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)?
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.
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.
