Have been breathing to the left only for 30 years, right lat when flexing is much more defined and larger than the left. Is the one sided breathing the culprit?
Maybe, but then again, anything else you do only with your right hand?
Get videotaped and have a look at what’s really going on. There are plenty of swimmers out there who seem to be perfectly happily breathing bilaterally, and who are also asymmetrial lopers letting one side of the body do 60% of the arms workload.
As for the asymmetrial freestyle movement, as long as it’s not causing you physical discomfort, there are any good number of elite distance freestylers who let one side of the body do more work than the other. Hey, Grant Hackett’s at the top of that list after all.
No, to be technical, it isn’t - but your poor technique when breathing is the cause (most likely, as said above, get a coach to check it out).
You could be reaching across your midpoint when your dominant hand as well. I would guess that your are resting on your arm when you breathe, due to lifting your head up to breathe. So you are bracing to breathe by pressing down with your dominant hand, and since you breathe only on one side, you are cabe using muscle imbalances.
If it is the breathing, I would learn to breathe on the other side immediately. Even if it isn’t, it is something you should definitely be focusing on. It’s no different to the other side, just practise practise practise. You may even find you have fewer “learnt” faults on the other side too, so you may even swim faster once you get the hang!
This is interesting. I myself breathe more easily on the left (I sound like Randal Cobb in Raising Arizon ‘I myself fetched $30,000 on the black market. And that was in 1954 dollars’) . One thing I’ve noticed, if I do side kicking drills my right arm lead/left side breathe sets are much stronger (more steady in water) than my left arm lead/right side breath. Leading with my left, I’ll catch myself trying to push down on the water with my lead arm.
I’ve viewed this as a flaw so I’ve tried to fix it by concentrating on steadying my side kicking (dont push down with lead arm) and one arm drills with the off arm ‘in the pocket’ while breathing on the opposite side of the stroke. I’ve had some success but still revert to left breathing only when I tire. Good luck.