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Do you bilateral breath (every third stroke) for the majority of your training?
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For races?
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Why?
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If you converted to it late, how was the transition? Get faster?
I bilateral breathe for training but not racing. Its better for form and balance and improves aerobic effeiciency. But I am not so aerobically efficient that I can give up 1/3 of my breaths during a race (I’d like to be though)…kj
I’ll breathe on one side to take out the first few hundred meters of a race, and then switch to BL breathing (unless waves or the sun are working against me). I find it evens out my stroke, keeps me going straighter (don’t have to sight as much) and keeps my effort more in check (BL breathing makes it a lot more noticeable when your effort is a little too high).
That said, my last swim was `27min for a 1/2, so this isn’t exactly the advice of a fish…
Bilateral! I learned to swim later in life, so kind of forced myself to learn that way, as did my coach at the time! 
Been forcing myself to practice this in the pool. Doubt i’d do it in a race unless i had a good reason to switch sides but want to be able to change if I have to. Breathing on the same side is a lot easier for me, and when I swim hard I like the extra oxygen.
BTW I am not a fish, more like a stupid human who does not belong in the water.
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No.
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If I do, only about every 150 yards, and that’s if Im on the right side of the group, just to see what’s going on over there.
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Because I’ve been too lazy to change. I started breathing to my right when I was 8 years old, and never stopped. Breathing to my left always feels awk. I breathe every other stroke mostly. When Im in great shape I alternate 2, 4. I do not encourage this. My stroke is lop-sided, and I have more muscle development on one side. But, oh well, I don’t feel like changing. To me, the time it would take to change is not worth the time I’d save.
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Ha.
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Do you bilateral breath (every third stroke) for the majority of your training?
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For races?
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Why?
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If you converted to it late, how was the transition? Get faster?
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No, and I honestly can say i have gone to some high end swim meets in America, which qualifies me as a fish. Its a good skill to know, bilateral breathing without ruining your line or balance in the water, but Ian Thorpe, Michael Phelps, and around 90% of swimmers in nationals breath on one side, so I think its okay for everyone else.
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For races its not really a factor. If your on the left side of a pack and you breath right, either breath to the left or stagger yourself and adjust so you dont have a foot by your face. Even in Alcatraz where the waves are rough I breath to one side and its fine.
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Explained above.
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That depends on the person. If your training time is limited and you feel like your already getting low yardage, id focus on more beneficial things such as balance in the water.
Pretty much ditto to what Kuendig said.
I can bilateral breathe every 5-7 strokes all day long. But right side every two gets me the best speed at the lowest exertion rate, so that’s how I train and race.
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Yes and no. I take two breaths on one side then switch. Works for me. I just can’t do the every third stroke.
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Usually no. The colder water increases oxygen demand. And wind/wave/sun makes seeing on one side difficult usually as well.
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Uh, explained above.
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Okay, I made the transition in college. That was about half my life ago. So while it wasn’t a “recent” transition, I had dome a lot of swimming to that point. Did I get faster? Don’t really know, as I was never competitive before that, so I had no reason to track speed/times. But the transition itself wasn’t too bad, as I remember. It was MUCH more difficult to unlearn the 6-beat kick (8 weeks of pull-bouy only swimming, and then restarting with a 2-beat).
Yep, bilaterally breath all the time, although I’ve never done an open water race yet.
I decided to learn how when I started getting serious with my swimming. To be honest I didn’t find it difficult. I find I swim more efficiently now unless I try and push the speed up, but I’m a pretty slow swimmer. I have one speed that I’m comfortable at, and can just stroke away at that rate for an hour or so fairly comfortably.
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no.
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never
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not comfortable
- Yes. It promotes a balanced stroke
2 & 3. yes, but depends. Here’s a reason for training bilateral. You’re in a pack, a pretty ferocious pack and you’re on the edge of it. The pack is making a lot of splash and turbulence on your right side, so when you breathe, you get a gob full of water. Guess what, you know you can breathe to the left, so you do. You miss out on the waves and keep calm without swallowing all that sh1t. - I’ve always done it, but have coached many people to convert later on in their swimming ‘career’. With the right drills, you should be fine.
- Do you bilateral breath (every third stroke) for the majority of your training?
**** **** **No. **
2. For races?
**** **** **Not usually, but I may breath to the off side from time to time if I need to see something better over there. **
3. Why?
**** **Mostly habit, but I also have a long stroke and breathing bilaterally cuts down a lot on how much air I can get, which makes me a lot more tired swimming at the same pace as breathing on one side. ** 4. If you converted to it late, how was the transition? Get faster? **** **I think that I’m going to try to breath more to my off side in practice in case I end up in a race where the waves are bad enough to make it much easier to breath on my off side. I don’t think I will ever convert to breathing bilaterally all of the time because I think breathing less frequently is a disadvantage. **
- Do you bilateral breath (every third stroke) for the majority of your training?
NO
- For races?
NO - Unless I need to see something to my left but I have to say that I have done about 1000 pool races and a whole bunch of open water races and I can’t remember more than a handful of times it was necessary.
- Why?
**There is no basis to the myth that a semetrical stroke is faster and in fact many world class swimmers swim with a noticable lope in their freestyle strokes. It may be better for some people but it is most defintely not best for all people. **
- If you converted to it late, how was the transition? Get faster?
I go slower when I breath bilaterally. It messes up my stroke and I get less air.
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not necessarily, i breathe every 4 or 5 strokes, so i don’t breathe in a consistent way, it depends on the set, etc
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not really, i tend to breathe every 4 strokes and swim on the inside. breathing to my right allows me to see the other swimmers
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see number 2
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it takes some time to adjust, but mainly i am faster and more coordinated by breathing every 4 (sometimes 5 or 6) strokes and breathing on my right side.
“The colder water increases oxygen demand.”
Just out of curiosity, how did you come to that conclusion? I think if you are just in cold water (floating) you may need more oxygen to maintain body temp, but if you are swimming, then you are generating plenty of heat.
I am not a fish but a better than MOP swimmer, I’ve got 2.5 year of swimming behind me.
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Yes, allmost all of the time.
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Yes, allmost all of the time.
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If I breathe every 2 strokes I get light-headed and hyperventilate. By breathing Bilateral I am able to exhale completely and draw in a full breath of air.
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I converted last winter. I used a pull bouy untill I was comfortable, then it just seemed natural. I got faster because I got my stroke balanced and started to use my right arm as much as my left arm.
I’m not that tall, 5’4" so my arms aren’t as long as most. On the advice of a real swimmer, I abandoned counting strokes per lap and did what felt natural. I was doing my best to be under 20 strokes per 25yds before, then when I stopped counting I went to 23. That gave me 1 to 2 extra breaths per length. At that rate I was breathing too fast and would start to get dizzy. When I went to Bilateral, I took 7-8 breaths which seemed more manageable.
Since then I have done drills to lengthen my stroke but still swim with whatever cadence feels right while doing my workouts. I am at 19-21 strokes when I count right now so I am getting 6-7 breaths per length.
jaretj
If you’re talking about the difference between a water temperature of 81.5 degrees (standard competition pool temp) and 78, then you’d be right. But around here it’s more like a difference of 81.5 to 65.
I’m not a scientist (rocket or otherwise), but when I jumped into Lake Michigan without a wetsuit and the water was 60 degrees, it took me (and most of the other swimmers ) a couple of minutes just to catch my breath before I could put my head in the water to start swimming. I bought my first wetsuit right after that race.
no
faster to one side
but shoudl know how to do it in case you get in trouble or need a quick look to the other side for some reason
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