Hello,
I'm excited to be here and excited to be back in the water again after about 12 years!
I have numerous questions/things I'm excited to improve on so I thought I'd start with one: my whole life (so basically for 30 years) I've only been breathing on the right when I do freestyle. Any tips for breaking this habit and learning to breath on the left? I honestly can't even remember how I learned to breath on the right the first time around....I've just always only done it that way. I think I'm partly afraid if I just try it, I'll end up drinking the pool..plus it just doesn't feel natural.
Thanks!
Parents
Former Member
The danger in not breathing to both sides is that you are almost certain to develop an unbalanced stroke.
I coach and see on about 95% of swimmers that they are not symmetrical. If you breathe to 1 side only ( say to the right ) then you will roll fully onto the left shoulder while you are taking a breath. However you will not roll fully onto your other shoulder ( the right ) on the next stroke. This leads to a number of faults:
1.- Your recovery will be wider and more 'straight arm' on your non breathing (left) arm. This is because the body roll enables a higher and more relaxed arm recovery. You will experience more muscle fatigue and soreness on that (left) arm.
2.- Your whole hand entry and 'extend into catch' phase will be " off " on that (left) arm.
3.- Your stroke pull will become much stronger on 1 side than the other. You will swim faster if your stroke is balanced.
4.- One sided breathing tends to encourage " lifting of the head " while taking a breath. If you do this you will press down on your outstretched arm to compensate.
5.- One arm will tend to enter and move into the catch towards or even over the centre line, because of the uneven body roll.
So you can fix lots of stroke faults by doing bi-lateral breathing. Try it and in only a few weeks it will seem natural.
The danger in not breathing to both sides is that you are almost certain to develop an unbalanced stroke.
I coach and see on about 95% of swimmers that they are not symmetrical. If you breathe to 1 side only ( say to the right ) then you will roll fully onto the left shoulder while you are taking a breath. However you will not roll fully onto your other shoulder ( the right ) on the next stroke. This leads to a number of faults:
1.- Your recovery will be wider and more 'straight arm' on your non breathing (left) arm. This is because the body roll enables a higher and more relaxed arm recovery. You will experience more muscle fatigue and soreness on that (left) arm.
2.- Your whole hand entry and 'extend into catch' phase will be " off " on that (left) arm.
3.- Your stroke pull will become much stronger on 1 side than the other. You will swim faster if your stroke is balanced.
4.- One sided breathing tends to encourage " lifting of the head " while taking a breath. If you do this you will press down on your outstretched arm to compensate.
5.- One arm will tend to enter and move into the catch towards or even over the centre line, because of the uneven body roll.
So you can fix lots of stroke faults by doing bi-lateral breathing. Try it and in only a few weeks it will seem natural.
