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I drink in big gulps because I sweat in big gulps.

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you're right! the same friend, he's my coach I'm learning a lot of things but I have some dubts too.

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I think that it doesn't matter the amount of water you drink. What DOES matter is the time interval when you drink. It shouldn't be a large interval, of course, or else your thirst will become bigger (logically).

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I really wish someone told me to take small sips on my 21st birthday (but that's another story).

I haven't read anything on the size of sip. I have read that you want to take 'some sips' out of your bottle every 10 to 15 minute but this is for what ggalvao said about Interval or Frequency of drinking. Your stomach and intestines can only absorb so much stuff per hour and you want to maximize that for longer events. Drinking often will do this. If I can find the absorption info I will post it later.

What TG98 says about sucking down more air with small sips makes sense to me. I also Googled the question about small sips and only found info on dieting and curing hiccups.

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I've heard this, too.

I've found it's actually helpful in preventing sloshing (ick! I hate that). I always sip on the bike, and for me, it's easier to stay hydrated that way. During training runs, I also sip, but in races, it's grab & go. I gulp it.

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Wow. I am actually impressed that you remember your 21st birthday. :)

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Gulping will actually cause you to take in more air than smaller "sips". I hate to use the word "sip" because I "sip" wine but take a drink of water. So a normal size drink is the way to go, spread out over the duration of your workout and of course throughout the day during down time. The "slosh" is a good thing to avoid. That will only give you greater chance for the "ralph" later on. Not so good.

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LOL, that's true. But that's a whole lot different situation there!

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This is possibly more complicated than it looks at first glance. There are several factors operating and your choice is not limited to sip/gulp.

Water is absorbed in the intestines not the stomach, therefore it must actually enter the intestines. The pyloric valve controls the stomach exit and will not open if:
a) there is only minimal content in the stomach
b) the wrong acid/sugar concentration in the stomach.

a) suggests that sipping only delays achieving the minimum volume necessary to open the pyloric valve, it is more efficient in terms of hydration to drink more than a sip at a time.
It is possible to drink more than a sip without gulping air. By drinking carefully from a cup rather than a fountain while working out you are less likely to swallow air. Using a drinking bottle may be even better. Using a straw, assuming you are not out-of-breath gasping at the time, reduces the chance of swallowing air even more.

b) suggests that drinking too much, or the wrong stuff may compromise the digestive system's attempts to get the Ph balance in the stomach contents right for the pyloric valve to open. Since this function varies from person to person, find out what drinks, with what sugar/electrolyte concentrations, work for you. You might try eating a meal without drinking anything "to wash down the food," just to see how your body reacts. You might like the difference.
During a race, when you may be cramming food down your throat without chewing, and without absorbing the necessary saliva, but rather "washing it down" with Gatorade say, you may find you have indigestion, so try different combinations. But remember your digestive system didn't evolve to the way it is because your ancestors gulped down Gatorade after wolfing two bananas and a Powerbar before running across the Savannah after a herd of wildebeest. This is essentially an unnatural way to take in nutrition and it needs experimentation and planning.

Sloshing

Fluid sloshes in the stomach only when there is excess gas in there too. If there was only food and gastric juices - which are added only as necessary - then the stomach contents don't slosh. If there is only food, juices and fluid you drank, the elastic stomach will expand only enough to accommodate that - no sloshing. To slosh there needs to be fluid and a volume of gas/air to create the room for the fluid to slosh.

The gas got there only one of two ways.
a) it is air and you swallowed it. Fix that by drinking through a straw or using a drinking bottle - hard on the run I know, maybe try walking the aid stations so you can drink more carefully.

b) the gas may be produced by the combination of the food and/or drink you swallowed. Obviously if you just drank a litre of cola, soda pop etc. - the carbonated gases will be released by the stomach acid so you bloat quickly. That's why they offer de-fizzed cola on the marathon course at IMs. Sometimes the resulting belch can be quite a relief of course, so learn this about your body in training.

If the gas is produced by a digestive conflict in what you are eating and the Ph is wrong so the pyloric valve isn't opening then you will slosh and maybe even vomit. This is your body telling you it is overwhelmed and wants to start fresh with an empty stomach. It may then be better to vomit and get it over with quickly.

Understand how the digestive system works and how your body works in particular and you will know how to drink and eat for training and for races. You must educate yourself.

Geoff

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I think of it like a shot. I shoot about 4oz. of water/gatorade at a time.

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Not a very areo position - lots of drag on that pinky!