Middle school mom hounding me about not teaching "breathing techniques."

Ask her to come in for a day so she can teach the "proper" breathing technique.

Are your athletes about to give birth?

Given my dogmatic approach on these forms I understand why people think I am a nobody trolling in his mom’s basement. That being said I think you should hear me out before giving me “good grief”. Your only making yourself look foolish and insecure.

I invite anyone to go do a hard track workout and try and control your breathing. Breath in and out on your own and I think you’ll realize just how unnatural, taxing, and completely unnecessary it feels. Once you relax, the breath flows in naturally and you regain the natural sensation of satisfaction when the proper amounts of O2 and CO2 are being inhaled and exhaled. Although some coaches often tell their athletes to “breathe” when there are stressed or anxious, this is ultimately the wrong approach. Breathing will always be irregular when we are anxious or in some emotional tizzy. The key is not to control the breath but to relax the mind. (I realize that most understand this tip intuitively but I thought I should add it as an aside just to remind coaches that controlling breathing is really not the right mindset to give your athletes. I see “relax and let it flow” a better command term.)

The renowned coach Steve Magness actually wrote about one his habits in the ends of races where he would control his breathing. This gave him a sense of control and allowed him to hide from his doubts and anxieties once the pain really hit. This would ultimately backfire for him, as it would only make him less efficient. (http://www.scienceofrunning.com/2015/01/the-calm-conversation-how-to-deal-with.html)

The one exception I can think of which has demonstrated to be effective is hyperventilation. It is also extremely dangerous. Many divers (I believe some swimmers as well) use it to purge CO2 in the blood. This has nasty effects on the brain’s natural warning signs (i.e. pain) and can lead to death. I don’t think that Ms. Silicon Valley helicopter parent wishes her child to practice such a technique.

If you wish to ignore the anecdotal evidence, the true fallacy of the “controlling your breathing is more efficient” argument lies within the science. Anyone with a basic understanding of Grade 12 biology understands that the brain has many different parts assigned to different tasks which take away the burden from the conscious individual. If we had to think about how we coordinate our bodies or how we breathe we wouldn’t be here right now. If you skim this article you’ll see just how complex the process is: (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Control_of_ventilation).

It is astonishing just how much B.S. is out there and it can be tough to know what is right and what is horsesh*t. I’m sure many people here were taught and still believe that putting your hands on your head after a workout will open up your lungs even though every ounce of your body wants to bend over (Think blood and gravity. Your coaches either lied or had no idea what they were talking about). I’m sure people have written full books on breathing techniques and running. I know that Salazar still works at form drills religiously like A skip and B skip because he believes they will improve a reflexive, hard wired motor pattern(they won't). Then again people have also written religious texts such as the Quran and so evidently there will always be anti-intellectuals and charlatans who chose to ignore science and rationale.

Sounds like this mom picked up the latest fad book off the B&N shelves and is passing her self off as some sort of knowledgeable person (Coates). I wouldn't worry too much, your job is to get the kids to enjoy our wonderful sport, strengthen them a bit and increase endurance (Aerobic capacity). As a HS coach, if I inherit a runner with those three traits, we are doing well.

This post offers a great summary of the wisdom on this subject and illustrates a complete lack of consensus. I got the music teacher to come and talk about breathing once and the kids enjoyed it, it is a subject that may be worthy of some attention. On the hierarchy of things you should worry about, this ranks pretty low.

You could always tell her "Suck It! how's that for breathing advice." but I don't recommend it.

Step 1: Breath in through your mouth

Step 2: Breath out through your mouth

Step 3: Repeat

3-3 for warmups/easy runs

2-2 for uptempo/workouts

1-1 only in the last stretch a race, per Jack Daniels.

Can also try 3-2 or 2-1 if a kid is prone to stiches. I've read that the constant patterned of footfalls during inhalations/exhalations in a 3-3 or 2-2 can lead to stitches. Not confirmed, but a theory. 3-2 or 2-1 alternates a footfall on both sides, rather than all inhalations on the right footfall, exhalations on the left (or whatever the case may be) that may come with a 3-3 or 2-2.

Rick Ramis wrote:

3-3 for warmups/easy runs

2-2 for uptempo/workouts

1-1 only in the last stretch a race, per Jack Daniels.

