IAGLIYDW wrote:
Thanks everyone, Lot's of good stuff here. I agree with most that I have major flaw in my stoke when I breath. At times I feel like I'm moving well and then hit a point where I feel like I have stalled. I have done my long swims breathing every second and that sounds like the thing to work on. I think I'll do drills breathing every second and alternating sides.
Thanks again
Are you talking about every second stroke or every second stroke cycle??? Every second stroke will obv get you most air. While there are a very few examples of top swimmers breathing every 4 strokes (or 2 stroke cycles), generally this pattern only occurs in swimmers with very high turnover rates, as in 100 strokes/min and above, which very, very few if any triathletes can replicate. More generally, most top swimmers breath every 2 strokes (every cycle) in any event over 50 m. To take one of the most famous swims in history as an example, when Jason Lezak ran down the French swimmer in the anchor leg of the '08 Oly 4 x 100 m free relay, he breathed every 2 strokes (every cycle) up until the very last 5 meters. Lezak recorded what is still the fastest 100 lcm free ever, 46.06. So, if the fastest 100 m swimmer of all time* breathed every 2 strokes (every cycle), then I believe it should be common practice among almost all other swimmers in races over 50 m. If you want to practice breathing on both sides, breath every 2 strokes (every cycle) on one side going down the pool and every 2 strokes (every cycle) on the other side coming back. This will give you plenty of practice breathing on both sides. Not breathing every 2 strokes is the surest way i know of to not get enough air and thus to swim slower than you are actually capable of.
*For those who will say that Lezak is not the fastest 100 lcm free swimmer ever b/c he is not the current 100 lcm WR holder, he gained about 0.71 sec from the relay start and 46.06 + 0.71 = 46.77, which is under the current 100 lcm WR of 46.91. (Looking it up in the FINA archives, Lezak had a reaction time of only 0.04 sec, vs Phelps on the lead-off leg had an RT of 0.75 sec; 0.75 - 0.04 = 0.71.)
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