Intro to Interrupted Breathing

Interrupted Breathing Introduction

Once you have learned Streamline Position, we may next introduce you to Interrupted Breathing (a.k.a. Sweet Spot Breathing). Interrupted Breathing is a way of turning to breathe from Streamline Position, while keeping a low-effort position in the water.

The intention behind this breathing position is to ‘interrupt’ the stroke but maintain long, balanced, streamline body, parallel to the surface, that is immediately ready to resume swimming when you are. It is the rest position that requires the least amount of effort to hold – lower heart rate, calmer breathing.

For this reason we teach it as a highly useful, if not essential self-rescue or self-calming position for children and adults, open-water swimmers and triathletes. Counter-intuitively, it works very well in rough water because you are staying down in the water, moving with the surface of the water as it moves, rather than going vertical and trying to lift your head above it, fighting its motion.

Interrupted Breathing is suitable:

• when using during drills that have you pause in Streamline Position
• when doing drills over a full length of the pool and stopping in the middle is disruptive to other swimmers
• when swimming whole stroke in the pool
• when in the middle of a race or rough water and you need to recover your breath and composure

You are encouraged to practice this breathing position and use it frequently because the better you can do this the easier it will be to develop Rhythmic Breathing – the skills for each overlap a great deal.

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