I have always breathed to the right only, but recently have started to try to learn how to breathe to my left. I am finding it much more difficult than I had anticipated. The main reason:
I am out of breath the whole time.
I feel like I am not getting the same quality of breath as I do when I breathe to the right. My breathing feels short and choppy. I also feel like I am lifting my head to breathe instead of breathing with my body roll.
Worse still, I am now dropping my right elbow and I am so out of breath the whole time, I can hardly concentrate on trying to keep it up.
On the positive side, my left elbow position has improved considerably (which is why I started down this road in the first place) and my kick is being forced to improve. (I have always had a crossover kick and for some reason or other when I breathe to my left, I don't do it).
Two weeks into the change now and it is definitely feeling more natural, however, I was hoping others who have tried this could give me some advice on what to watch out for and maybe give me some tips on how to make it feel more natural.
So technically, in my opinion, this practice isn’t really bi-lateral breathing. Dan
Yes, I thought I would breathe exclusively to the left until it felt comfortable. I thought it would help speed up the process and 'shock' me into having to do something about it quickly. A bit like putting a patch over the good eye to force the lazy eye to work. That's the way my thinking went, but I am open to other suggestions. I shall try your suggestion tomorrow at practice. To be honest, even though I told myself no more breathing to the right until the left has improved considerably (initially I was thinking about a period of three months) I haven't been able to maintain it all the time. While I breathe to the left 95% of the time, there has been the odd occasion in the past two weeks when I have been so exhausted I have sneaked a breath to the right or done a bilateral length.
I get what you are saying about the extended time between breaths during bilateral breathing. Perhaps that extra time will help me to get into a better position before I take a breath. Breathing every stroke to the right doesn't present a problem to me. It feels smooth and natural, but breathing every stroke to the left feels a little rushed and I suspect this is contributing to me feeling uncomfortable.
Julia, thanks for you input. I checked out your link. I do the one arm drill with a snorkel quite regularly and I am quite excited to try the side kick drill, the hyper kick drill and the side to side drill. :)
So technically, in my opinion, this practice isn’t really bi-lateral breathing. Dan
Yes, I thought I would breathe exclusively to the left until it felt comfortable. I thought it would help speed up the process and 'shock' me into having to do something about it quickly. A bit like putting a patch over the good eye to force the lazy eye to work. That's the way my thinking went, but I am open to other suggestions. I shall try your suggestion tomorrow at practice. To be honest, even though I told myself no more breathing to the right until the left has improved considerably (initially I was thinking about a period of three months) I haven't been able to maintain it all the time. While I breathe to the left 95% of the time, there has been the odd occasion in the past two weeks when I have been so exhausted I have sneaked a breath to the right or done a bilateral length.
I get what you are saying about the extended time between breaths during bilateral breathing. Perhaps that extra time will help me to get into a better position before I take a breath. Breathing every stroke to the right doesn't present a problem to me. It feels smooth and natural, but breathing every stroke to the left feels a little rushed and I suspect this is contributing to me feeling uncomfortable.
Julia, thanks for you input. I checked out your link. I do the one arm drill with a snorkel quite regularly and I am quite excited to try the side kick drill, the hyper kick drill and the side to side drill. :)
