Breathing Skills | Mediterra Swim & Run

Breathing Breakthrough

by Coach Mat | 11 Feb, 2017

On the Mediterra Swim Dojo, we have a few swimmers currently following the Master Class Breathing course. Among those in the course and some who have taken it previously, we have had some discussions about what creates breathing stress and what are the solutions...

Guidance For Using A Snorkel

by Coach Mat | 19 Mar, 2016

A reader recently asked about my perspective on using a snorkel in training, particularly to help set aside the concern for disruptive breathing for a while. My response… With any pool tool, if you understand what the tool can help you with, what it’s role in...

Breathing Better… On Land

by Coach Mat | 14 Feb, 2016

It’s apparent that making breathing easier is one of the top concerns for swimmers. And so, virtually all programs and methods offer some ideas for how to improve it. I’ve written several posts on breathing for swimming that several seemed to have...

Getting Enough Breath?

by Coach Mat | 2 Jun, 2014

Q: I have read your articles on Metrics-Tempo, Pace, etc with a lot of interest. What I was wondering, if you increase your DPS [distance per stroke], that means your SPL [strokes per length of pool] goes down. If SPL goes down, doesn’t that mean you will take...

Stepping Stone Solutions

by Coach Mat | 15 Mar, 2014

Stepping Stone Solutions: Breaking A Complex Problem into Solvable Parts, and Using Failure Points For Success ** When trying to develop any one of several complex skills involved in swimming we need to break it down into the right size pieces so that we can...

Breathing Patterns

by Coach Mat | 15 Feb, 2014

What breathing pattern should I use? We take it for granted that we can breathe while running or while doing just about anything on land. Most probably pay no attention to it, as we can rely on our parasympathetic nervous system to keep exchanging that air for us...