I have been a right side breather for over 50 years. Last year, I tried for a full year to breathe on the left but encountered a lot of problems and I am a patient person when learning something new/different.
Here are the problems:When I breathe on the left: I get a headache quickly; also, I get extremely dizzy, and finally, I start seeing spots optically. I also don't swim straight which I am famous for doing and that is because my non-breathing arm is probably traveling to the left.
I can breathe on the left for about 10 to 20 strokes before these problems start occurring. Today, after I came home from swim training, I started thinking about why all this is. The one thing I did do was, as I was sitting, was I turned my head to the right and my chin goes beyond my shoulder. I tried this to the left and it wasn't even close to my shoulder. So now I am thinking that muscles/tendons in my neck are not lengthened and flexible when turning it to the left thereby the problems I may be encountering when I try to breathe to the left.
So, if anyone has any ideas, or knows of any exercises I could implement to get my neck to turn to the left, let me know. I truly don't think that swimming 19 miles breathing only to the right is the way to go; it may even cause me to abort the swim.
Breathing to the left is almost impossible because once my vision starts to go, I get nauseaous. Ideas?
Donna
Former Member
My effort to bilateral breathe began in earnest when I started coaching. I think it is the best way to develop the most symmetrical stroke.
On long swims (>mile) I find it useful to breathe ten right: ten left. During each cycle of 20 breaths, focus on one very specific part of your body (chin position in relation to shoulder, head tilt, right hand entry position, left hand entry position, etc.) Start on your comfort side and maintain the same focus through the 10 breaths on your developing side.
Although I am very comfortable breathing both sides in all kinds of training conditions, I still return to my comfort side when racing (almost exclusively).
You're definately not alone in this. I've been working on it too, primarily because my strokes feel uneven from side to side, and I think breathing to both sides equally might help me get things balanced out.
If I start out trying to breathe to my awkward side, I get panicky, dizzy and nauseous. I find that if I work up to a full stroke through drills, I do much better both breathing to my awkward side and bilaterally. I do the following drills. I start with kick set laying on my weak side, lower arm extended with my head neutral (mostly under water). Turning my head up to grab a breath feels much more natural. Then I do an exaggerated catch-up drill, breathing every stroke on both sides. Then I'll swim just breathing to my awkward side. And finally I'll do a set breathing bilaterally. I guess I'm taking away the stroke to start, and then adding it back in bit by bit. I feel more in control and by the end, breathing to my weak side seems a little more natural.
I have no idea what swimming drills in an ocean is like (I'm trying to image trying to get comfortable this way with waves breaking around me :eek:), but this has helped me in the pool.
My aim is to even out my strokes
I´ve given up. It is too late to learn something new. My head doesn´t turn enough to the right and I also mess up my forearm push when trying to breathe on that side. What I do is rotate as if I were going to breathe on the right side, faking it, but not opening my mouth or trying to really breathe. I just look to the right but continue breathing always on the left. The rotating move of the body to the right side is a learned process, doesn´t come naturally but I am learning to make it more and more automatic. I swim distances without having any problems in the neck or shoulder area. When first coming back into the swimming year, or after a two or more week break in training, I get numb hands when swimming longer than 400 meters. However that goes away pretty soon, and it is the brachial plexus being stretched as I reach long with my arms. Nothing to do with my head or neck or shoulders. Take care, billy fanstone
I'm feeling relieved that even accomplished swimmers such as yourself reports troubles with the bilateral breathing. I feel like I don't get any air breathing on the L side and feel like a non-swimmer despite decades of competitive experience. My turnover rate is very slow and if I try to breathe every 3 I feel distressed. One thing I can say is that when I am pulling with paddles and pull-buoy I don't have nearly as much trouble seizing up on the "wrong" side. I don't know if having my L shoulder surgically reconstructed in 1987 had anything to do with it. Bottom line is that coach yells a lot at me for not breathing both sides and it really conflicts with my "enjoyment of swimming".
Bilateral breathing why worry. I have done it, I use it when teaching, if you have trouble swim a couple of lengths then revert to breathing on one side. It is a great stroke balancer but I never used it in a race except to occasionally glance at the swimmers on my right side. I breathe on the left side.
I have seen a lot of triathletes who use bilateral breathing but I like my air every 2nd stroke not every three strokes.
Peter, feel free to harp on it, it is a valid consideration. Barb, if a coach yelled at me it would be his last yell. Negative/fear management is not productive. A coach can pull me aside and talk to me about his viewpoints, but hollering at me will get him in hot water from ME.
The ocean was unswimmable today, the seas were only about 8 feet but the undertow was horrific. I swam for 12 minutes and went about 2 yards only. Had to "tack" to get back in, so did not work on left side breathing; it was out of the question!!!!
Donna
The ocean was unswimmable today, the seas were only about 8 feet but the undertow was horrific. I swam for 12 minutes and went about 2 yards only. Had to "tack" to get back in, so did not work on left side breathing; it was out of the question!!!!
Donna
Poor Donna...just think of the endurance you're building fighting those swells though!
