Breathing Every Stroke

If you are able to keep your stroke completely smooth and even, then go ahead and breath as much as you want to. Below the elite Olympic Trials level, most of us don't have a good enough stroke to do that. IMO, even for a non-elite swimmer, the swimmer's breathing mechanics would have to be really terrible to make breathing less often than every third arm a good idea in a 200+ freestyle race. In fact, although lots of good reasons exist to breathe bilaterally in workout and in OW racing, I think most freestylers would do best in 200+ pool racing to pick their better side and breathe to that side every stroke cycle. Fly may be a different story. I do better in the 200 fly breathing every other stroke, but then again my breathing mechanics in fly are indeed terrible. I could probably improve my 200 fly more by improving my breathing mechanics than by improving my capacity to withstand oxygen debt.

If you are able to keep your stroke completely smooth and even, then go ahead and breath as much as you want to. Below the elite Olympic Trials level, most of us don't have a good enough stroke to do that. IMO, even for a non-elite swimmer, the swimmer's breathing mechanics would have to be really terrible to make breathing less often than every third arm a good idea in a 200+ freestyle race. In fact, although lots of good reasons exist to breathe bilaterally in workout and in OW racing, I think most freestylers would do best in 200+ pool racing to pick their better side and breathe to that side every stroke cycle. Fly may be a different story. I do better in the 200 fly breathing every other stroke, but then again my breathing mechanics in fly are indeed terrible. I could probably improve my 200 fly more by improving my breathing mechanics than by improving my capacity to withstand oxygen debt.