How to Breathe While Swimming: 9 Tips for Every Stroke
Breathing is the skill that holds most swimmers back. Get it right and every stroke feels easier. These nine tips work for beginners and improvers alike.
1. Breathe out underwater, every time
The most important tip. Breathe out steadily through your nose, mouth or both while your face is in the water. If you hold your breath, you must breathe out and in during the short moment your mouth is clear, which feels like gasping.
2. Breathe in quickly through your mouth
When your mouth clears the water, take a quick, relaxed breath in through your mouth. Because you have already breathed out, there is time.
3. Practise at the wall first
Stand in shallow water and do slow bobs: breathe out underwater, come up, breathe in, repeat. Then hold the wall, face down, and turn your head to the side to breathe. Ten calm repetitions a session build the habit.
4. In front crawl, turn, don't lift
Breathe by turning your head with your body roll, keeping one goggle in the water and your mouth just clear of the surface. Lifting your head forward makes your legs sink. See our front crawl tips.
5. Time the breath with your arm
In front crawl, start turning to breathe as the arm on your breathing side finishes its pull and begins to recover. Return your face to the water as that arm comes forward.
6. Find a rhythm that suits you
Breathing every two strokes gives the most air. Breathing every three strokes alternates sides and helps balance your stroke. Use whatever lets you swim relaxed; read our guide to bilateral breathing.
7. In breaststroke, breathe on every stroke
Breathe in as your head rises at the end of the arm pull, then put your face back in and breathe out as your arms shoot forward and you kick. Keep your chin close to the water. See what is breaststroke.
8. In backstroke, use a steady pattern
Your face is out of the water, but splashes can still catch you out. Many swimmers breathe in as one arm recovers and out as the other does, to keep a steady rhythm.
9. Slow down
Swimming faster uses more oxygen and makes breathing harder. Beginners often improve their breathing simply by slowing their stroke and adding a glide.
Common problems
- Water up the nose: hum or breathe out gently through your nose while your face is in.
- Swallowing water: turn your head a little further, or wait until your mouth is fully clear.
- Feeling panicky: go back to the wall and practise bobs. Confidence first, distance later.
- Out of breath after one length: you are probably holding your breath or swimming too fast.
Practise safely
Never practise long breath-holds or underwater distance swims, especially alone. Breath-holding can cause blackouts in the water. Swim where a lifeguard is on duty. Read our water safety tips.
Get help
Breathing is hard to judge from inside the water. A coach can quickly see what is going wrong. See our beginner swimming course, adult swimming course or water confidence course.
More in swimming technique
- How to swim freestyle and backstroke fasterReduce drag, improve your catch and train smart
- How fast can a human swim?5 factors that affect swim speed
- Fastest swimmers in the world10 names every fan should know
- The history of swimming strokesFrom survival to sport
Further reading
- ActiveSG Circle (Sport Singapore), SwimSafer. Singapore's National Water Safety Programme, combining swimming skills and water survival.
- World Health Organization, Drowning fact sheet. Drowning risks and the measures that prevent them, including swimming and water safety skills.
Want to breathe easily in the water?
Tell us how you swim now and what you find hard about breathing. We will suggest a suitable course, format and pool. Lessons run at public swimming complexes, private venues and condominium pools across Singapore.