The First Step to Swimming out into the Great Blue Beyond: Breath Control (Video)

Welcome back Foot Splashers and Seasoned Swimmers 💦! Today’s topic concerns the very first skill one must master on their journey to becoming master of the 6 Feets and Seas (Just 6 though because Christian, the Great Octopus Wrangler, will always hold the 7th🐙).

Breathing in the water is very unlike breathing outside of it, especially if you’ve been breathing correctly. Most people don’t (inhale through nose; exhale through mouth for the unmindful ones💆🏽‍♂️).

The best way to breathe for swimming is the exact opposite: exhale through the nose; inhale through the mouth.

This method of breathing is advantageous for a few different but commonly aligned reasons:

1. Prevents water in nose, thereby averting the super uncomfortable sensation of death, and, well, having water in your nose 🤷🏽‍♂️.

2. Reduces oxygen in lungs allowing your body to be more evenly aligned for swimming (you know, physics and biomechanics and stuff).

3. Looks super cool in front of all my sea turtle friends 🐢.

Okay, so now that we’ve gone over the benefits, how do we put this skill in action💭?

I thought you’d never ask😎.

We practice breath control through what is called “bobbing”.

Bobbing is SUPER simple and can be super fun as long as you don’t do it, like, more than 10 times in a row (seriously lol not good, you could pass out underwater. No bueno. Not fun 🤷🏽‍♂️). #BobResponsibly

Here’s how to perform bobs with progressions thrown in. 1st: Blow bubbles with just mouth in water ✅ 2nd: Blow bubbles with both mouth & nose in water (through nose this time) ✅ 3rd: Blow bubbles while face is in water (still through nose) ✅ 4th: Submerge half face in water and, you guessed it, blow bubbles (nose)☺️✅ 5th: Fully submerge head and blow bubbles (nose again) ✅

And there you go! Practice a few times in a row (5 times should do it) focusing on exhaling through the nose and inhaling through the mouth. Once you have that down comfortably, you’re ready for the next step! 💦

**sidenote: some swimmmers exhale through both their mouth and nose while inhaling just through their mouths. That way is perfectly fine. For teaching purposes, I keep it simple 💆🏽‍♂️

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Email TheLonelyFootSplasher@gmail.com for lessons 📷