Disclaimer: This article discusses breath control when swimming. Although self-evident, this type of training is for experienced swimmers and should always be performed under supervision.
Swimmers invest significant time and effort into improving—whether it’s through weight training, pool time, nutrition, or stretching.
And yet, one of the best ways to swim faster is by improving your breathing. Stronger lungs allow for better breath control, greater efficiency, and an edge over competitors, especially during tough finishes.
Like any other type of training, you can develop stronger respiratory muscles to help you swim faster and with more confidence.
This guide will show you how.
Let’s dive in.
The Importance of Better Breathing for Faster Swimming
Improved breathing is fundamental to swimming. It helps you stay focus and efficient in the water, reducing wasted energy.
Strong breath control also gives you the advantage of being able to breathe less.
This means putting your head down and charging into the finish without breathing. Not taking a breath when you surface from a breakout, which can kill speed. And being able to use superior underwaters into the late stages of a race, surging ahead of competitors with each turn.
Ultimately, breathing less allows you to swim faster and with better technique.
How to Improve Swim Breathing Technique
The best ways to improve swim breathing include:
- Swim with better technique
- Use breathing patterns
- Extend breakouts
- Controlled exhalation
- Swim relaxed
- Respiratory training
Next, we will look at each tip and help you insert them into your swim training so that you can breathe and swim like a boss.
Swim with better technique
Technique is absolutely crucial for swimmers. The water is nearly 800 times denser than air, so when we make technical mistakes in the pool, we are extra punished for it with slower swimming and slower times on the clock.
No different than when trying to improve breathing technique. Proper head and hip position are crucial for developing stronger breath control when swimming.
A neutral head position keeps the body in line and reduces drag, but also promotes better breathing as swimmers reduce over-rotating the head and shoulders to breathe.
A quick head turn, with a quick breath, means you get your head back into a neutral and fast position faster.
Higher hips put swimmers in control of shoulder and hip rotation, and by keeping the hips at or very near the surface of the water, cuts down on drag significantly.
With good rotation from the hips, swimmers can more naturally sync their breath with the stroke, promoting more rhythmic breathing.
Use breathing patterns
The simplest way that swimmers can improve breathing volume and control is by using breathing patterns.
All swimmers already use a breathing pattern of some variety, whether it’s breathing every two, three, or four strokes (or more likely, a mix of different breath counts).
Instead of breathing when you are pushed to do so, choose to breathe with intent by assigning breathing patterns to your swim sets and workouts.
Challenging yourself in this manner will lead to increased strokes between breaths, helping you become more comfortable with breathing patterns and managing your breathing.
As a nice little side benefit, taking fewer breaths when training also increases aerobic demands without increasing the training stress.
For example, instead of breathing every two strokes, breathe every three. Or instead of every three strokes, alternate between breathing every three and four strokes.
Legendary swim coach Eddie Reese, who won fourteen NCAA championships at the University of Texas, frequently used breathing patterns to develop breath control.
“We do a lot of breathing every three,” said Reese. “I do it to balance the stroke. I do it to cause the heart rate to go up without them having to go faster on a faster interval. Another way is to take three strokes off every wall without a breath or five fly kicks and three strokes without a breath.”
Swimmers go to the pool and pound out tons of laps in training to improve technique and stamina.
Why not also use those same laps to increase respiratory capacity and get better at breathing when swimming?
Extend your underwaters
Fun fact: The fastest swimmers go when in the water is in the moments after they enter the water from the dive and during underwaters. In the moments after they dive into the water or push off the wall, this is the absolute fastest they move in the pool.
By improving your breath control, swimmers can maximize the speed and velocity of the breakout for faster overall swimming.
Extending your underwaters, either by adding a dolphin kick to the end of the breakout or waiting for a beat when pushing off before initiating your dolphin kicks, helps to teach breath control.
This tip is a two-for-one in that it allows you to focus on improving your underwater dolphin kicks (by doing more of them) and also developing better breath control.
Start by adding one dolphin kick to all of your walls and breakouts.
For example, during week one, swimmers perform two dolphin kicks off every wall during swim training. Week two, three kicks. Week three, four kicks, and so on.
More kicks, better breath management, and faster swimming.
Controlled exhalations
Swimmers naturally can begin to panic when they feel their lungs start to ache for air. This is about as natural reaction as you can expect.
Swimming face down goes against our natural instincts, and as a result, our brain starts sending panic messages—like a computer reacting to a malware infection after opening a very suspicious email attachment.
Controlled exhalations—letting air out in a measured manner under the water—helps to relax swimmers and cuts down on the amount of time your head is out of the water grasping for another breath.
A controlled exhalation in the water results in a much faster inhalation, preserving that neutral head and high hip position we discussed earlier.
Beginners can start by getting into a streamlined position in the water and focus on slowly exhaling with their face down. Or grab your favorite swim snorkel and do timed exhales while swimming across the length of the pool (try a 2-3 beat count with each exhale).
With time and practice, controlled exhalations become second nature, and your breath control and technique will improve exponentially.
Swim relaxed
One of the secrets of elite swimmers is their ability to relax at top speeds.
They understand that fighting the water with tension leads to wasted effort, sloppy strokes, and ragged, choppy breathing.
Focus on swimming and breathing in a relaxed manner, even when going hard or all-out in practice. Using a smooth, relaxed breath reduces tension and tightening in the upper body.
“The water is your friend. You don’t have to fight with water, just share the same spirit as the water, and it will help you move.” –Alexander Popov, Olympic gold medalist and former world record holder, 50m and 100m freestyle
Try progressive muscle relaxation exercises, visualization, and other breathing drills to promote a more relaxed inhale and exhale.
Not only will this improve breathing technique, but it will also reduce performance-killing tension that can cause swimmers to tire. leading to improved breathing technique.
Respiratory training device
Respiratory training devices, such as the PowerLung, strengthens respiratory muscles, improving lung capacity, better oxygen intake, and more confidence in breathing when swimming.
The device is very simple, about the size of your hand, and restricts how much air you can inhale and exhale according to your abilities. Think of a respiratory training device as a weightlifting set for your lungs.
A study (Kilding et al., 2010) published in the European Journal of Applied Physiology investigated the use of a respiratory training device with competitive swimmers.
After six weeks of using the device, the intervention group showed small but positive improvements in 100m and 200m events. Training with the device also increased overall lung function ad reduced perceived exertion.
These types of devices are great as they don’t require additional in-pool training and can be done at home.
Wrapping Things Up
Proper breathing technique and improving breath control is crucial for swimming well.
By following the tips listed above, you can build stronger lungs, better breathing technique (resulting in better swimming technique, too), and swim faster and feel more in control in training and competition.
Today, hit the pool with one or two of the tips listed above and start working on your breath and see the difference it makes in your swimming.
Happy swimming!
ABOUT OLIVIER POIRIER-LEROY
Olivier Poirier-Leroy is a former national-level swimmer, author, swim coach, and certified personal trainer. He’s the author of YourSwimBook, a ten-month logbook for competitive swimmers.
He’s also the author of the best-selling mental training workbook for competitive swimmers, Conquer the Pool: The Swimmer’s Ultimate Guide to a High-Performance Mindset.
It combines sport psychology research, worksheets, anecdotes, and examples of Olympians past and present to give swimmers everything they need to conquer the mental side of the sport.
Ready to take your mindset to the next level in the pool?
👉👉 Click here to learn more about Conquer the Pool.
