I've started a new thread on this, want to make it more about a particular pattern, one that has yet to be mentioned to you in this one. Have a look at the video I posted, and it is as much for the AOS athlete as it is for the off the front pro. And I think you will get what you may be looking for here too.

https://forum.slowtwitch.com/.../?page=unread#unread

I breathe almost exclusively to the right side, and have done so for almost 42 years. I bucked the trend on bilateral breathing when pool coaches were all about it in the 80’s, and I always bailed on hypoxic training and reduced-breathing sets (3 or fewer breaths per 25). Pretty much the only left-side breaths I take are “hook breaths” into a turn, or a few to help sight.

If you’re interested in a bit of balance training, and maybe comfort in breathing on the weak side in a pinch, you can throw in some bilateral training and snorkel training. The snorkel is my favorite training tool.

For bilateral training, just do a few breaths on the weak side per 25 (short pool) or 50 (long pool). You want to get all the oxygen you can, and switching sides all the time by breathing /3 reduces inhalations. You might consider in a bilateral set doing the first few strokes in a length on the strong side, then 1-2 breaths to the weak, then finishing each length on the strong side. An example might be 3strong- 2weak -3s (short pool) or 7s-3w-6s (long). But realize that in race conditions, you’ll just revert to the strong side, with a few exceptions.

I tried an experiment in a 1500m long pool race in a meet a few years back. I breathed L on the odd 50’s and R on the even 50’s. I then looked at my splits per 50. I was consistently .5-.7 faster on my right side per 50. Making a simplistic assumption, I could have been 7-11 seconds faster in the entire race had I stuck to right. And I’m a life-long swimmer with a balanced stroke. Assuming a newer swimmer is more comfortable to one side and has a less balanced stroke, that spread could be much bigger when factoring in the weak side. In fact, this is the case in an N=1 scenario. A woman I used to coach, who left the team because she wanted to do her own thing and because she’s a complete flake, swam the 1500m at USMS Nationals this past summer. I don’t know what her reasoning was, or whether she was told to by some dimwit coach, but she breathed R-L by 50’s. Her 50 splits were :03-:04 (yes, SECONDS) faster when she breathed on her right side per 50. That potentially works out to :45-:60 over 1500m had she stuck to right side.

You can spend an exhausting amount of time and effort to have a perfect ambidextrous breathing patterns, or you can pick a side and get conditioning with that breathing pattern. A little bit of weak side breathing or snorkel in practice will help your balance, but otherwise, it’s not worth it.

I mentioned this in my first post, and like I said, most people are better off breathing 2. (I can’t do that frigged up pattern Monty likes, I’ll get dizzy...). But, what most people like can inform you, but at the end of the day doesn’t matter. What’s fastest for you at the effort level you want to put out in a race?

For me, I often (not always, but often) breathe to my left when swimming easy or pulling, breathe every 2, 3 or 4 when pulling, and breathe 2 to the right when swimming hard, and sometimes sneak a breath into the wall. There’s no real reason other than that’s what’s comfortable and give me as much air as I need.

Get comfortable breathing “whenever” and breathe when you need to.

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Swimming Workout of the Day:

Favourite Swim Sets:

2020 National Masters Champion - M50-54 - 50m Butterfly

Breathing to both sides is critical for technique development in the rest of your stroke. You don’t have to do it in competition but without ever doing it in training you will sell yourself short.

There are so many flaws that are uncovered as you start breathing to the other side more and this alone can increase your speed immediately.

Instead of bilateral breathing just start with breathing to your non dominant side. The whole point of bilateral is to ensure your stroke is symmetrical, but you get the same effect by breathing only to the non dominant side, but without as much hypoxia. You could switch back to dominant side every other length or every 2 lengths etc to help get more air until you’re better. Or you could do what some others have said like 2/2/3 or 2/2/4 breathing. It doesn’t have to be your entire workout but it is very important to include on a regular basis.

If the flaws are not uncovered while breathing to one side only, they aren't really flaws, are they?

Either your normal stroke has flaws that should be apparent to a knowledgeable observer, or not. You shouldn't need to swim in some artificial manner to expose these flaws.

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"Go yell at an M&M"

Yes they are flaws and yes breathing to the opposite side can make them apparent. I never realized I had piss poor rotation to my opposite side until I actually started swimming faster breathing to non dominant side because it forced me to rotate to a side I never rotated to. Went back to regular breathing with improved technique pretty much instantly. Obviously more consistent practice will make it more permanent. This is pretty much the #1 reason to ever breathe to the opposite side and the whole point is that you don’t realize it’s a problem until you “magically” start to improve after doing it.

I’m sure a knowledgeable observer could also pick them out but we’re we talking about that in the first place?

Thank you! Really appreciate the feedback. Yes I have been doing this lately and actually trying to do certain lengths where I only breath on my weaker side. I am noticing already how much more comfortable it feels and how I am under-rotating when only breathing to my dominant side. Am hoping to get some underwater analysis done soon by a coach so will be good to get feedback on how things look. Thanks again for your feedback : )

I do most of my sessions with a large pool buoy and breathe bilateral as I have less oxygen demand with the legs not in play. As soon as I don't have a pool buoy between the legs including racing I breathe to the left. I figure hopefully any symmetrical issues will gradually get weeded out when I bilateral breathe and hopefully improve my race stroke. The biggest part is enjoying swimming, that is what I find to enjoy the most and most likely for me to swim more.