i breath to both sides and i prefer to breath every 3 strokes even though it has always made my coaches crazy. they prefer one breath down and one back. however since i never practiced that it messed up my stroke rhythm and stuff. i have always loved the fact that summer sanders breathed every stroke when she used to swim fly.
Rule number 1 in swimming – the coach is always right.
Rule number 2 – when the coach is wrong, see rule number 1.
It sounds to me like you are talking about a 50 free race. If that is the case, then less breathing means faster time. If it is messing up your stroke rhythm and stuff, since you never practiced that, then practice it and make the coach happy. In a 50 free that is taking between 20 and 30 seconds, there is no need to breathe 6 to 8 times.
are they expecting this one breath during a race? or constant during practice?
Racing, sure, one breath is a good goal--but during practice, I didn't think that was possible!
:D
Jenny,
Surely if you breathe both sides while doing bi-lateral your body is going to be more balanced.Why should your coaches be upset with that??Are they saying breathe every two strokes on the same side??
I don't understand why breathing every three strokes would drive the coaches nuts. Unless it is a breath-control drill, or a sprint, I would think staying aerobic would be a good thing.
I think what she's saying is that she breathes every third stroke, so that she ends up breathing five or six times every length of the pool, while her coaches would rather she breath only one time every length of the pool regardless which side she breathes on. I think the conflict is over how often she breathes, not which side.
If it feels strange to change your rhythm, it probably just needs practice to make it feel natural.
Originally posted by jennyfer80
yes they prefered 1 breath down and 1 back for 50 free and the 1 breath for the last lap of my 100 and every 5-7 for 200 -500 free.
IMO breathing every 5-7 strokes for a 500 is absolutely crazy. If you can bilaterally that's great, otherwise breath once per cycle.
Conventional wisdom says breathing slows you down, but has anyone ever seen any empirical evidence to provde this? It seems to me that for any race longer than 50 yards or meters any speed benefit gained by breathing less is more than offset by oxygen debt.
this was supposed to go under the first post about bilat breathing. sorry about that :(
yes they prefered 1 breath down and 1 back for 50 free and the 1 breath for the last lap of my 100 and every 5-7 for 200 -500 free.
i always drove my coaches crazy. i have very poor technique but i made it work for me and got very fast and had a low stroke count. they couldn't understand how i did it. i have been working on it a lot though because i hate looking like a crazy woman when i swim. the key for me is catchup drill whenever i as swimming.
as for the breathing - i need air to swim fast. i use my legs a lot and they just suck the oxygen because they are bigger muscles.
but now i swim by myself and i can do whatever i want!
its strange though because when i breath to my right side it is at a different point in my stroke, about a half a second behind my breathing on my left side. i can't really figure it out, tried to fix too, but no success.
Maglischo doesn't believe that every third provides enough oxygen on distances greater than 100 yards. He does recommend bilateral breathing for age groupers to develop a balanced stroke but doesn't think it's that important for older swimmers.
maybe it's just me, but isn't the slowdown due to breathing more related to techniques more than anything else? Well, I guess I see so many people in the pool that swims by themselves, and they move like a torpedo through water...until they breath....then their trunks sink, head flops, and basically, an re-enactment of some ocean liner going down the bottom of the ocean... Does this happen to atheletes when they try to sprint too? Granted their technique can be "great" when going at a decent pace, but in an all out sprint does the technique deteriorate?
...I believe I saw some clips before of Popov vs. Klim in a sprint... Popov seems to be breathing a lot less than Klim, but that doesn't mean Klim is going that much slower (ok, so maybe 0.01 seconds slower)..
