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)?
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.
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.
