Perfect your breathing with a better body position
Rod Havriluk, Ph.D
Active.com, 2009
Many triathletes struggle with the swim, or would at least like to get through it with less fatigue. Very often, the reason for the trouble is an ineffective breathing motion. Excess head motion distorts the body position, increases resistance, and slows swimming speed. Mastery of breathing can make a huge difference in performance. Improving the breathing motion requires first optimizing the nonbreathing head position.
An effective freestyle breathing motion requires first establishing an effective nonbreathing head position. An optimal nonbreathing head position minimizes the head rotation necessary to breathe. Visual and kinesthetic cues are critical for checking the nonbreathing head position and controlling the breathing motion. An improvement in breathing minimizes the body cross-section throughout the stroke cycle, decreases resistance, and makes the triathlon swim less fatiguing. Not only will the swim be more enjoyable, but faster.