Explosive Breathing Will Make Your Swimmers More Buoyant

Swimming: Use Explosive Breathing for Better Buoyancy

Pat Aitken

Every beginning swim class has a “sinker” or two — students whose body density is greater than that of H2O, and who swim low in the water or even sink if they stop moving.

Air is less dense than water. As a result, your students are more buoyant when there's air in their lungs. This suggests that your sinkers can actually improve their buoyancy by changing their breathing pattern.

Use Explosive Breathing for Better Buoyancy
To become more buoyant, your sinkers should use “explosive breathing” as opposed to “trickle breathing.” In other words, rather than releasing air gradually, they should hold their breath as long as possible and blow out explosively.

This breathing pattern keeps air in the lungs for most of each stroke, which keeps them higher in the water.

References:
1. Dennis Kidd, “Mechanical principles in the teaching of swimming: Archimedes, Newton and Neptune rule OK?” British Journal of Physical Education, November/ December, 1983.
2. Dick Hannula & Nort Thornton, Swim Coaching Bible, Volume II, Human Kinetics, 2012.

To download the pdf version of this
article, click here: Download Now