Holding the breath
Trapped CO₂ is the number one cause of breathlessness. Exhaling continuously underwater changes everything within a session or two.
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[ Swim Type profile · 18% of swimmers ]
The Bambino
New to swimming, finding your feet
Everyone starts somewhere. The Bambino is early in the journey — often anxious in deep water, stopping at the wall to recover, and unsure which of the internet's thousand tips to trust.
Every swimmer starts as a Bambino. New to freestyle, often nervous in deep water, and completely overwhelmed by the contradictory advice that fills the internet. Bambinos frequently stop at the wall to catch their breath and rarely manage a continuous 400m.
The defining feature of a Bambino isn't a lack of ability — it's a lack of comfort. Anxiety tightens the whole body, the breath gets held, carbon dioxide builds up and the swimmer feels breathless within 25m. That breathlessness gets blamed on fitness when it's almost always breathing technique.
Bambinos have the single fastest improvement curve of all six types. With no ingrained bad habits to unpick, a few weeks of relaxed, structured practice can turn a stop-start 25m into a comfortable 400m.
[ What a coach sees from the poolside ]
→Breath held underwater then a rushed, panicky inhale
→Very low legs and a vertical, treading-water body angle
→Arms working hard above the water, doing little below it
→Stroke rate spikes as breathlessness sets in
Classic Bambino faults
Sinking legs
Head-up, hips-down body position turns a 25m into a hill climb.
Tension everywhere
Clenched hands, rigid neck and locked shoulders burn energy and shorten the stroke.
The fix order
Sequence matters more than effort. Work through these in order — skipping ahead is why most stroke work fails to stick.
1 · Breathe out, always
A steady bubble stream whenever your face is in the water. Nothing else matters until this is automatic.
2 · Relax and float
Look down, press the chest gently, and let the legs rise. Slow, calm, deliberate lengths beat hard ones.
3 · Build continuous swimming
Extend from 4 × 50m to 4 × 100m to a single 400m over a few weeks. Comfort before speed, every time.
4 · Add a simple, repeatable stroke
Long in front, relaxed recovery, light kick. Save the fine detail for when you can swim non-stop.
Signature sets
Bubble-bubble-breathe
8 × 25m focusing purely on a continuous exhale. Rest as long as you like.
Time-based swimming
Swim easy for 3 minutes without stopping, twice. Distance is irrelevant; rhythm isn't.
Kick on your side with fins
6 × 25m to build confidence with the face in the water and the body long.
Typical numbers
- CSS pace
- Often 2:30 /100m or slower — and it moves fast once breathing settles
- Stroke rate
- Highly variable, usually rising as breathlessness builds
- Distance per stroke
- Short, but improves quickly with relaxation
Every Swim Smooth coach has seen a Bambino become a comfortable open-water swimmer inside a single season.
The Bambino guide
The fully revamped Swim Smooth Bambino PDF: stroke analysis, the complete fix order, drills, sets and a training structure written specifically for this type.
Get it for $9.99[ Swim Smooth Guru ]
The whole correction process, step by step
The Guru holds the complete stroke-correction pathway for The Bambino, plus Stroke Insights — which identifies your type from your actual swimming data, not just the questionnaire.
Explore the Guru[ Where this type goes next ]
Bambinos usually develop into Arnies or Overgliders next — knowing which is coming lets you skip the detour.
