not breathing out enough  before turning your head for your next breath.

If you are still breathing out when you turn your head out of the water then you are going to get winded! If you are working hard you will be breathing hard but it shouldnt be like yuo are hyperventilating.

A rhythm is great.. I breathe in through my mouth and out through my nose and mouth... one way to learn what it feels like is to try slowing down and focusing on your breathing.

You can do a one off back to basics approach with swimming your hands out in front of you (with a kickboard if its easier) and swim with your head looking straight down... then just turn your head to breathe ONLY when you need air to see what it feels like.

Sounds ridiculous but Ive been helping a friend of mine build up his swimming and it seems to have worked really well to go back to the basic primary school drills as a once off so you can learn the feel of it... then once you have that 'feel' you can then do swim a few laps as normal with this new knowledge of feel...

I am pretty new to swim and I experienced the same thing during month 2/3 of my swim learning curve.

Others may disagree, I have nothing more than my own personal experience to back this up... But here is what really helped me.

I went from breathing every third stroke to breathing every other stroke.  The best way I can describe it is... breathe right > stroke right > stroke left > breathe right.  If I am swimming over 400/500 yards this is my breathing method.  I do right side the entire way up the pool and then breathe left coming back the other way (that way you are always breathing in the same direction but changing the side)  In the open water I switch every ten strokes.

To repeat what was already said... be certain you have "dumped" your air before you go to take your breath.

GOOD LUCK!

I tend to breathe out with my face under water and breathe in with my face out of the water. (Sorry..I just couldn't resist)

I breathe out through my mouth mainly with some pressure out the nose to keep water out. I tend to breathe out with some force to make sure I exhale fully during the stroke(s). I usually breathe bilaterally on the third stroke:

Right arm out, breathe right while stroking with Left arm

Stroke right

Stroke left

Left arm out, breathe left while stroking with right arm

Heads turns just before arm comes out of water.

All that being said, I am not a super fast swimmer so take it for what it's worth.

I don't know if this is any help to anyone, but I've been a strong swimmer since I was a kid, and I've never actually taken any notice of how I breathe when I swim. When you've grown up as a swimmer, you just do it naturally.

In the pool the other day I tried to monitor how I was breathing, and I actually exhale all/most of my air just before turning to breathe. So I take a breath when I turn to breathe, then I don't exhale anything whilst I'm doing the next three strokes (or however many strokes I do before breathing next), and then exhale all of it just before turning to breathe again.

I wonder if that's the way all competitive swimmers do it, or if I am an anomoly. I never purposefully tried to do it the way, but it obviously worked, as I was a pretty good regional level swimmer.

Like others said I'm guessing you are not fully exhaling before you take your next breath.

I struggled with this when I first started swimming and what helped..silly I know...was to hum songs while I exhaled as it makes a funny sound with the bubbles and reminded me to exhale.

I think this happened for me for fear of running out of breath as air is good while swimming.

I have been paying close attention to my breathing the last couple weeks. I find that I do tend to hold my breath after I take a breath for a couple strokes. However, if I think about it, and  I exhale as soon as my face goes back in the water and I even give a "growl" for lack of a better word, to make sure I get all the air out, I seem to be much less winded after a long set. I think the reason I tend to hold my breath in instead of exhaling right away may be because I was a sprinter, (100 free, and 100fly were my events). I can definately feel a difference when I exhale completely before taking another breath. Which for me is usually every third stroke alternating both sides breathing.