When I was a kid, it was drilled into me to never breathe in and out of my turns - coaches were known to hand out sit-up penalties for any breathing spotted between the flags and the wall. Now that I don't have a coach, I've noticed that I tend to breathe going into the turn, though I take one arm stroke off the turn before I breathe. I was feeling sort of guilty about this, but I just watched the women's 800 free from London and I noticed that all the women (whose turns I could see) were breathing in and out of the turns.
Is not breathing in and out of turns something like bilateral breathing (i.e. preached by youth coaches but not actually done by most elite swimmers)?
I'm pretty sure youth coaches stress not breathing in and out of turns because it slows most people down. Lifting the head to breathe before the turn, taking a little pause, and then breaking streamline by taking that breath after the turn. "Elite" swimmers can do these things so well that it doesn't slow them down the way it does us mortals.
Exactly. I hear these thing nightly when practicing with my age group club team. I'm sure the coach is drilling this into the kids head so they don't get into a habit of doing it at an early age. Most of their events are shorter races, and keeping the head down in and out of the turns is better practice for maintaining speed. In distance events, oxygen is a little more important because you're working so hard for a longer period, so you almost have to breathe in and out of the turns. I find myself breathing as I take my first stroke, which isn't quite as efficient in my 500s and longer races, but if I actually think about it, I can go on the 2nd stroke for a breath and do it "right". I do have a good habit of "Sun Yang breathing" into my flipturns: breathing right right right right/left/flip. Though I go back to all right side breathing for the swim portion again after the turn.
When I was a kid, it was drilled into me to never breathe in and out of my turns - coaches were known to hand out sit-up penalties for any breathing spotted between the flags and the wall. Now that I don't have a coach, I've noticed that I tend to breathe going into the turn, though I take one arm stroke off the turn before I breathe. I was feeling sort of guilty about this, but I just watched the women's 800 free from London and I noticed that all the women (whose turns I could see) were breathing in and out of the turns.
Is not breathing in and out of turns something like bilateral breathing (i.e. preached by youth coaches but not actually done by most elite swimmers)?
This is an interesting topic and one that I've though about quite a lot recently because my 10 y.o. asked about it after getting conflicting messages from the coaching staff. We decided to look at videos of elite women. It appears that someone like Natalie Coughlin breathes on the last stroke going into the turn, but takes at least a few strokes after the breakout before breathing. Distance swimmers, on the other hand, pretty much always breathe every stroke. This makes sense to me. You gotta have air, especially if you plan on a long kickout. It makes sense to breathe going into the wall rather than at the breakout because you are going slower coming into the wall than at the breakout. Presumably breathing has less impact on speed when you are going slower. In distance events, by contrast, where most of the energy is from aerobic metabolism, the cost of lack of oxygen exceeds any speed benefit of skipping a breath on the first few strokes off a turn. So my advice to my 10 y.o. and in general, is: if you gota breathe, do in going into the turn, but don't breathe at the breakout. In distance events, just breathe.
If you need oxygen,breathe.I agree it is better to breathe into a turn than out of one.If you are doing much SDK you certainly want plenty of oxygen before the turn.The main reason to not breathe out of the turn is to make sure you get though the backwash you generate coming into the wall in as streamlined a way as possible.If you do at least 3 SDKs off the wall after a good pushoff with good streamling you are probably through the backwash and can breathe on the first stroke without excessive slow down.
I do have a good habit of "Sun Yang breathing" into my flipturns: breathing right right right right/left/flip. Though I go back to all right side breathing for the swim portion again after the turn.I'm no Sun Yang, but if it's good enough for him and Vladimir Salnikov (www.youtube.com/watch, it's good enough for me in a 400 or longer.
Is not breathing in and out of turns something like bilateral breathing (i.e. preached by youth coaches but not actually done by most elite swimmers)?
You remind me of how much fun I have biting my tongue when my daughter's coach makes her breathe every third stroke.
However, to your point. It seems that many swimmers are breathing on the last stroke into the wall but then using the lower CO2 levels as a result to take an extra stroke on their breakout. I know I do.
Of course, you have to keep your head low and work that breath in as well as possible.
But you kind of point to a larger issue of things that we do in masters swimming that are non-optimal in terms of maximum possible speed but on the other we do because we are dealing with a limiter.
Here's an example. Swimming a 200 fly, IF you can do the whole thing taking two strokes between breaths and NOT DIE, then that is the fastest way to do it. However, some of us need to be real with ourselves and accept that given our age and the time available to train, breathing every stroke allows us to NOT DIE when we swim.
Breathing into and out of walls is another one. I think it would be best if we never breathed into or out of walls. However, the reality is that at best we get to pick one, either breathe into r out of the wall so we have to figure out which one.
On some of the turns Mr. Yang would take a breath on the final stroke's recovery going in to the wall as well as his first stroke breaking out. At times he would also double breath (BL, BR, L, BR). Another interesting, but OT bit, regarding that swim was his kick. He constantly varied his kick rhythm throughout the race (2, 4, and 6 - BK). His temp seem consistant though.
My opinion is you don't want breathing to be the last thing you do before the turn or the first thing you do out of the turn. You've seen those people who turn their heads for that last breath when both their arms are at their sides before the turn. There's no question in my mind that this is slow. If you take a breath on the final stroke into the wall, OTOH, I don't really see how this slows you down appreciably. Likewise, off the wall you don't want to come to the surface and immediately turn your head for a breath.
I'm no Sun Yang, but if it's good enough for him and Vladimir Salnikov (www.youtube.com/watch, it's good enough for me in a 400 or longer.
I've watched this and Sun Yang and I can't quite figure out what you mean by "Sun Yang breathing." Would you explain? Maybe that will help me pick it up on the video.