Can also try 3-2 or 2-1 if a kid is prone to stiches. I've read that the constant patterned of footfalls during inhalations/exhalations in a 3-3 or 2-2 can lead to stitches. Not confirmed, but a theory. 3-2 or 2-1 alternates a footfall on both sides, rather than all inhalations on the right footfall, exhalations on the left (or whatever the case may be) that may come with a 3-3 or 2-2.

2-1 always helped me when I would get side stitches in junior high and early high school. Most times I would just breath and get into whatever rhythm was natural, but if I felt a stitch coming on I would change to 2-1 and it would help.

Next time as an exerise in breath control have the kid hold his breath for 5 mins in the water jump. Joking obviously- do it to his mother

middle school drama wrote:

I'm coaching a middle school track team in a wealthy area of Silicon Valley and one of the mom's keeps emailing me and the athletic director about me not teaching proper "breathing technique" to the distance runners. I was a high jumper/hurlder in college so I thought I had adequate knowledge to coach a middle school team. What the heck is she talking about? My old coach says she must be an avid runners world reader and laughed and said good luck.

Interestingly, I had almost the exact same experience, upscale middle school. Mom was so irate that I didn't do any breathing training that she got together with 2 other parents and met with the vice principle. I was an ex-competitive runner, H.S., NCAA, sub-elite and had several years of coach experience...basically, more than enough to coach middle school. I was not being paid, I was helping out because the regular coach was on medical leave and also because my son and several of the kids also ran for my youth club. If I hadn't stepped in, a music teacher who had never done any sport was going to be the coach.

I had absolutely no idea at the time what breathing training was, I found out later that they teach it in swimming, which was this parent's background. This lady was a stay at home Mom, she was married to a prominent business owner, she made my life difficult for nearly a month. She accused me of being incompetent, showing favoritism, which she was able to demonstrate this by her detailed notes on how much time I did or did not spend with her kid. What she was really made about was that her daughter's primary event was the shot and was only used as a backup on the relays.

Some good advice plus a good Ryan Hall joke--30 minutes well spent!

Perhaps she should try to run a mile as fast as she can. I guarantee breathing will happen and she won't have to worry about it.

I'll join your old coach in wishing you good luck with this bird. You have my sympathy. The kids are lucky to have you for a coach. They are in middle school; tell them to go out run, and have some fun.

I have two suggestions: placate the mother by distributing Breath-Rite strips to your runners. Alternatively, tell her you defer to her expertise and invite her to serve as assistant head coach for oxygen uptake, on a volunteer basis, of course. I predict she'll go away in a hurry.

Tell her the breathing techniques portion of your coaching comes right ater the kids have mastered the POSE method of falling down fast.

Don't listen to the LRC idiots here who will tell you that it doesn't matter or that breathing is just a natural process that you don't need to teach. You really should teach proper breathing techniques! Without using them your athletes will be at a serious disadvantage.

The most important thing to remember to maximally oxygenate the blood is to alternate - Breath IN, Breath OUT. In that order.

IN, OUT, IN, OUT

You may think that this does NOT make a difference but I can assure you that your athletes will have a distinct advantage over athletes using other common patterns such as:

IN, OUT, OUT, OUT, IN, OUT, OUT, OUT

or

IN, IN, OUT, IN, IN, OUT

Best of luck in your coaching. And don't forget to thank that mom for bringing your attention to this.

In true LR tradition, is she hot? Pics?

Preventing side stitches is one significant benefit of taking deep breaths occasionally and slowly letting them out during runs. I was getting the side stitches with races and hard tempos. I saw the advice here and took it as ridiculous but it worked and I began running pr's in workouts without too much effort.

tell her to

8==========D ~~ ~~ O-:

I failed to mention that she came to our meet with her kid but her kid didn't compete because she felt she wasn't prepared properly to compete yet. I'm going to get my email response to her out this weekend. I see a parent, coach, AD, and admin meeting coming up soon. What a joke!

Sister in law lives there. She reports that it is ground zero of helicopter parents and tiger moms. The mother in question undoubtedly reads R W and sports a 13 1 on her car. Pity her kid. Tell the mom to orgaNize a Fund raiser to bRing in Kara for a breathing clinic.