Hey all swimmng gurus!

Triathlon Forum
1

I was swimming this morning and stumbled across something that I cannot explain. I was doing intervals of 200s (freestyle/drill/freestyle/drill, etc). When I freestyle I breathe on my right. I read somewhere that a good balance drill is to breathe on the left for a set. I have been doing this “drill” of forcing myself to breathe on my left. After a several weeks, it did not feel as uncomfortable as it did at first, but I did not think anything of it. I still felt more comfortable breathing out of my right. Today, I timed each of my 200s and found that when I breathed on my left side, I was not only 20 seconds faster than my normal right side 200 interval, but I also was doing it with a HR 5 - 6 beats lower.

The breathing part (i.e. actually getting a good strong breath) does not feel as good on my left, but my stroke definitely feels easier. I never realized the time difference until today.

Any thoughts?

2

gBreathin to your left doesn’t have as many old engrams to break through to do it correctly.

3

Funny, I dont know why but it’s exactly the same for me. You can be sure that I’ll breath as often as I can on the left side in my next competition!

4

I’m not a coach or a streamlining expert, but here’s my guess. When you were breathing only on your right side, you were rolling onto your left shoulder well, and therefore getting good extension with your left arm as well as being better streamlined. However, since you were not breathing on your left, you didn’t roll onto your right side. Breathing on your left in drills forced you to start rolling onto your right side lest you inhale water. You have trained yourself through the drills to now roll your shoulders both left and right, thus you are 50% more streamlined as well as getting better extension with both arms.

5

It could be because when you breathe on your weak side, you don’t lift your head out of the water as much. Because it feels more unnatural, you are unconsciously doing as little work as possible to perform the breath. Therefore, you are more efficient and because there is less wasted motion, you’re probably not opening your shoulders up for more drag through the water.

My 2 cents

6

To have an efficient freestyle stroke you need to have good roll while swimming. By breathing to your left side you are forcing yourself to roll that may not be as comfortable compared to your right side. I would suggest breathing every 3rd or 5th stroke while swimming. Don’t just breath to one side all the time. Follow the bilateral breathing and you’ll see you freestyle become even more efficient over time.

7

Hey WTS -

I’m assuming you are right handed? Keep in mind that when you breathe to the left you are actually supporting your body with your dominant and most likely stronger arm. You should be a bit more powerful breathing this way. Keep working on bilateral breathing as it will smooth your stroke out and balance the effort on both shoulders. I would recommend every 3 not 5, as 5 will really tire you out…especially on long swims.

On a second note, it’s also very good to learn to breathe on both sides so you can learn to effectively draft on someone in an open water swim. Without going into too much detail, you need to be able to breathe towards the side of the person you are drafting off of so you can get close to their hips without bumping into them as well as getting your stroke in sync with theirs. There are some great articles out there on drafting…possibly on this site. John.

8

Are you left handed or right handed?

Selnikov held the 1500m world record for years breathing only to his left. He rarely breathed to his right, and did so only when he was checking on the rare opponent who might be within striking distance. Of course, you aren’t V.S. :),

Nonetheless, if you are right handed, you should breathe to the right, in my humble opinion. This will cause you to roll more onto your left side and generate more speed/power/hydrodynamics on that side. We are all out of whack when it comes to muscular balance, but you can compensate slightly by breathing on your strong side. Also, focus during practice on completing a hard strong pull with your left arm (assuming you are right handed). In fact, you might try to overcompensate with the left arm for a good bit of your drills. You will swim straighter and faster in open water ultimately.

Now, you MAY say, I’m right-handed, but I breathe to the left and am FASTER breathing to the left. Well, that’s because you are so right side dominant that you are loping severely and relying on the right side pull to the detriment of the left side. (baseball, tennis players come to mind) In a pool, this problem is not very noticeable because the pool has a line on the bottom! But, in open water severe loping can be a big problem because you won’t swim straight. Anyway, this tends to be a feature of poorer swimmers (right handers breathing left) who are, to put it charitably, swimming for survival.

I do not mean to imply that bi-lateral breathing is useless, just that it is not as natural for most people. Open water swimming can be done without bi-lateral breathing simply by lifting your head as you reach.

Are you swimming with a master’s swim team? If not, that is the single biggest step forward you can make in your swimming. If you are keying on a big race in the Fall, now is the time to join.

Swimming is fitness for life. I know a guy who swam the day before he died-at 87. :slight_smile: Sure as hell beats a year on tubes in the hospital…

Good luck!

-Robert

9

yes, you are right about most people being more successful breathing to their dominant side. however, you are a bit off the mark on “loping.” of course it depends on what exactly you are referring to, but many of the best freestylers in the world “lope” significantly. it allows for more contiuous and even generation of power. while balance is nice, most people don’t have balanced musculature or motor control. my point is that many people are quick to designate any lope as undesirable. but done correctly, it can make you faster. that said, i’m guessing that in this case, it wouldn’t be that kind of lope.

brent

10

Brent: Yes, not all lopes are created equally. I agree that the world’s best lope. Janet Evans was the Queen of Lopes! But, the side to side power differential between the struggling lopers and the great lopers is enormous, AND most of the examples we are using are of POOL swimmers. The best open water swimmers tend to be much better at bilateral power generation. Many of the small women who swim in the long open water events are the best examples, IMHO. (As something of an aside, I’ve seen several very strong swimmers swim 2-3 minutes slower than their pool times for the same distance when swimming in open water with a wetsuit. Loping may be only a small contributor, though.)

Having said all of this, in great swimmers there is great variation. I’ve been suggesting advice for guys who are triathletes, not, say, guys with 10 years of USAS swimming in their background. That’s why I suggest master’s swimming. Get a good coach to help you with the right stroke for you and train hard. Those other swimmers will push you to your limits and beyond!

-Robert