Hey I've got a question. Is there anything particular about breathing in skating, especially in jumps and spins? Is it better to breathe out, or in before a jump? Does it not matter at all?

I'm one of the strange ones who acutally hold my breath when I skate, mainly just when skating my program, hahaha! Sometimes I find myself consciously having to think 'Breathe...breathe...stop holding your breath!' So, I guess I'm not the person to be asking about breathing while skating...

I do know that when I spin, I really think about breathing (in through nose, out through mouth). Spins are an easy spot to catch your breath, if you can remember to do so.

I was always told that you should breathe in before a jump because it helps get your body straighter in the air or something...not really remembering why, but it makes sense to me. You're kind of lifting your chest upward when you inhale, so it would only seem logical that you would want that going into your jump, so that you are jumping up and the rotate instead of around in a scrunchy little ball that gets zero air. Think of an axel, for instance. You always try to lead with your left shoulder (CCW jumpers, that is...) and jump up before trying to rotate the jump.

So, I would say breathe in before jumping...anyone else?

Funny, I was just thinking about this topic and was thinking of posting about it. (Great minds, lol!)

I notice that when I'm getting ready for moves in the field patterns that start at one end of the rink, when I make my introductory strokes along the short axis, I exhale on each stroke. It seems that the harder I push, the more I exhale. For example, when I get ready to do the cross strokes or the spirals from Silver MIF, I want to get good momentum from the introductory steps and I try to push REALLY hard on the 3-4 strokes I take going into the move. I realized the other day that I was exhaling so much that it was very audible.

After I do a spin, I find that I'm very out of breath. I had thought maybe it was because of all the effort to use the core muscles, but maybe it's as simple as that I'm not breathing during the spin!!

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I often get comments from my primary coach telling me to breathe... either that or "That was nice! Now would you please do them w/o looking like you're constipated? "

Me:

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I have to say I have never thought about this before!! But I can say that usually when I do jumps and spins I breath. It doesn't really matter what you do but I say it's better to breath well doing it!

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I usually have to remind myself to breathe when spinning - especially in a scratch spin where I'm trying to hold everything perfectly.

Hmmm...I've never really thought about breathing for jumps.

When testing Moves, I make myself breathe more slowly in between the Moves to calm my nerves.

My dance coach once told me after a dance, "you have to breathe! you look blue in the face!". I was too out of breath to tell him "that's because you're such an intimidating partner".

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Yes, but what I heard is more of breathe in when you take off. However, I don't think I ever had enough time to consciously think about that when I jump!

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Breathing is important. If you don't, you pass out or die. So, breathe!

Breathing with your mouth wide open with asthma makes you get a sore throat which can later turn into infection.

It's best to breathe with your mouth mostly closed through your teeth while smiling. Now if I can just remember to do it all the way through my programs.

How do I know this? I've competed and have done ice shows where I have had my mouth open too much and I have asthma. I got the infection. I've also competed and done shows where I remembered to keep my mouth mostly closed and was just fine afterwards.

I keep trying to keep my mouth mostly closed while training too. but somedays, the air is thin in the rink and some days is very damp. When the air is very thin, it's hard to get enough oxgen in the lungs without opening the mouth more. And when it's really damp, the nose gets more exercise than I do. LOL So that's another reason, I may tend to forget to keep my mouth mostly closed while skating.

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I can't tell you how many times my coach has yelled to me "BREATHE" when i was skating.....even from across the rink! How did she know????

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Ah, show skating!!! I do it for the glitter!

These days, spins are the most exhausting part of the program! I used to try to catch my breath there, but my spins are incredibly long and intensive (all level 4, except my layback in short...which is pitiful, but a great place to get my breath because of that!). Luckily, my long at least has a little choreography break at the beginning of each section -- spirals, slow "dancey" moves -- where I can try to recup some air. I also breath in and out fully once before each jump to calm myself so I don't rush.

I absolutely cannot breathe during a layback spin. The moment I take a breath, I lose all of the tension and fall out of the spin. My coach is making this even harder because she has her heart set on me doing a level 2 layback which means 8 revs + a sideways position for 3 revs.

I was practicing laybacks at a public, and a little girl came over to me and said, "Wow, you're all red!" My thought was, at least I'm not blue yet...

It's definetly good to breathe, but sometimes from a judge/ audience sort of view when someone looks like they are breathing hard (perhaps with your mouth open) sometimes it looks like you're getting exhausted. My partner always tells me "it's easier to breathe with my mouth then through my nose" and I say to him, well...you look like a doof

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I'm the same way. My coach was constantly telling me to breathe when I skated.

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I think that might be why my 1-foot spin has an *absolute* (that's not to say I get to that point all the time) maximum of some 14-16 revolutions before it just collapses on itself and all my muscles involuntarily relax... I think I might be taking a breath there LOL! Cuz I'm always out of breath after spins, not after jumps...

Good to know...

So is there anybody who breathes during the spins and how do you do it? I mean you're supposed to keep the core strong, so how do you breathe with all the abdomen tensed and the rib cage shoved forward?

Lately I've been thinking more about breathing. It's something my equestrian coach used to say to me after jumping a course: "You may want to suck some air at some point." So I held my breath over the jumps and concentrated on rhythmic breathing on the strides.

So it goes with skating, particularly during warm-up. I find that I take longer strokes -- and rounder strokes, when needed -- when I concentrate on the breaths. As for jumps, I breathe in on the takeoff, hold, land, and exhale. (And then, you know, trip. Snort.)

Experiment!

Try not breathing a few minutes.



P.S.

I'm not as good a skater as you folk, but was told people who don't breath during spins often get dizzy and lose balance.

On a purely theoretical basis, not breathing means tightening muscles all around your torso. If you skate best relaxed, breathing during dificult moves ought to be good. If you need to tighten muscles to freeze your pose in position, maybe not breathing for a short time would help.

Experimenting also makes sense for many things.

Try different rates and rhythms of breathing. A singer or wind instrumentalist might make do with 1 - 2 very deep breaths / minute (possibly 1-3 seconds in through nose, 15-60 seconds out through mouth); they say asthma sufferers are often taught to imitate them to regain control of their breaths. (Or sometimes just taught to sing.) I get very tired if I try to breath while swimming right side up, because it requires such a different rhythm (really fast in, through the nose, really slow out through the mouth), but a lot of people can do it relaxed.

Try breathing different places. You can breath just by expanding your shoulders, just around your tummy (like most wind musicians, because it increases air pressure and sound production efficiency), through all your ribs, front and/or back. You can select different parts of your body to tighten and loosen while breathing. I think that's what the yogis mean when they talk about sending your breath to different parts of your body. (Except when they say to send breath to your fingers and toes. I don't quite get that. )

I love to relax when I skate, so I breath. 1-3 seconds in through nose or mouth, maybe 8-15 seconds out through my nose.

Anyway, everyone is different.