BREATH TIMING FOR RHYTHM AND POWER
There are many places in the arm cycle where you can take a
breath, but only a small range where it works to keep your stroke consistent
and powerful. The idea is to put the breath in a place where it makes it easy
to get a consistent shoulder motion. You never end up stalled on your side,
needing to move your arms in asynchronous ways in order to continue swimming.
Basically, you don’t want to be waiting until you’ve already rotated onto your
side before you start your breathing motion. This is too late. Early in the arm
cycle is best.
Michael Phelps – example of early turn of the head to start
breathing motion; note that his body position does not change as a result of
doing this, he's simply getting a small “head” start. His opposite arm has not
yet entered the water.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ax77_hHq9Dc&feature=related (the
above image is from the first 20sec)
Here he is moments later after his breath. He has turned his
head back down and can see his arm out front making the next catch. This is
crucial positioning to ensure an even and powerful stroke.
This is the Natalie Coughlin video from above at ~45sec. As
a result her mouth comes up early and she breathes as early as possible. His
opposite arm has just entered the water. She actually began her head turn
before it touched.
Here’s a video of Bob Bowman, Michael Phelps’ coach, talking
about breathing. He discusses many of the things we go over in class. It’s good
to know the pros are at work on the same techniques. We can duplicate many of
the things they do, we just won’t move as fast. J
Key points:
·
The head moves in line with the body – no
lifting of the head or raising of the chin.
·
He discusses the bow wave created by keeping
your head in a steady position, just breaking the surface, and that a good
check is to get a goggle in the water. Many of you are currently able to
demonstrate this. Keep it in mind during your warm-ups.
·
Even in the first underwater frames where
Michael is breathing, you can see that 1) he moves his head early toward his
breathing side and his mouth comes up first, and 2) that he gets his head back
in the water early, able to see his extended arm making his next catch. This is exactly what we’ve worked on in
class.
Practice Set:
Warm-up (600yd) – easy swimming, focused on lower abs in,
eyes on the bottom, even rotation, especially to the non-breathing side.
Alternately you may do posture work on deck and then focus on each posture
point for equal distances.
Early Breath:
·
How to do it: Just before your opposite hand
touches the water, while it is passing your head during the recovery, start to
turn your head for your breath. Your body won’t have rotated all the way around
of course, but this will get you started early and provide some power at the
front end of your breathing side pull. You may feel as if you’ve been lifted
out of the water a bit, but this is okay.
·
Make sure your breathing side arm is out front
while your other arm is recovering. This way you will have it to use to assist
in rotating your body to breathe.
Note: it’s easy to start to move your arms quickly when you
begin to move your head a bit early, but there’s really no hurry. As your
recovering arm comes over the top, turn your cheek into your extended arm’s
armpit. Then keep it turned as you pull, seeing how early in the pull you can
get your mouth up for air. Your arms should move very slowly for this one and
as a result you’ll have to be well balanced to avoid bouncing.
Main Set (800-1400yd):
4-7x200 building through the breath timing focus by 50s
50-easy, early breaths
50-moderate, focus on rotating fully after each breath
50-hard, see your non-breathing-side arm out front after
each breath, making its catch
50-best effort, try to get a rhythm you can work with at
speed
Cool Down (200):
200 easy swimming
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