Breathing

I really appreciate these responses, thanks. (I hope I didn't derail the initial related-topic.)

Skuj, Back in the 1960s and 1970s, bilateral breathing was pushed as a way to balance your stroke and reduce the strain on the shoulder that can come from breathing always to one side. It is also a way to see where your competition is. I continue to breathe every 3 almost all the time in practice because it forces me to think about good hip and shoulder rotation even on the non-dominant side. In more recent years, various techniques as well as a big increase in kicking intensity has seen the move to breathing to one side and more often as a way to get rid of the CO2 from the heavy-duty kicking. And, these swimmers have gotten very good at breathing without it disrupting their stroke. An interesting sidebar - to support what Calvin S posted - is an article I read almost 20 years ago by, I think, Forbes Carlisle. Can't find the article anymore. In the article, he proposed that breathing to only one side resulted in better timing and a slightly higher tempo because this eliminate the inherent delay due to a bit more rotation to the opposite side every 3 strokes. I experimented with it personally as well as with my highschool and college sprinters. Indeed - it did seem to work. The downside to breathing only to one side is loss of balance as well as losing the ability to comfortably breathe to the other side if you need to. In open water swimming, the wave patterns and other swimmers sometimes force you to breathe on the other side. So, all personal preference really. Unless there is a reason not to, I encourage swimmers to breathe to both sides simply so they know how to. Having more options when you swim is always a good thing.

Agree that you do need to meet certain criteria to make single side breathing work better for you. That is why I pointed out that I changed breathing patterns LATE in my (otherwise still young, compared to others like Windrath) career. I already had a decent kick which I then worked to make a hell of a lot stronger (side note that I think at the time I switched I could maybe make repeat 100 yard FR kicks with a board on 1:40 on a great day. I got that down to 1:25 consistently, and nearly managed to catch my best 100 yard FR swim time with my best 75 yard FR kick time...a benchmark I have been told is a good one to meet!). Sorry I digressed. I also had/have a strong core (I do a lot of core work on the side but also take a dedicated core class once a week), which helps compensate for the lack of rotation from breathing only to the one side. But like everyone keeps saying, the best thing you can do is play around with it yourself and figure out what works best for you. And remember this, one of my favorite things to tell my swimmers when they would be implementing something new (whether it be a training device or a stroke/technique change): Sometimes you have to swim slower before you can swim faster. If at first you don't feel like the change/choice you made is making you better, just give it some time before relegating it to the scrap heap of bad ideas!

The downside to breathing only to one side is loss of balance as well as losing the ability to comfortably breathe to the other side if you need to. In open water swimming, the wave patterns and other swimmers sometimes force you to breathe on the other side.I agree that breathing comfortable to either side is a worthwhile objective. However, I tend to disagree with it improving your balance. Yes, bilateral breathing requires you to rotate left and right to breath, but if your stroke is out of balance when you breath to one side it will likely be out of balance when you breath to both sides. It may be less noticeable as you wobble down the pool. If you have a stroke imbalance, first fix the imbalance on you dominant side, next fix it on your other side, and then work on bilateral breathing. You can work on non-dominant and bilateral at the same time, but fix the stroke first; don’t just mask the issue.