I found that I was telling myself to relax while swimming today (on the exhale of course). Because I don’t breathe properly in the water yet and pop straight up for air, my upper back and neck were hurting this weekend. I couldn’t figure out why until I looked up in the air. My ‘technique’ for breathing is like laying on your stomach and picking your face off the ground to see who’s in front of you. That’s OK once in a while, but think about doing that for every breath for 4 1/2 hours. You’d think my neck would be HUGE by now.
My new ‘technique’ is to rotate my body and breathe with my face sideways, just like every other normal swimmer. I still close my eyes when I put my face of the water,(even though I have goggles on), and fill my cheeks up with air (as if that’s where you’re supposed to hold your breath) when I put it back into the water. This is where the relaxing comes in.
Overall, despite not knowing how to swim yet, this is really fun. I enjoy the water and will someday soon know how to swim.
