Swimmers - breathing/technique advice?

As of last night, I added swimming to my exercise regimen in the hopes of participating in a sprint triathlon in the spring.  It has been quite a few years since I swam on a regular basis, and I realized very quickly last evening that there are some things I really need to work on improving, mainly breathing effectively and efficiently.  Better technique and form (or maybe just 'getting back into the groove' of an activity) are also on my list of 'need to improve'.  Does anyone have any tips or suggestions for me? 

Here's a really good web site with loads of useful information :-)

www.evanscoaching.com got a lot of good stuff on YouTube

I find the Y or V line swimming useful for swimming in open water for triathlons.

Original Post by wesmckean:

Here's a really good web site with loads of useful information :-)

 Good one.

Yea, I like the swim smooth site, too. I was on summer league swim teams as a kid, but boy, does technique fade over the years :P So freakin' slow!

Don't hold your breath underwater - try to let it out in a steady stream so that you're just ready to inhale when you lift your head. Holding it in makes you feel like you're running out of air.

Also, learning to breathe on odd strokes (3 or 5 vs every other) is a very good  idea. Always breathing on the same side can put your stroke out of whack.

When doing freestyle, your body should sort of lean side to side with your strokes.  This makes turning to breath more efficiently.  Also, raise your head as little as possible.  The more you raise, the more your hips lower, which slows you down.  If you tilt your head forward, it makes a sort of groove in the water so yu can keep your head lower.

I started out breathing every 3 strokes but as I swam longer distances and improved aerobically, I started to breath every 5, and 7 if I am sprinting.

If you are not very skilled in swimming, I definitely suggest joining your local USMS Master's swimming team. The practices are usually about an hour every day or every other day. And you can learn better technique and other strokes.

Since you are probably only going to do freestyle in a triathlon, though, there are a couple of freestyle drills that can improve your stroke.

1. Learn to breath on both sides so you can breath every three strokes (or 5 or 7 as the person above said). However, for the race and for your triathlon training, I would breath every other stroke and breath on the same side.

2. You can do a drill to get your arms in the correct position. Basically do the stroke normally but you let your fingertips glide on the top of the water SLOWLY. This will get your elbows in the proper angle and help keep your fingers together and eventually cupped.

3. Another drill is what I call the stop and go (I'm not sure what it's actually called). You stroke one arm and then before you pull it back you stroke with your other arm until they are parallel but NOT touching. This drill also helps with breathing. This can be done with or without a pull buoy.

4. For kicking, I would suggest using a kickboard and extend your arms out on the kickboard (ie. your face should not be on the board and hands at the backend of the board).

5. For breathing, do the 10x100 yds (or meters depending on the pool type) with a pull buoy. Go odd 25 yds every 3 strokes breath and even every 5 (or do 5 on odd and 7 on even).

Thanks, everybody, your tips sound very helpful and links very useful and informative.  Headed to the pool tonight, we'll see how things go!