Front crawl help please

One thing I forgot to mention.

As you rotate you will almost be looking behind you as you breathe rather than to the side. This will mean it's harder to swallow the water.

I hope this helps

Brilliant! I think if you remember to turn your head to breathe, there is a wee gap under your arm so you shouldn't breathe water in then. Also if you do the trickle/ bubble breathing out under water, no water can get in. Someone else mentioned thinking ' bubble bubble breathe' and coaches at our club use that too for some folk to help get the idea into your head. I think for most people, slowing down and sorting out breathing is a huge part, then you can refine the arms and legs as you are not drowning/ expiring.

Well done

Well done!

I also learnt crawl recently and it's taken me months to get more comfortable with it and less out of breath, yet I could swim breast stroke forever and not be remotely out of breath. I can just about do consecutive lengths now with stopping for breath. I think for me it was remembering to breathe out under water and just relaxing more. At first I was thinking about so many things - arms, legs, breathing etc - that I was tensing up and almost panicking when i swam crawl. I've also figured it doesn't matter how often I breath really so I often do 2 breaths rather than 3.

Thanks very much for the information here. I had to stop Breast Stroke because of my back. Advice from an experienced competition swimmer.
I must get back in the water and get my body flexible again. I will save these ideas you are all listing. Thanks

Olympic competitors take a breath every 2nd stroke (is what I observe) -- it makes sense if you think you're running low on air, and they are working very hard.

I'm confused that OP said she's only had 2 lessons & already nailed breaststroke.

I'm self-taught crawler (learned as an adult, in my 20s, & still refining). Blowing out bubbles was the key for me, the one big thing I learned from DC's lessons.

I get random tips off of the good swimmers, like longer reach or scissor legs.

Make sure you are rotating your body as you go through the strokes.

Freestyle you should rotate more than you think. Also relax this will help the stroke come together if you crack this then the breathing will be easier

Video on rotation

[quote actiongirl1978]@seperatedmum that video makes a lot of sense thank you. He's also quite funny.

Interesting I told my instructor that I'd been watching YouTube vids in an effort to teach myself crawl and he said they are great but they rarely teach you about the breathing.

I totally gulp air in which I don't do when I swim breast.[/quote]
I'm so glad you love him, I do too! i actually try to silent/v.quiet inhale around others and it really helps. I recently got my hair done and as it's off- season haven't been pool swimming (river only) but I'm going to bloody go tomorrow coz I'm all excited about swimming again! enjoy everyone!

Kicking hard is unnecessary and will take too much oxygen. The freestyle leg kick is usually six kicks to two arm pulls but on a long distance swim, this drops down,

Practice your breathing whilst holding onto the poolside and kicking, face in the water, blow out, turn your head breathe in. You can also practice with a float. Practising like this stops you from thinking about too much at once and you can concentrate on your breathing.

Everyone finds a breathing pattern that suits them. Breathing every two strokes is way too much for me and so is bilateral breathing. I tend to breath four strokes.

For me, that feeling was totally about not breathing out enough, and a great tip I got was to hum while breathing out so that you keep a constant stream going out. When I was relearning to swim (after acquiring a disability) my instructor had a private pool and was able to use snorkels, fins and paddles so I could concentrate hard on one element at a time. Eight years later I'm still having a few coaching sessions a year, plus my coach comes and watches me at the lake after his swim and then tells me what I need to think about more. And I do look like the effortless swimmer now but its taken many hundreds of hours to get that consistently - and now I enter scary swim events!

I teach swimming to kids and adults.

Front crawl breathing in should always be a small breath, we tell the kids to "snatch a breath" because you can take as many small breaths as you need.

With regards to exhaling, both trickle and explosive are acceptable, just whatever feels natural.

Remember to keep kicking while you breathe.

I often add a bit of backstroke in to help with the shoulder rotation, and sometimes I over-exaggerate the 'dip' with my hips to remind me about the motion needed for rotation.

And, do watch what other swimmers do, I love a bit of breaststroke to concentrate on this!

You definitely need to kick to some extent as it helps you stay afloat & horizontal. But it’s a balancing act, as kicking hard uses way more energy, so you may be tiring yourself out quicker. If you watch really good swimmers they often don’t kick much if they’re just going at a steady pace, rather than sprinting, just enough to maintain the body position & assist with the rotation.

So I’d suggest trying to have a steady kick, but not going hell-for-leather as hard as you can.

Fab - as well as being in the right place are you kicking hard? It's easy to forget when focussing on arms but for me it really helps everything else fall into place.

As if the stroke is more phyically draining of oxygen (probably is as its harder) and after about half a length I have to pop up and take an absolutely massive proper breath.

This is exactly what I am working on.

Want to swim well enough for it to be exercise but run out of breath long, long before my muscles are used.

Intuitively, I find my self expecting to run out of breath (as you say, expecting it to need more oxygen and so breathing harder) and so gasping for breath. My teacher has me trickling the air out blowing bubbles very gently and then taking a much gentler, smaller breath in

All very calm.

While I practise this, the suggested around when I run out of breath is to turn onto my back for a few 'normal' breaths til I'm ready to start the trickle out and breath in gently again.