I passed an instructor at our pool today who was saying to some kids learning freestyle that if they are right handed, they will most likely breathe on the right side, and left handed people breathe on the left side. I don't know if I agree, so I want to get your poll results:
I'm right handed and I breathe most naturally on my right side.
I'm left handed and I breathe most naturally on my left side.
My handedness and my most natural breathing side are opposite
I am truly ambidextrous and breathe with equal comfort on both sides
I am one side dominant, but have trained my self to be a comfortable bilateral breather
Michele--I apologize; screwed up a bit with my poll, not knowing exactly how to do one. I put down the possible answers in the text part, then submitted it, and the poll form came up, and I tried to recreate the answers from memory...
Ivor--might I just say that Upwithbeavers is an extremely funny website. Like Ricky Gervais bringing The Office to America, I would love to get an Americanized UPwithBeavers version for the US of A.
Finally, in terms of breathing generally, this poll has proved revealing, at least to me. The Swiss have a term "the chocolate side" for which half of your body is generally more limber, flexible, etc. I think they use this for skiing--it's easier to execute certain skiing maneuvers (I'm not a skiier myself, so I am not sure what I mean here by maneuvers, but it probably has to do with kick turns, etc.) on the chocolate side than on the non-chocolate (vanilla?) side. I learned about the "chocolate side" from a yoga teacher years ago, who used it to explain why some contortionistic yoga poses are so much easier to execute on one side vs. the other.
I think swimming is the same. Nobody yet appears to be a natural bilateral breather. The biggest chunk of responses so far is a discord between hand dominance and breathing side. In my own case, I am ever-so-slightly ambidextrous--I shoot a rifle and play pool left handed but do pretty much everything else right handed. I wonder if this might figure in to my own discord (right handed for the most part; breathe on the left side.]
This whole breathing business and handedness also seem to influence directions of flip turns. I am trying to remember which direction my body angles off the wall at (left or right tilted downwards) but for some reason can't recall this. I do know that I take my first stroke wrong--you should probably use whatever arm is deeper, but I tend not to do so.
I wonder if anyone has scientifically studied swimming, handedness, etc. I guess it matters less in fly and breaststroke...
Michele--I apologize; screwed up a bit with my poll, not knowing exactly how to do one. I put down the possible answers in the text part, then submitted it, and the poll form came up, and I tried to recreate the answers from memory...
Ivor--might I just say that Upwithbeavers is an extremely funny website. Like Ricky Gervais bringing The Office to America, I would love to get an Americanized UPwithBeavers version for the US of A.
Finally, in terms of breathing generally, this poll has proved revealing, at least to me. The Swiss have a term "the chocolate side" for which half of your body is generally more limber, flexible, etc. I think they use this for skiing--it's easier to execute certain skiing maneuvers (I'm not a skiier myself, so I am not sure what I mean here by maneuvers, but it probably has to do with kick turns, etc.) on the chocolate side than on the non-chocolate (vanilla?) side. I learned about the "chocolate side" from a yoga teacher years ago, who used it to explain why some contortionistic yoga poses are so much easier to execute on one side vs. the other.
I think swimming is the same. Nobody yet appears to be a natural bilateral breather. The biggest chunk of responses so far is a discord between hand dominance and breathing side. In my own case, I am ever-so-slightly ambidextrous--I shoot a rifle and play pool left handed but do pretty much everything else right handed. I wonder if this might figure in to my own discord (right handed for the most part; breathe on the left side.]
This whole breathing business and handedness also seem to influence directions of flip turns. I am trying to remember which direction my body angles off the wall at (left or right tilted downwards) but for some reason can't recall this. I do know that I take my first stroke wrong--you should probably use whatever arm is deeper, but I tend not to do so.
I wonder if anyone has scientifically studied swimming, handedness, etc. I guess it matters less in fly and breaststroke...
