In recent years I have greatly improved my breathing technique, and last season became very comfortable swimming 1500 - 2000 meters at a time, breathing to the same side (left and right on alternate lengths) with no sense of being out of breath. But I felt in a bit of a stroke length and speed rut.
I have always found bilateral breathing a lot faster than breathing to one side, but I usually feel desperately out of breath after about two or three hundred meters.
So my experiment for this season has been to incorporate bilateral breathing into my long practice swims. To retrain my body, I quit same-side breathing altogether. I started by alternating 50m crawl lengths with 50m easy breathing backstroke lengths. On the first few swims, I was desperate for air before and after the flip turns, and gasped as I surfaced in backstroke.
But a few swims later, I was not feeling so bad after the turn, and stroked hard on the backstroke. By about 600m, bilateral breathing was feeling like the right and proper way to swim. Moving to the outside 25m lanes last Sunday, I swam three lengths of crawl for every one of backstroke. Due to a sprained ankle I was doing open turns, which gave me an extra breath, of course, and I felt no air desperation at all. I knew that flip turns would be more challenging.
Tuesday I swam a full 1500m of crawl and 500m of backstroke. I was able to manage flip turns with tentative pushoffs. I found that extra breathing just before the turn tended to mess up my flip timing, and I had to tuck a lot to make the rotation. For about the first half of the swim I stuck with bilateral breathing, but gave myself extra breaths before and after the turns. I even tried breathing on successive strokes, like Sun Yang, but I don't exhale fast enough to be ready for the next inhale. For a few lengths I tried breathing twice to the right and once to the left, and eventually settled into breathing twice to the right and twice to the left—which seemed to be enough air.
About three quarters of the way through I remembered to spread my fingers, though I forgot again in backstroke.
This is not exactly on topic,but I have found that when I am getting some shoulder problem related to my unilateral breathing,using the center mount snorkel for awhile helps.
If bilateral breathing is a lot faster than breathing to one side then it sounds like you need to work on your breathing technique. There is a reason every top distance swimmer takes a breath every cycle. Having said that, it is good to sometimes train with bilateral breathing. I try to do warmup with bilateral breathing and breathing every cycle on main sets.
Just because you don't breathe every third, fifth, seventh or ninth stroke doesn't mean you aren't breathing bilaterally in my book. For me, the precise pattern doesn't matter. The fact that you can and do breathe to both the left and right makes you a bilateral breather in my book. :D
I only breathe to the right. I can breathe to the left, but just barely, and my stroke pretty much disintegrates if I keep it up. It doesn't matter what pattern I use. It's not about how much air I take in. In fact, I don't mind breathing every fourth stroke, as long as I'm breathing to the right. :D
OK; we're on two separate pages here when it comes to bilateral breathing. When I see that term, I only think of breathing every third stroke; alternating breathing to the left and breathing to the right. I need air more often than that, so I breathe every two for an entire length. I don't think of breathing every two strokes or every stroke cycle as "bilateral breathing"- ever.
If you want to breathe bilaterally, but don't get enough air breathing every three strokes another pattern is two left, then three strokes, then two right. This is sort of a compromise between breathing every two strokes and breathing every three, but still allows you to breathe to both sides on every length.
This is not exactly on topic,but I have found that when I am getting some shoulder problem related to my unilateral breathing,using the center mount snorkel for awhile helps.
Actually I think mentioning a center-mount snorkel is very much on topic. It is a good way, IMO, to combat some of the less desirable aspects of an asymmetric stroke.
In races I breathe only to one side and "lope" significantly. In longer swims (especially OW) it was not an uncommon post-race experience that I was more sore on one side than the other, which I took to mean that I was using that side more for propulsion.
I've been training with a snorkel (and agility paddles) a lot lately and I think that helps me have a better, more-centered stroke even when I breathe to one side and lope. I feel like I am engaging my weak side to a greater extent. (I think the so-called "palm positive" agility paddles help with EVF.)
That may just be a feeling, but recently I did an OW swim and both sides were equally sore...
I have done sets/repeats where you were supposed to breathe only to your "weak" side for the whole set. Give it a try while trying to descend the set to a good clip.
I agree with Elaine. I recently swam 3,000 yards non-stop of crawl. Before that, I had practiced breathing on my left side on alternate laps for six months to get used to it. Now I do what Elaine does, left for one lap, right for one lap. I agree with Elaine that this saves the shoulders. I would probably not have been able to swim 3,000 yards without injuring my left shoulder if I breathed only on the right. The slight change in angle relieves a lot of repetitive stress in the shoulders. It allowed me to keep going like the Everyready Rabbit. I was not sore at all when i was done.
As for flip turns, I don't do them because they cost me a breath. Hey, at age 58, I get a few privileges.
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The best freestylers seem to actually exploit the asymmetry. Their non-breathing-side arm acts a little like a catchup stroke, with a big reach, grab and scoop during the breathing body roll, followed by the breathing arm making a more over-the-top piercing stab forward, burying the head slightly, with a greater glide moment as the non-breathing arm catches up. The largest flutter kick is usually concomitant with the dominant arm stabbing forward, to combine propulsions. There are a lot of variations on this embrace of side-breathing asymmetry, but the different mechanics between the two sides of most great freestylers is obvious.
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That's actually what I've been trying to do with a 2 beat kick, but with the kick while I'm rolling onto the breathing arm side for the glide. Asymmetry has always felt good to me - it's a lot easier to roll - but I've been told I should be bilateral. It's great to hear that I don't have to be ashamed of my asymmetry :).
I'm very happy with the asymmetric 2 beat kick. I was an OK sprinter in the pre-goggle days and don't plan to compete in anything else now, but I started trying it for the longer distances and found it's not bad in the 50, going moderately slower than all out but getting a lot less tired.
