Up-to-date freestyle turn technique for left-breathers

This is my first post on this Forum. I have been a master swimmer competitively active at the national level most years since my national debut meets in 1987. I presently compete in the 50-54 age group. I would like to know if there is any consensus on this forum as to the best way a left-breathing freestyle swimmer can execute the most current flip turn technique. I am on a quest to improve my flip turn technique. Earlier this year I took some lessons on turns from my personal coach. I also read with great interest Beth Baker's article on turn technique in the July-August 2008 USMS SWIMMER. The technique illustrated in this article was exactly what my coach instructed me to do. I also watched carefully the turn technique of the freestyle swimmers in the 2008 Olympics and the 2008 U.S. Trials, and concluded they too, including Michael Phelps, do the turn technique my coach instructed. The problem is that if I do the freestyle turn exactly as my coach prescribes (and I can do the motions), I finish the turn excessively taxed physically, because this technique keeps me underwater and without breathing longer. At my present abilibty level, I can't repeatedly do this turn in a hard set or a distance event. My normal flip turn technique has been to push off the wall with my body in a side position; once on my stomach I take the first stroke with my right hand and breathe at the end of the first left-hand stroke that follows. Instead, with the up-to-date turn, you are supposed to push off on your back and rotate 180 degrees in a streamlined position as you are coming off the wall. Once I am on my stomach, my coach told me that I am to take the first stroke with the left hand. Therefore I do not end up breathing until I take the next stroke with the left hand. When I eventually take a breath, I see that I am farther past the flags than with any other turn technique, but I am really tired! Now, most of the great US Olympic swimmers whose turn technique I observed, including Michael Phelps, breathe to the right. My obsevations on Michael Phelps's turns is that once he takes his first stroke with the left hand, he then takes a breath when he strokes with his right hand. Since the right side is not my natural breathing side, it would be awkward for me to take a breath on the right in this manner, and the end result is that a right-breating swimmer would come out of this turn taking a breath a half a cycle sooner than I end up doing executing the turn as my coach prescribed. This is an advantage for the right-breathing swimmer. Now, my questions is, considering that I am not Michael Phelps and never will be, and that I breathe to the left and need to breathe frequently to effectively swim a long distance event, is there a way I execute the modern turn technique so I reap the advantages of it without getting winded? Should I take the first stroke with the right arm instead? (I have tried this, but I get the feeling this significantly reduces the effectiveness of the technique.) Any thoughts? Thanks! Fred Munson