This is my first post here.
I started swimming four years ago. I grew up with a pool at our house and swimming was always an important part of summer for me, but I never swam competitively. Fast forward a few decades (I'm 47 now). I started swimming because running was becoming too painful for my knees and back, and I was tired of other problems (shin splints, for example).
I started out with breaststroke but now I swim almost nothing but freestyle. I started practicing bilateral breathing just a few months ago because my goal is to enter triathlons starting next year (Olympic distance), and I found that being able to breathe on both sides would be an immense asset after a few open water swims in which I breathed only to one side.
After a timed swim last week in which I tried to do bilateral as much as possible during a 1500m swim, I came up with a time that was slightly better than normal, and this even though I deliberately took it easy for the first half of the swim.
I knew it must have been the higher stroke rate that this unnatural style forces me to use. Yesterday, I timed myself again for 1500m and ended up under 28 minutes for the first time ever (27:48). I again used bilateral breathing and the higher stroke rate.
Now I'm sold on a higher stroke rate! When I breathe to one side, it's very smooth (almost no bubbles even when I push myself), but I pause for a second with my right arm in the water.
Has anyone else experienced something similar with a higher stroke rate?
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Former Member
Welcome
Make a video of you swimming freestyle
Put it on youtube
provide the link here and ask for feedback
27:48 is holding 55.6 per 50 or 1:51.2 per 100
There probably are many things you can do to swim faster.
You'll get your biggest improvement from correcting your technique. Stroke, turns, breathing, & push offs.
Your next biggest will come from training harder further faster more often.
You'll get some if you wear a faster suit.
In any distance race, I suggest breathing every other stroke or every 2, in longer swims breathing is very important.
We are humans we need air.
Breathing every 3rd stroke as opposed to every 2nd stroke means you will get way less air over the race and you will have to wait longer between breaths.
lets say you take 36 strokes for each 50 meters,
if you breathe every 3 you get 12 breaths,
if you breathe every 2 you get 18 breaths.
That's 50% more breaths. If you're holding 55.6 per 50 and breathing every 2,
you're getting a breath every 3.0 seconds
if you're breathing every 3
you're getting a breath every 4.6 seconds.
Lastly a higher stroke rate could be due to inefficiency, focus on efficient steady and sustainable strokes.
I'll think about that video, but at my present stage, it would definitely be of me breathing to my right only because breathing to the left feels so awkward still and I'm sure it looks terrible.
I think my jump in improvement very possibly is due to getting rid of that dead spot I had with my right arm extended. The bilateral breathing forces me to get on with things and drop the pause.
I think I can get another jump in improvement from getting better at breathing to my left so that it's more natural and involves less overall body movement. I think also working on early vertical forearm technique will yield some good results (I'm pretty much doing things straight arm at this point).
As far as breathing every 2 instead of every 3 strokes is concerned, I will try to take your advice once I get rid of my pause with my right arm extended. Once that happens, I can experiment with breathing to the right for a few strokes and then switching to breathing to my left for the next few strokes, and so on.
With the open water swimming I'll be facing with triathlons, I really need to be able to breathe on both sides. Sometimes there's a rope to follow, in which case it's usually to the left. Sometimes you need to look at the other swimmers around you. Sometimes there are waves or wakes coming from one side, and other times the sun can be a problem on one side.
Anyway, thanks for you advice and I'll look into getting that video.
Welcome
Make a video of you swimming freestyle
Put it on youtube
provide the link here and ask for feedback
27:48 is holding 55.6 per 50 or 1:51.2 per 100
There probably are many things you can do to swim faster.
You'll get your biggest improvement from correcting your technique. Stroke, turns, breathing, & push offs.
Your next biggest will come from training harder further faster more often.
You'll get some if you wear a faster suit.
In any distance race, I suggest breathing every other stroke or every 2, in longer swims breathing is very important.
We are humans we need air.
Breathing every 3rd stroke as opposed to every 2nd stroke means you will get way less air over the race and you will have to wait longer between breaths.
lets say you take 36 strokes for each 50 meters,
if you breathe every 3 you get 12 breaths,
if you breathe every 2 you get 18 breaths.
That's 50% more breaths. If you're holding 55.6 per 50 and breathing every 2,
you're getting a breath every 3.0 seconds
if you're breathing every 3
you're getting a breath every 4.6 seconds.
Lastly a higher stroke rate could be due to inefficiency, focus on efficient steady and sustainable strokes.
I'll think about that video, but at my present stage, it would definitely be of me breathing to my right only because breathing to the left feels so awkward still and I'm sure it looks terrible.
I think my jump in improvement very possibly is due to getting rid of that dead spot I had with my right arm extended. The bilateral breathing forces me to get on with things and drop the pause.
I think I can get another jump in improvement from getting better at breathing to my left so that it's more natural and involves less overall body movement. I think also working on early vertical forearm technique will yield some good results (I'm pretty much doing things straight arm at this point).
As far as breathing every 2 instead of every 3 strokes is concerned, I will try to take your advice once I get rid of my pause with my right arm extended. Once that happens, I can experiment with breathing to the right for a few strokes and then switching to breathing to my left for the next few strokes, and so on.
With the open water swimming I'll be facing with triathlons, I really need to be able to breathe on both sides. Sometimes there's a rope to follow, in which case it's usually to the left. Sometimes you need to look at the other swimmers around you. Sometimes there are waves or wakes coming from one side, and other times the sun can be a problem on one side.
Anyway, thanks for you advice and I'll look into getting that video.
