Caribe Nation Men, I am preparing a video and need your help. What WERE your top 5 reasons?

I was able yesterday to swim a lane and breathe 3 times during 25m length. I used leg fins and nose clip. I wasn't able to breathe from the begging, and stopping with fins when I was with my front side down is a bit harder to do in a short time. I started to release air slowly early, and when it was the time to breathe, I made an move that did help me to breathe enough air to continue. I breathe on the right side and once started to breathe, I pushed my left arm down, to help keeping my head high enough to finish air intake. After I submerged my head in water, I was able to correct my body position easily with the fins on. I repeated the process without the nose clips, but breathing out thru the nose when turning the head in both directions. Trying to remove also the fins, didn't help me to complete the lane, but I was able to breathe twice before stopping.

I want to thank you, first, for the wonderful knowledge you are sharing for learning to swim in shallow water. I was able today, to swim a 25m distance, using your method of back swimming with relaxed breathing, and mixed free style with flip to back for breathing. I did wear a nose clip, to avoid getting water thru nose, but I will try without it in the future. I took swimming lessons, with a local training instructor, around 20h by now, but breathing is my problem with free style method. Either I cannot raise my head enough, or if I am able to open my mouth, I take very small amount of air, or no air at all. If I get a brief breath, I cannot hold it until the next breathing cycle. Fortunately, I can breath on my back. In the relaxed front float, my legs sink to about 45 degree, and my head circumference measure around 63cm. Not sure that might be a reason why it is hard for me to breath when facing down or aside.