Exactly when and how much to breathe out while doing front crawl.

Hi all,

I'm a poor swimmer compared to college/HS people, but not a beginner. I can typically swim 3-7k/week over 3 sessions. I usually sit at ~1:50/100 over 1-3k yds steady, for perspective.

I'll keep this short, but: Going back to when I learned to swim, I always breathed out underwater. I breathe every third stroke, and typically, it would be like this:

stroke/breath... breathing out steadily while I do 3 strokes so that when I go for my next breathe I have no air left, breathe in/stroke, repeat.

Well, I stumbled upon a comment where someone said that you should be holding most of your breath in so you're more bouyant and higher, so it's like:

breath/stroke, hoooooooold air + trickle a little out to prevent water in, big breath out hard underwater right before the stroke/intake breath, repeat.

I tried this and have been successful at it, but I don't know which is 'right.' I do feel higher in the water when I have a full chest of air, and I can keep pressure in my nose so I don't even need to trickle breathe while preventing water getting in.

But which is right? Are either? Thanks!

submitted by /u/fanciesttoast
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