Breathing in freestyle is one of the hardest skills to nail — and one of the most important. Here's exactly how we teach it at Anax.
Of all the skills in swimming, freestyle breathing is the one that defeats the most beginners — and causes the most frustration in intermediate swimmers. It's counterintuitive, it requires precise timing, and a small error in technique creates a cascade of problems that affects every aspect of your stroke.
At Anax, we teach breathing as a fundamental skill from the very beginning of our Learn to Swim program. Here's the complete guide to how we teach it — and how to fix the most common problems.
Why Freestyle Breathing is Hard
On land, breathing is unconscious. In freestyle, breathing requires you to consciously time an action against your stroke rhythm while your body is rotating, your face is partially submerged, and your cardiovascular system is demanding oxygen.
The core challenge is this: you have approximately 0.5 seconds to exhale and inhale during a freestyle breath. That's it. Everything needs to be perfectly timed and efficient — which is why the technique matters so much.
The Core Principle: Rotation, Not Lifting
The single biggest mistake swimmers make is lifting their head to breathe. This disrupts body position, creates drag, and typically leads to water being swallowed — which then increases anxiety about breathing, which causes more head-lifting.
The correct movement is rotation. Your body naturally rotates in freestyle as your arms pull — when your right arm pulls, your body rotates left, and vice versa. Breathing happens by rotating your head with your body until your mouth clears the water, not by lifting your head.
Step-by-Step: How We Teach It at Anax
Step 1: Wall Breathing
Hold the gutter with one hand, face down in the water. Practice breathing to one side — turning your head until one eye is in, one eye is out. Exhale under water (into the water, not held in). Inhale through the mouth when your face breaks the surface. Repeat 20 times before moving to movement drills.
Step 2: Kickboard Side Breathing
Hold a kickboard extended in front of you. Kick across the pool, rotating to breathe every 4–6 kicks. Focus only on the rotation and the breath — not the stroke. This isolates the breathing motion from arm coordination.
Step 3: Single-Arm Drill
Swim with one arm extended forward, one arm pulling. Breathe to the pulling side on every stroke. This gives more time to practice the breathing motion without the full stroke coordination. Switch sides after each length.
Step 4: Full Stroke with Counted Breathing
Swim full freestyle, breathing every 3 strokes (bilateral breathing — alternating sides). Bilateral breathing is the gold standard: it balances your stroke, prevents muscle imbalances, and doubles your breathing practice per lap.
The Most Common Mistakes — and How to Fix Them
- 1.Holding breath instead of exhaling: force yourself to exhale continuously underwater through your nose and mouth. When your face comes out, you should only need to inhale.
- 2.Lifting the head: keep one goggle in the water at all times when breathing. If both eyes come out of the water, your head is too high.
- 3.Breathing too late in the stroke cycle: start your rotation as your pulling arm begins the catch, not at the end of the pull.
- 4.Crossing the centre line on entry: this causes the body to snake, making rotation harder. Focus on a clean hand entry at shoulder width.
- 5.Panicking and changing stroke rhythm: breathing is part of the stroke, not a disruption to it. Maintain your kick and arm tempo throughout the breath.
Bilateral vs. Unilateral Breathing
For training and development: bilateral (every 3 strokes, alternating sides) is ideal. It balances the stroke and gives equal practice to both sides.
For racing: most elite swimmers breathe every 2 strokes (unilateral) to maximise oxygen intake. Once your technique is solid, you can adjust your breathing pattern based on the race distance.
The fastest way to improve breathing is video. Film yourself from the side and from the front underwater. Most swimmers are shocked by what they see — the feeling of what you're doing and the reality are often very different. This is something we do regularly in our squad sessions.
A Note on Patience
Freestyle breathing takes time. For most swimmers, it takes 4–8 weeks of focused practice before it begins to feel natural. Don't get frustrated in the early sessions — every awkward breath is building the neural pathways that will eventually make it automatic.
If you're struggling with your breathing technique, book a technique session with one of our coaches. A 30-minute focused session often achieves what weeks of self-correction can't.