You know, I'm 24, and even though that sounds relatively young, I'd pretty much written bilateral breathing off as something I'd probably not really grasp. I've been swimming for about 17-18 years now (I've lost track), so it gets harder to unlearn bad habits.
But after I swam the 1650 at a meet in April, I thought it might be a good idea to give bilateral breathing a try. I was as uncomfortable as I ever remember at first, but after about two months now, all of my freestyle is bilateral now, and I only backslide occassionally to my previous bad habits. Sure my stroke has gotten sloppier as a result, and I haven't really tested it with some good high intensity intervals, but those are short term issues I'll trade for the long term benefit.
My suggestion would be not to try to convert all at once. I'd start with short distances at a time in your workout--maybe 25 or 50. Then work your way up as you get more comfortable, say a 100 or 200 or 300 as part of your warmup. The key is not to expect a rapid or dramatic improvement at any one point. Even 6-12 months (or more) is a worthwhile amount of time.
The two issues that I've had issues with are not being able to rotate as far to my nondominant side and not getting enough air. For the former issue, I'd recommend doing something akin to a 3 second body roll--kick on one side for three seconds, take a stroke and roll over to your other side, and kick for three seconds. Good body rotation without having the move your neck makes it easier.
For not getting enough air, you want to make sure your mouth and nose get out far enough and you get a deep enough breath (which may be hard if you don't normally breath on that side).
~~~
I also noticed that some (don't know how many) swimmers breathed to one side at Trials. I think part of this issue is that many of these swimmers got used to breathing towards one side, and since that works for them, there's a greater risk of screwing up their stroke. (Whereas for a slowpoke like me, you can't get that much slower!).
In sprint races, when you may be taking X number of breaths per length, it may matter less that you breath to the same side. For longer races, I would think that there would be a greater incremental effect (more breaths, and more breaths per length). But that's just a hunch.
Patrick King
You know, I'm 24, and even though that sounds relatively young, I'd pretty much written bilateral breathing off as something I'd probably not really grasp. I've been swimming for about 17-18 years now (I've lost track), so it gets harder to unlearn bad habits.
But after I swam the 1650 at a meet in April, I thought it might be a good idea to give bilateral breathing a try. I was as uncomfortable as I ever remember at first, but after about two months now, all of my freestyle is bilateral now, and I only backslide occassionally to my previous bad habits. Sure my stroke has gotten sloppier as a result, and I haven't really tested it with some good high intensity intervals, but those are short term issues I'll trade for the long term benefit.
My suggestion would be not to try to convert all at once. I'd start with short distances at a time in your workout--maybe 25 or 50. Then work your way up as you get more comfortable, say a 100 or 200 or 300 as part of your warmup. The key is not to expect a rapid or dramatic improvement at any one point. Even 6-12 months (or more) is a worthwhile amount of time.
The two issues that I've had issues with are not being able to rotate as far to my nondominant side and not getting enough air. For the former issue, I'd recommend doing something akin to a 3 second body roll--kick on one side for three seconds, take a stroke and roll over to your other side, and kick for three seconds. Good body rotation without having the move your neck makes it easier.
For not getting enough air, you want to make sure your mouth and nose get out far enough and you get a deep enough breath (which may be hard if you don't normally breath on that side).
~~~
I also noticed that some (don't know how many) swimmers breathed to one side at Trials. I think part of this issue is that many of these swimmers got used to breathing towards one side, and since that works for them, there's a greater risk of screwing up their stroke. (Whereas for a slowpoke like me, you can't get that much slower!).
In sprint races, when you may be taking X number of breaths per length, it may matter less that you breath to the same side. For longer races, I would think that there would be a greater incremental effect (more breaths, and more breaths per length). But that's just a hunch.
Patrick King
