To breathe or not to breathe:

If we are supposed to be, in the front crawl, always rolling from side to side, what are the advantages of not breathing every other stroke or breathing less and swimming straight? Or should we roll to the side even though not taking a breath? Or is is the fact that the moving of your head a little more to take the breath making more drag? I can see the not breathing an issue in fly because breathing breaks the natural porpoising of the body. The more I swim the fly without breathing the faster I go, so I have to dwell with that, but in freestyle what is the deal? Newbie questions again. billy fanstone I see some others have provided their advise on the subject since I first tried to reply to your message. I had some kind of technical difficulties posting my message earlier....but that was more than likely due to the network on my end and not the USMS site....anyway, I saved my original reply so I will just re-post it below....although it says more or less the same things as what globuggie says (with a few extra things sprinkled in perhaps): How much I breathe depends on the distance of the race IMO. I think you swim a little faster and your body position stays a bit straighter when you are not breathing.....Especially on butterfly....On freestyle, I usually can grab a quick breath without much head movement and so I'm not sure how much of a difference there really is between the speed I can swim freestyle without breathing vs the speed I can swim freestyle breathing every stroke (or every other stroke). I usually only breathe once or twice for a 50 (whether its freestyle or butterfly)....I've been told that a 50 is over quick enough that your body doesn't really have enough time to go into O2 debt?? I think its best to not breath when you breakout from a start or turn....I like grabbing a quick breath about a stroke or two before I go into a turn so that I have the air to stay underwater longer on the ensuing pushoff and streamlining (SDK's and such)....then I wait until I've completeing 1 or 2 stroke cylces after the breakout before I breathe again. In a 100 I breath a lot more (probably at least 2 or 3 breaths per 25)....and in a 200 I breathe even more (after the breakout I might even go into a breath every stroke mode until I am about 1 to 2 strokes from a turn again).....I like breathing to one side as opposed to breathing to both sides b/c I feel I can minimize my head movement better that way and keep my body position straighter.....but everyone is different in this regard. I think the head position thing is one of the crucial concerns about breathing b/c your head position is so connected to your entire body postion.....but since you're body is naturally rotating from side to side, I'm not sure why grabbing a quick breath interrupts the body postioning and general flow of the stroke that much in freestyle?? So I'm a little bit like you in this regards I suppose? Newmastersswimmer

If we are supposed to be, in the front crawl, always rolling from side to side, what are the advantages of not breathing every other stroke or breathing less and swimming straight? Or should we roll to the side even though not taking a breath? Or is is the fact that the moving of your head a little more to take the breath making more drag? I can see the not breathing an issue in fly because breathing breaks the natural porpoising of the body. The more I swim the fly without breathing the faster I go, so I have to dwell with that, but in freestyle what is the deal? Newbie questions again. billy fanstone I see some others have provided their advise on the subject since I first tried to reply to your message. I had some kind of technical difficulties posting my message earlier....but that was more than likely due to the network on my end and not the USMS site....anyway, I saved my original reply so I will just re-post it below....although it says more or less the same things as what globuggie says (with a few extra things sprinkled in perhaps): How much I breathe depends on the distance of the race IMO. I think you swim a little faster and your body position stays a bit straighter when you are not breathing.....Especially on butterfly....On freestyle, I usually can grab a quick breath without much head movement and so I'm not sure how much of a difference there really is between the speed I can swim freestyle without breathing vs the speed I can swim freestyle breathing every stroke (or every other stroke). I usually only breathe once or twice for a 50 (whether its freestyle or butterfly)....I've been told that a 50 is over quick enough that your body doesn't really have enough time to go into O2 debt?? I think its best to not breath when you breakout from a start or turn....I like grabbing a quick breath about a stroke or two before I go into a turn so that I have the air to stay underwater longer on the ensuing pushoff and streamlining (SDK's and such)....then I wait until I've completeing 1 or 2 stroke cylces after the breakout before I breathe again. In a 100 I breath a lot more (probably at least 2 or 3 breaths per 25)....and in a 200 I breathe even more (after the breakout I might even go into a breath every stroke mode until I am about 1 to 2 strokes from a turn again).....I like breathing to one side as opposed to breathing to both sides b/c I feel I can minimize my head movement better that way and keep my body position straighter.....but everyone is different in this regard. I think the head position thing is one of the crucial concerns about breathing b/c your head position is so connected to your entire body postion.....but since you're body is naturally rotating from side to side, I'm not sure why grabbing a quick breath interrupts the body postioning and general flow of the stroke that much in freestyle?? So I'm a little bit like you in this regards I suppose? Newmastersswimmer