Is Breathing after every 3 strokes on diff sides help you go faster?

Bah. I breathe almost exclusively to my right and have never had neck problems. I think everyone should learn to bilaterally breathe and do it in practice on occasion, but during a race you should breathe however is most comfortable to you. Personally I breathe every cycle on anything over 100 yards. you're telling me that you never breathe to the left even in practice? well if that is the case, you have to admit that you are the exception rather than the rule; I had noticeable neck issues at 11, and some of my friends got them a couple years later. i forget which book it is, perhaps swimming fastest, but studies show that breathing only to one side throughout training leads to a muscle imbalance of up to 10%. it has nothing to do w/ poor technique, although that may make it worse, in the end it is best to practice on both. geez, you can't even make a suggestion on here that seems like common sense for most swimmers without people jumping on you with "well i don't need to do that" well congratulations, but that's not the point here. is it a good suggestion for jonathon to breathe only on his right from now on? no, ok thank you.

My 2 cents--Bilateral breathe in workout; helps with balance and avoids shoulder pain (at least for me). Race--breathing to right (or whatever side is comfortable). I know I get more hypoxic (or at least feel like it) when breathing every 3rd in a race. Also, I swear I saw Dara Torres breathe nearly every stroke (actually every 2) in the 100 in some previous Olympics several years back.

Bi lateral breathing is good for balance and I have done it in practice. When I race I do not breathe on both sides. Also when I race I do not wear goggles. I only race 50s and 100s so I do not do much breathing. In a fiifty maybe 2 breaths, in a hundred, maybe 8 breaths. I am a left side breather, I occasionaly breathe on the right side to look at other swimmers. I am presently down in weight and will be in shape to race in January. Got timed for a 100 yards yesterday in a twenty yard pool, all open pull-up turns. I am having trouble with my flip turns, I guess it is that I have trouble tucking, the new knees (2 years old) still give me problems. 1:05 for the 100 yards. Way to go George! :banana: Haven't seen you around here much lately or maybe I have just missed your postings. Are you left handed then? What makes a left side breather? It would be interesting to have a poll on this one: how many favour the left side for breathing and how many favour the right. I would think the right side would be the clear favourite but I may be wrong. I have been practicing bilateral breathing for barely 10 days now but already it has gotten much easier. My biggest problem has been concentrating on not lifting my head when breathing to my left. I have to keep reminding myself to roll from the hip. It just comes naturally on the right but requires immense concentration on the left. i forget which book it is, perhaps swimming fastest, but studies show that breathing only to one side throughout training leads to a muscle imbalance of up to 10%. This is an interesting comment and certainly rings true for me. The whole right side of my body is more developed than my left side. To a certain extent, I think this is natural with right handers and vice versa but if bilateral breathing can help me even out this imbalance then that is good enough reason alone to do it. At the moment, if I were to race, I would certainly only breathe to my right side. I just am not comfortable enough with bilateral breathing. It is going to take weeks, if not months to get used to it. But there have been some immediate benefits from switching to bilateral in training: it helps me to keep my left elbow high (my left elbow drops when I breathe to the right) and it is training me to take fewer breaths. (At first I felt horribly out of breath but that is getting better). Hopefully it can also go some way in helping out in the right/left body strength imbalance issue, too. Syd

Bi lateral breathing is good for balance and I have done it in practice. When I race I do not breathe on both sides. Also when I race I do not wear goggles. I only race 50s and 100s so I do not do much breathing. In a fiifty maybe 2 breaths, in a hundred, maybe 8 breaths. I am a left side breather, I occasionaly breathe on the right side to look at other swimmers. I am presently down in weight and will be in shape to race in January. Got timed for a 100 yards yesterday in a twenty yard pool, all open pull-up turns. I am having trouble with my flip turns, I guess it is that I have trouble tucking, the new knees (2 years old) still give me problems. 1:05 for the 100 yards.

Are you left handed then? What makes a left side breather? It would be interesting to have a poll on this one: how many favour the left side for breathing and how many favour the right. I would think the right side would be the clear favourite but I may be wrong. Syd I am right-handed and breathe on my left. It just came naturally to me. I find it more natural (for me) to swim with my right side down. I will sometimes do the SFK (where F=Flutter as opposed to SDK) on my side (right-side down). It feels faster to me than my regular chest-down SFK but I've not had it timed. When you look at fish, they will mostly have a narrower silhouette when looked at from above than from the side.

Some good advice here. For a 50 SCM Free I would go one breath down and 2 back. (Or less, if possible, but that is my limit at the moment). You absolutely have to train yourself to take fewer breaths. For me it is quite simple: the fewer breaths I take, the faster I go. Remember to keep your head down. An early catch, hugely strong pull, powerful kick and perfect streamline are all equally important. The alternate breathing is going to help you so don't give up on it yet. It is going to help you balance your stroke out. Also ( and this might be its greatest benefit) if you usually breathe every second stroke like I do, it is going to train you to hold your breath. I have only started alternate breathing every third stroke recently and already I can feel the difference. At first it destroys your rhythm and you feel out of breath very soon. Persevere. Remember it will take at least 3 weeks before you can develop a new habit. After three weeks report back and tell us how it has gone. I can almost guarantee it will have positive benefits. Another way to train yourself to take fewer breaths is do 10 x 25m fast no breathers at the end of practice. Don't give in to the urge to breathe. Syd Thanks syd i have a meet today and i am going to try doing 1 breath to and 2 back see if my time will improove and ill post here after 3 weeks of practicing doing alot of 200s on both sides breath every 3 strokes

.... after 3 weeks of practicing doing alot of 200s on both sides breath every 3 strokes J0nath0n3, In practice you also might try swimming some of your 200s like this: 1st 50 - breathe every 3 strokes next 50 - breathe every 5 strokes next 50 - breathe every 7 strokes last 50 - breathe every 3 strokes

you're telling me that you never breathe to the left even in practice? well if that is the case, you have to admit that you are the exception rather than the rule; I had noticeable neck issues at 11, and some of my friends got them a couple years later.. Been breathing on my right for 30 years .. no problems.

Syd - I write left handed but do everything else right handed. My strongest arm is the right arm. I have always been a left side breather. I've heard before that your off-arm (i.e. left arm for right-handers) is usually stronger. This is because you use your dominant arm for fine motor tasks and the other arm is then relegated to more of the "heavy lifting" activities. Not really sure if this is true, but it makes some sense. Anyway, I'm left-handed and breathe predominantly to my right.

I breathe about 60% of the time on my left, my right arm is a little stronger (I'm left-handed). I try to breathe every 3rd stroke on longer races but sometimes will do every 2 breaths out of turns, then switch to 3. I also have some habits, my first stroke out of a turn is my right and my first breath is on the left, but I'm trying to get out of the habit of breathing immediately out of a turn, because it slows you down a little bit and on longer races, 0.1 second per turn can add up. One advantage of being able to breathe on either side is you can take a breath right before your turn. Although I have another habit here, my last breath before a turn is usually on my left.