How can I breathe properly when doing breaststroke?

I swim about 40 laps a session breaststroke. However, I can't do it while putting my head in the water and breathing. It's killing my neck!


How can I swim properly and breathe, without feeling like I'm drowning myself?


Please help!|||It is killing your neck because, and this is an educated opinion....you keep your head facing forward and this makes you bend your neck in contradiction to the rest of your body. This also, will cause you to sink as you swim the stroke. Trick is to swim with your head low and forward. Pull and breathe lifting low and forward rather than up. Then, chin tucked to chest, arms streamlined, kick and glide. The hips can only rise if the top end of the body is pressing down and streamlined. This makes you go horizontal. If you lift your head or lift your chest, your legs will sink....your body essentially tries to "stand up". People do not stand with their neck bent backwards, looking up at the sky...yet they seem to want to swim in that manner. They seem to think they need to look forward and yet it is out of line with the body. If your chest is facing the bottom of the pool...so should your face...that is inline and keeps your lower end up. If your neck is bent to face your head forward, you hurt the neck and cause your legs to sink. Balance is key here. It is simple enough, but contrary to natural survival instincts, one wants to lift the head for air but this causes you to sink. Thus the physics of water and balance. Try tucking your chin and doing the kick...you will find that you stay up better and are more effective while swimming. Good luck! |||It shouldn't be hurting your neck if your doing it right. Make sure you keep your head still and looking at the water, don't move your head at all! Your stroke should naturally bring your head out of the water so you can breath. When your swimming breaststroke you shouldn't be able to see the other side of the pool and your head should be tilted towards your chest. Hope this helps! :) Good Luck!|||Make sure that when you bring your arms back through the water that you not only draw the "heart shape" but you also scoop slightly downwards as you pull. This naturally will make your head pop slightly out of the water, just enough for a nice breath without any effort. It should not hurt your neck if you are doing it right.





Here is a video that helped me with my breast stroke, by breaking down the arm and leg movements. Hope it helps you too.


www.youtube.com/watch?v=fqSHBZ7fOMo





Good luck!|||Have proper rhythem and counts.


When you pull your arms back, take a deep breath and dip your head again. Dont do it too fast or too slow, or you might not be able to catch the right amount of air or your neck will hurt. And you should also use the chest muscle to propell your head up.


Lol. And lastly, practice more. Hope it helped! (:|||Breaststroke should be easy to breath during if you have proper technique. Watch some video's and work on drills.