This will be my first year to “go long” and want to learn to bilateral breathe. I have always breathed to my left. Whenever I have tried to breathe on my right, I hardily get enough air and it feels like my right arm is flailing on the reach. Just totally akward! Any tips to learn this technique?
practice!
Seriously, If you are having trouble to one side it is because your stroke is unbalanced. If you just force yourself to breathe on both sides for a while you will find you stroke will balance out and it will get easier. You will probably be more efficient overall as well.
I couldn’t breathe on both sides until I took a TI series of lessons. With their method I learned to rotate my core a lot more and that made it easy.
Do some one arm drills on your non-dominate side.
Dominant arm side straight out, weak arm side down by your leg, push off and glide. Rollover to your weak side, get a breath, take a stroke w/ your weak arm side and glide. Add to your swim workout. Force yourself to breath bilaterally in all sets. It will start to come.
Don’t worry if it takes a while. Most of the really good swimmers I know use bilateral breathing in workouts and never use it in racing. I guess in racing, they need air on every stroke.
starting this past jan 1, i have forced myself to do all swimming bilateral. i’m a pretty mop swimmer at best (1:45/100). it’s been hard especially being used to breathing every stroke. i have to reming myself to exhale slowly underwater and not hold my breath. i still can’t do a long set this way but i’m getting better. i agree with practice, practice practice.
Try looking slightly back when you breathe on your bad side. Turn you head early. Don’t wait until your right hand is already coming out of the water.
Also, try some sessions of always breathing toward the lane line (if you are splitting the lane and not circling.) You will do half of your laps breathing toward your off-side.
I almost drowned breathing anywhere but to my left at first. I managed it easier by extending the glide on my left shoulder until I felt stable enough to risk opening my mouth. It slowed me down for a few swims but you soon get into the rhythm. From there to bilateral is pretty easy, but it’s harder work for a while.
So when starting to learn do one length right, then one length left? Wait to bilateral breathe until the right feels more “comfortable”?
i learned bilateral breathing about a year ago. i did have to force myself to learn it, but only after a test. in this test, i simply did a set of 100’s. the first 100 i did my normal way (breathe on right only)–i did it at a moderate pace. the second 100, i tried to bilaterally breathe every 3 strokes. it felt awkward as hell and, like you said, my arm felt like it was flailing all over the place. i tried to give the same effort as the first 100–my time for the second one was almost 5 seconds faster than the first!! no joke–that convinced me right there. i have gone from averaging 2min/100 to 1:40ish (depends on distance). the key was drills–one arm drills, catch up drills, and having someone watch you. record yourself if you can–that way you can see what your doing with your off arm.
I had a similar experience. I am faster while bilateral breathing but can’t keep it up for long at a faster pace. I tried timing 100y intervals breathing right (normal side) vs. left. Breathing left felt awkward and slow but was actually 2 sec. faster. I think it’s because I rely more on my stronger right arm that way. I’ve since worked on breathing left more and gotten faster. My fastest 500y time trials are when I start out with B/L breathing then after 150y switch to breathing right down and left back. It almost feels like I’m giving myself a break when I switch sides. My next experiment is a time trial breathing 2 right then 2 left (missing one during the switch). I think this will be the most balanced and I can sustain it for a relatively high effort.
The key is rolling enough side to side to get your recovery shoulder out of the water to reduce drag.
whineyass: I started this winter after IMFL and had very similar results at you did. 2 min to 1:40’s. I used a pull bouy a lot to hold my position and to be able to relax.
flatfootedfatty, just do it and don’t worry about how you look or your speed. I thought I would be slower cuz I wasn’t going to get much air but just the opposite happened. Now, every swim I do is bilateral - even my sprints.
jaretj
Edit: I didn’t split up right and left breathing to 1 lap right then 1 lap left, I just did the bilateral straight through.
there is a good thread on Gordo’s sight about this if you want to take a look, it was in the last week or two. I have been working on this, not because I think it will make me faster but because I know it highlights an imbalance in my stroke. I would probably still breath to one side in a race but I could choose the side I want to breath to which is an advantage.
So when starting to learn do one length right, then one length left? Wait to bilateral breathe until the right feels more “comfortable”?
I don’t know what everyone else did, but that’s how I learned. (years ago.) Try to keep your stroke/body roll symmetric while doing this.