Have you tried practicing breathing either against the wall or with a kickboard?

Something that helped me overall, was using fins for laps when I was up at 310#. It helped me get my butt and legs up. And that also helped get my head in a better breathing position.
Another benefit was that the fins distributed the effort while I built upper body strength and endurance.
Over time I found that my butt and legs stayed up without the fins. Mid or shorties like the TYR burned fins give enough lift to help improve a planar technique while not altering the kick as much as the longer fins do.
I now only use the fins for kick board laps and swim 6000 yards a day minimum.
Just keep at it. Never give up. Never surrender to that voice in your head that plays the old tapes. "Can't" will be removed from your vocabulary.
And remember. You only have to do "one more lap."

Agreed with everyone here! Practise outside the pool how you intend to breathe inside the pool. Eg take a breath inwards on 1 and breathe out on 2 and 3 and 4 and breathe in and out on 2 and 3 and 4.

Once you've done that try doing the same thing in the pool while not swimming, that is, take a breath in, then put your head under water and breathe out on 2 and 3 and 4 and keep repeating the pattern and get comfortable with the rythm of it, ensuring that you are not holding your breath at any point.
At all times you are either breathing in, or breathing out!

Then once you're comfortable with the rythm of the breathing, incorporate that same rhythmic breathing into your stroke.
Eventually your aim should be that the breaths out should take twice, or thrice, or in some cases even four times as long as your breaths in.
So while the ration may initially be 1:1, that should soon move to 1:2, then hopefully eventually 1:3.
And if you sing, that breath control does wonders for your singing too, as your are able to hold a note and develop the ability to breathe out evenly for a much greater duration!

sea_dog wrote: »

I will also try to breath more naturaly, rather than try to expel all air, and inhale all. I will also order a pair of fins to see if that can raise my body higher and generate more power, planning, etc.

Thanks,

SD

Are you exhaling in the water or when you raise to breathe?

I can't get breathing right either ...in fact I can't get my head down at all in the forward crawl. 1) I cant get enough air, 2) I breathe in water and start coughing, 3) I get disoriented swiveling my head underwater and start swimming into the sides of the lane.

Right now I'm swimming crawl down the pool (with my horrible head-up form), and backstroke on the way back. The backstroke feels much more natural and controlled to me.

The idea isn't to slow down the swim itself, just get the feel of slowing down the process by not trying to breathe all the way in & all the way out. It sounds like you're actually trying too hard with the breathing, trying to do too much, & maybe creating a panicky feel for yourself because there isn't enough time to do it all. Start by working with a kickboard or holding onto the wall so that you're not cluttering your mind with a hundred stroke related thoughts while also trying to concentrate on breathing. Work on looking at the bottom of the pool & rotating the head to the side where your chin is just about touching your shoulder. Take in a smaller breath & when you put your face back in the water work on breathing out at a consistent rate instead of puffing it all out in a blast of air. Once you get comfortable add in trying to use it while swimming the crawl....