I was watching the duel in the pool USA v Australia and I have a question, Michael Phelps and many others seem to breath on only one side, I have heard many coaches advocate breathing on both sides for a more balanced stroke, Is it now just a preference or what? Just wondering.
My first masters coach pushed breathing on both sides, so now I can do better with it than I did at first, but I never am quite comfortable with it. However, as others have suggested, it does seem to be good for injury prevention. When I go too long breathing on one side, I find that my hip and shoulder start to feel tight, so I need to switch sides for balance.
But breathing to the left feels more natural to me.
Here's a question I've been curious about on this subject: often when I breathe to the nondominant side (for me, the right), I notice that more water leaks into my goggles when doing so than when I breathe on the comfortable side. I usually have to stop and adjust my goggles to make sure they're tight after even just a hundred or so yards of bilateral breathing. That is less noticable if breathing to the left side only. But I can't see why the goggles would take in more water on one side than the other--and why wouldn't this be the case for left side breathing?
My first masters coach pushed breathing on both sides, so now I can do better with it than I did at first, but I never am quite comfortable with it. However, as others have suggested, it does seem to be good for injury prevention. When I go too long breathing on one side, I find that my hip and shoulder start to feel tight, so I need to switch sides for balance.
But breathing to the left feels more natural to me.
Here's a question I've been curious about on this subject: often when I breathe to the nondominant side (for me, the right), I notice that more water leaks into my goggles when doing so than when I breathe on the comfortable side. I usually have to stop and adjust my goggles to make sure they're tight after even just a hundred or so yards of bilateral breathing. That is less noticable if breathing to the left side only. But I can't see why the goggles would take in more water on one side than the other--and why wouldn't this be the case for left side breathing?
