Anyone know good drills to make it easier to breathe on your crappy side?

Hi all, I'm new to this board and would like to say I'm learning a lot reading these discussions. And now feel like I have a little something to contribute. I grew up on a barrier island off the coast of Georgia and swam all my childhood and adolescent, but over the years got away from swimming. As a result my technique became pretty rusty (and endurance poor--but I'm working on that too.) There is no Master's club near enough to me to join, so when I decided to get back into swimming I hired a coach/trainer to help me with my technique. One of the first things she did was to change my breathing. The drill she gave me was so simple and was incooperated into every freestyle swim I did--swim one length breathing only on the right, swim the next length breathing only on the left. After awhile--about two weeks--breathing on my "crapy" side felt pretty natural, and thats when she had me to start rotating my breathing. I slipped into it very easily. Now I can't tell the difference. However, I am somewhat ambidextrious and that might have influenced the change also. When my daughter was in high school she swam for Americus Blue Tide, whose coach was Curt Myers, Olympic Festival coach, Pan Am Game coach and Angle Myers Martino's father. My daughter once asked him why a swimmer needed to breathe on both sides. Besides the hip rolling issue he also said that breathing only on one side, over time, made the pull on the "crapy" side weak (or vise versa, can't remember which.) Finally, when my coach and I were discussing breathing she told me that when she was swimming it "made her mad when she had to breathe on the left." The left is her "crapy" side. Being a psychologist I then had something to "teach" her. Negative emotions and thoughts can significantly impact physical performance. It has been demonstrated that when you are angry (and to extrapolate have negative thoughts) your physical strength is reduced. So, when you are swimming, don't let the fact that you "have to" breathe on your "crapy" side influence your thoughts in any way. I also refer to my "crapy" side as left, that term is descriptive and neutral. To be more specific, I sometimes refer to my left as my non-dominate side. Sorry, I didn't mean to preach. Hope your switch to rotational breathing goes easily, Lainey

Hi all, I'm new to this board and would like to say I'm learning a lot reading these discussions. And now feel like I have a little something to contribute. I grew up on a barrier island off the coast of Georgia and swam all my childhood and adolescent, but over the years got away from swimming. As a result my technique became pretty rusty (and endurance poor--but I'm working on that too.) There is no Master's club near enough to me to join, so when I decided to get back into swimming I hired a coach/trainer to help me with my technique. One of the first things she did was to change my breathing. The drill she gave me was so simple and was incooperated into every freestyle swim I did--swim one length breathing only on the right, swim the next length breathing only on the left. After awhile--about two weeks--breathing on my "crapy" side felt pretty natural, and thats when she had me to start rotating my breathing. I slipped into it very easily. Now I can't tell the difference. However, I am somewhat ambidextrious and that might have influenced the change also. When my daughter was in high school she swam for Americus Blue Tide, whose coach was Curt Myers, Olympic Festival coach, Pan Am Game coach and Angle Myers Martino's father. My daughter once asked him why a swimmer needed to breathe on both sides. Besides the hip rolling issue he also said that breathing only on one side, over time, made the pull on the "crapy" side weak (or vise versa, can't remember which.) Finally, when my coach and I were discussing breathing she told me that when she was swimming it "made her mad when she had to breathe on the left." The left is her "crapy" side. Being a psychologist I then had something to "teach" her. Negative emotions and thoughts can significantly impact physical performance. It has been demonstrated that when you are angry (and to extrapolate have negative thoughts) your physical strength is reduced. So, when you are swimming, don't let the fact that you "have to" breathe on your "crapy" side influence your thoughts in any way. I also refer to my "crapy" side as left, that term is descriptive and neutral. To be more specific, I sometimes refer to my left as my non-dominate side. Sorry, I didn't mean to preach. Hope your switch to rotational breathing goes easily, Lainey