Beginning to swim :D

Front crawl is tough.

I can swin 50 lengths breast stoke without stopping but only 1 length front crawl before being totally out of breath!!!

Hoping to progress so that I can do more front crawl so I am also looking forward to hearing the answer.

Good luck.

Luv Kat

Try trickle breathing! Which means when your face is in the water you blow out slowly and then when you turn your head to breathe, take a quick but deep breath. When you are able to, breathe bilaterally (every third stroke) so as to build your arm muscles evenly! Well done for teaching yourself

Try trickle breathing! Which means when your face is in the water you blow out slowly and then when you turn your head to breathe, take a quick but deep breath. When you are able to, breathe bilaterally (every third stroke) so as to build your arm muscles evenly! Well done for teaching yourself

I teach swimming and thought I would add a little bit more info on this is that when your swimming with your face in the water, breath out through your nose (we Tell the kids to blow bubbles out of theie nose) that way when you come up you only have to breath in. Trust me it makes a big difference. Also when doing front crawl try to tuck your chin down to your elbow when you come up to breath as this will create a sort of "air pocket" so that your not also getting water in your mouth. This can be awkward at first but if you can get it down it will help. I am also an asthmatic and have talked to my dr. (b/c I am not able to swim more than 50meters front crawl without having to stop to catch my breath) and they said to use my rescue inhaler 30 mins before doing excersise should help. I've not tried it yet but I had read that a few times before they told me that.

Also don't be afraid to take an adult swimming lesson. There are ALOT of adults who don't know how to swim. if anything you might feel better that your not the only one there struggling. I've had a few kids whose parents were in a class at the same time

Congratulations on swimming. It's great for fitness and is totally different than any other exercise. I've done a lot of cardio workouts and was really surprised when I started swimming that I was getting out of breath. The breathing and cardio requirements are totally different then any other sport. When your running or cycling you can breath freely as you need it. You work harder, you breath harder. But with swimming you can only breath during between strokes and you are limited. Everyone when they start has trouble with the breathing. When I first started I could only do 3 lengths which is 75 meters. Now I regularly swim between a mile a couple of times a week and have swam as much as 2 miles without stopping.

The way you increase your ability to swim further is time. When you swim you have to understand you're going to be uncomfortable. You need to add lengths to your swim weekly. Your body will adjust to the feeling of being out of breath and will begin to increase your lung capacity. Just like a running program, you start with a short distance and you constantly increase that distance. Swimming is the same. Start of swimming at a very slow pace. This will ensure you don't get out of breath to quickly. Breath out when your face is in the water and breath in every other stroke to start. Also be sure you breath completely out because if you don't then you can't take in a full clean breath. I will include a workout program that worked for me at the end of this. Between your lengths be sure to stay true to the amount of time listed for breaks. Even when your out of breath. This will force the body to improve it's cardio capacity. When you start to improve you should start to do research on technic. The better your swimming form is the more efficient you will be in the water. If you have bad for you are wasting energy and creating drag which will make you tired and out of breath.

So that's just some suggestions in a nut shell. And now for the workout. I'll try and answer any other questions you may have. Good luck and have fun because swimming is a great workout.

6 Week Swim Plan

Note: 
3 times a week. Week 1 is 700 per day, 2100 for the week
WEEK 1:
4 x 100 meters...rest for 15 seconds between 100s
4 x 50 meters...rest for 10 seconds between 50s
4 x 25 meters...rest for 5 seconds between 25s
Total: 700 meters

WEEK 2:
200 meters...rest for 15 seconds
4 x 100 meters...rest for 10 seconds between 100s
4 x 50 meters...rest for 5 seconds between 50s
4 x 25 meters...rest for 5 seconds between 25s
Total: 900 meters

WEEK 3:
400 meters...rest for 15 seconds
200 meters...rest for 10 seconds
4 x 100 meters...rest for 10 seconds between 100s
4 x 50 meters...rest for 5 seconds between 50s
Total: 1200 meters


WEEK 4:
600 meters...rest for 10 seconds
300 meters...rest for 8 seconds
4 x 100 meters...rest for 5 seconds between 100s
4 x 50 meters...rest for 5 seconds between 50s
Total: 1500 meters

WEEK 5:
1000 meters...rest for 10 seconds
4 x 100 meters...rest for 5 seconds between 100s
4 x 50 meters...rest for 5 seconds between 50s
Total: 1600 meters

WEEK 6 (days 1 and 2):
1200 meters...rest for 5 seconds
3 x 100 meters...rest for 4 seconds between 100s
3 x 50 meters...rest for 4 seconds between 50s
(Day 3) 
1650 meters straight (equals 1500 meters)
Total: 1650 meters! That's 1 Mile

I am also a swimming teacher and I have never heard of anyone teaching people to breath through their nose whilst swimming.... We teach to blow bubbles in the water with your mouth and so when you turn your head to the side you can breath in - not out and then in as this isnt effective. You can practise this by standing in the water and putting your face in and using your arms in the correct positions.

For building endurance like the other posters said try adding lengths such as aim for an extra two lengths per session or try to swim 3 lengths without stopping to breath and then the next week 4 etc. You could also mix it up a bit by using kick boards to strengthen your legs or a pullbouy to focus on your arms.

When we teach breast stroke to the children we say to them to think of the leg movement as three seperate actions linked smoothly together - starting with legs together and stretched out bring both legs up into a sort of tuck shape, extend out to a star and then close back togther like a pencil. As you get better you can make this more smooth and learn to push the water stronger with your heels and therefore take the wideness out of the shapes you make.

Bit ramberly but hope that helped a little and congrats - learning as an adult is very hard you should be really proud of yourself!

Great job on learning to swim. I've been swimmer all my life, on swim team in grade and high school. It's such an amazing sport for your whole body...you really do work everything in a low impact environment and use the waters natural resistance to build lean muscle.

While I'm at the gym, it breaks my heart some days to watch people use poor and inefficient technique, but I'm not one to just go up and say 'Your doing that wrong.' I did a search online and found this site, which is a great animation of proper front crawl technique: http://www.swimsmooth.com/

Some great things about the technique above:
1) One hand goes in the water nearly as far forward as you can reach while the opposite hip is raised. (Reach = power)
2) The hand comes down across the body and continues to push past the hip then comes cleanly out of the water while getting a final push to keep momentum going. (Most people bring their arms out of the water somewhere between the chest and waist)
3) Bilateral breathing on every 3rd stroke. (This takes practice, so start slow and build up to this. It will ensure a good even pace and workout, especially important for longer swims).

Happy swimming!!!!