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)?
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.
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.
