Freestyle Breathing Technique: A Pain In The Neck

Fixing Major Faults in Freestyle Breathing Technique

I found a great article on freestyle breathing technique that deals with incorrect breathing.

What's so great about it?

Well It focuses of three of the most common faults that swimmers, particularly new swimmer have to fix:

1. Looking Skywards Whilst Breathing
2. Breathing Too Far Forwards
3. Lifting The Head To Breathe

There are probably quite a few articles on the web about how to breathe while swimming freestyle, many of them are mine but the photo's and descriptions on just why they are such an issue are really well done in the article and I think you would be hard pressed to find better explanations.


However you may have trouble finding this article under the description of "freestyle breathing" because it deals with another very important element of these faults that is rarely, if at all mention: the pain that these faults can cause.

Incorrect Freestyle Breathing

Yes these faults can literally be a pain in the neck!

Don't get me wrong here, I'm not trying to be alarmist because it is true that people live with these faults for years and experience nothing. But whilst it is true that not everybody swimming with these faults gets pain in their neck, there are enough people that should give us pause for thought.

That is, if you are swimming with these faults and for whatever reason you don't think that you should bother fixing them perhaps you should think again. Consider what you may be doing to yourself.

In the end it comes down to this: there is a correct freestyle breathing technique for swimming freestyle and there are faulty ones. The faulty ones not only make your stroke less efficient but they may be affecting you in more ways than that.

Anyway give the article a read I think that whether you are a swimmer or swim teacher you will benefit from it.

Enjoy
   Richard