Learn to breathe rythmically while swimming backstroke before beginning any other strokes.
Going swimming provides people with an array of health benefits. Propelling yourself through the water in a hydrodynamic fashion requires the maintenance of a good level of fitness. Swimming requires the use of almost every muscle in the human body. Setting up a good breathing regimen is key to properly swimming any of the four swimming strokes: freestyle, backstroke, breaststroke and butterfly. Learn to breathe while swimming backstroke first, as your face will remain out of the water while your are swimming.
Instructions
Rhythmic Breathing
1. Float on your back in the water. Clasp your hands together above your head and straighten your arms to make an A-shape. Push on the wall with your feet and scissor kick. Breathe in every three kicks and then out every three kicks as you kick across the pool. Repeat this exercise until you are breathing with the rhythm of your kick.
2. Lie on your back in the water and kick, maintaining your rhythmic breathing. Pull on the water with your arms in backstroke fashion. Alternate pulling arms. Enter the water with your hands above your head with your little finger first. Bend your elbow and pull on the water past your hip while carrying your other arm above your head.
3. Pull with one of your arms every three kicks. As you breathe every three kicks, you will take a single stroke. Maintain this rhythm as you grow stronger and your stroke grows more efficient. Remember to pull on the water with your palms flat and fingers pressed together to make a paddle shape.
Freestyle Breathing
4. Turn over onto your stomach while lying in the water. Hold your kickboard in your hands in front of you with your elbows straightened. Hold your head up.
5. Push on the wall and kick across the pool with your arms in front of you on the kickboard, maintaining the six kicks per breathe rhythm. Practice this until you feel strong enough to start swimming with your face in the water.
6. Continue to do the kicking and rhythmic breathing exercises with your head in the water. Lift your head forward to breathe. This will strengthen your lungs and improve your endurance. Remember to keep practicing your backstroke while learning new techniques.
7. Swim freestyle in an inverted backstroke fashion -- using a scissor kick and pulling on the water with alternating strokes -- with your face down and facing slightly forward. Alter your breathing style by turning your head to breathe every three strokes. Exhale underwater. If maintaining a three kick per stroke rhythm, this will be one breath every nine kicks.
8. Give yourself time to adjust to this breath schedule. Swim slowly at first to get used to breathing on both sides. Turn your body to whichever side you are breathing on to aid your breathing as well as increase your speed.
Breastroke and Butterfly Breathing
9. Push on the water with your legs in a frog-like motion while holding a kickboard. Use this breastroke kick to propel yourself through the water. Breathe at the end of the kick when your legs straighten out.
10. Pull on the water in an upside-down heart shape in front of your chest while kicking in frog fashion to swim the breastroke. Pull on the water as you kick; this will lift your body from the water slightly. Lift your head out of the water to breathe, once every stroke. Exhale underwater.
11. Use your kickboard while learning the butterfly kick. Kick with your legs together in a swooping fashion. Practice this and breathe every four kicks, remembering to always exhale underwater.
12. Pull on the water in freestyle fashion but with both arms at the same time to swim the butterfly stroke. Complete a stroke every two kicks. Flex and extend your abdominal muscles to make a bodily motion which mimics a dolphin while swimming the butterfly stroke -- the stroke is also called "dolphin." This motion allows you to almost throw yourself through the water. Breathe every other stroke and exhale underwater.
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