Swimming lessons

[nolatom]

Allow me to disagree. It's very easy to start cheating and lift your face up/forwards if you breathe on every half stroke, and your technique goes to heck.

When I was taught freestyle (crawl), I was told to breathe on every third half stroke. Still breathing "bilaterally", but forcing me to keep my head down and breathe to the side instead of forwards.

What you just said is what I meant to say, but apparently didn't--stroke, stroke, stroke-and-breathe- left, stroke, stroke, stroke-and-breathe-right.....

Thanks.

 

[Storker]

What you just said is what I meant to say, but apparently didn't

You might have said it, but in that case I misunderstood you

 

[dmaziuk]

You might have said it, but in that case I misunderstood you

Lack of technique can give you both lifting the head and poor timing, but one doesn't imply the other.

 

[EFX]

IME it's the same thing for breaststroke vs frog kicks.

So if you've learned swimming doing the breaststroke the frog kick may actually be at least as easy as the flutter kick.

I'm finishing my second summer swimming under a professional swimming coach. The old style for the elementary back stroke and breast stroke used the frog kick. This is essentially a kick that has the knees going outside the feet (just like a frog). A more efficient stroke practised by competitive swimmers today uses a stroke that has the feet go outside the knees. Think of the gentle scuba frog kick, used to move slowly, with the knees bent where the fins (feet) make small outer strokes relative to the knees.

Strong swimming may not be efficient swimming. I had many bad habits with the free style stroke I had to correct. I recommend (to the OPand everyone else who hasn't done so) to take some lessons from a professional coach to make your swimming more enjoyable and may help you to be a more confident diver.