How do you breath (freestyle)?

If you want to learn bilateral breathing, just make yourself do it on every length. At first it will feel ridiculous but within a week you will be able to do it. Same goes, by the way, if you want to learn to use a computer mouse with the "wrong" hand. In workout I breathe every third arm. I think it's better for rotation and balance, and for even strain on my shoulders. In OW races, wind and waves permitting, I try to stick to every third arm, or to the "Kate Ziegler" pattern (two on one side, then two on the other). Breathing evenly to both sides keeps me going on a straighter course. In pool races I also use the 2-2-3-2-2-3 pattern more or less, although sometimes I take more than two breaths in a row on the same side. Depends on how stressed I feel for air, and who I want to see.

I find that breathing (left) every cycle (2 strokes) helps maintain a steady rhythm, whereas breathing every other cycle wouldn't. Why do I find that breathing every cycle does not alter my rhythm? I am a roller, i.e., I don't keep my shoulders on the same horizontal level but rotate the torso, therefore I don't even have to lift my head to breathe and I don't have to roll my head from the neck more than an absolute minimum to breathe in the trough created by my head.

If you want to learn bilateral breathing, just make yourself do it on every length. At first it will feel ridiculous but within a week you will be able to do it. Yeah, that's what I'm hoping to be the case :D Jim and inflictfreedom, you can't possibly breath "every stroke" if you only breath on the left side. It's every 2 strokes isn't it? By the way, do you folks actually feel a lot of buoy when breathing more frequently (=having more air in your lungs)? Sometimes I seem to feel so.

I continued practicing bilateral today but as soon as I started water entered sinus while left-breathing (the bad side) which caused bad headache :( (anyone had the experience?). It happened again later on. Must be incorrect head position while breathing on the "bad" side. On the other hand, got a tiny bit more used to bilateral.

One of the advantages to being a beginning swimmer is the total lack of a history breathing one way or the other. I've finally started convincing myself to keep my face underwater and finding breathing always on the right very similar to breathing every three strokes. Of course, my left side is still not as strong, so I don't get as much air on that said, but I'm hoping that issue goes away with time.

I breathe on my right side every 2 strokes. I feel stronger and more in a rhythm this way. I even do this in sprints. I know this is detrimental to my times because breathing takes time and the more you breathe the more you lose, in long sets I don't feel so bad breathing every 2 strokes but in short sets I do feel bad because I shouldn't. I just feel like I need the oxygen. It is almost like an addiction I tell myself before ever practice that today I will work on breathing ever 3 strokes, and everytime I find an excuse not to and tell myself I will do it next time. I can feel in my neck that I should switch sides every so often.

swim25 or whoever else trying to adapt to bilateral every 3 strokes, when you do get success please share experience. I'm trying now every time I swim, but my nose couldn't completely get out of water--and worse, the nasal openings faced up, so always during the very first lap water entered the sinus and by the time I finshed the first lap I got sinus headache (somewhere inside head behind eyes). I think I didn't rotate enough to the "bad" side. :(

swim25 or whoever else trying to adapt to bilateral every 3 strokes, when you do get success please share experience. I'm trying now every time I swim, but my nose couldn't completely get out of water--and worse, the nasal openings faced up, so always during the very first lap water entered the sinus and by the time I finshed the first lap I got sinus headache (somewhere inside head behind eyes). I think I didn't rotate enough to the "bad" side. :( I don't know if this will help or not. I'm a one-side breather (left). I occasionally try to breathe to my right. Rather than doing it in a full stroke, I'll do it while drilling with a one-arm only motion (the right arm); this makes me breathe to my right (or not at all.......Umph.):oldman::notworking:

Just want to report that I have made a little progress on the bilateral practice. I can do bilateral breathing without getting sinus headache now, but still don't get enough air from left breathing and the movement is awkward. Still, happy to be on the way to join the bilateral camp and hopefully I'll become more balanced :D

I wonder in what year or decade the bilateral breathing was instituted? I breathe to the left (which would be everyone's side unless you are left handed) as that was the way I learned. I can turn my head to the right if I want to, but to take a breath will cause me to sink and will break my rhythm. We all favor one side as that is the way we were made. I wonder if the 100 free meter sprinter who is taking one or two breaths is switching sides? We can't change the fixed idea that we breathe because we need oxygen or "air", but we really breathe because our bodies build up C02 in our blood stream and that is what primarily drives us to breathe, to get rid of the carbon dioxide, and thus keep our "buffering" systems working. Notice that as you swim faster or after some time you need to breathe more often, that is a consequence of the C02 buildup. At a cellular level the oxygen for a sprint is spent pretty fast, but there is enough circulating in your blood to keep you going. The fact is that when breathing you also breathe in oxygen, but if you didn't breathe you could go on swimming longer, if not for the trigger mechanisms that rely on C02 for its trigger (hummm). There is some percentage of oxygen participation in breathing drive, but too complicated to be discussed here. There are also experiences where breathing pure oxygen before taking a long dive will make you go longer, but that is empyrical and not quite understood. I am still trying to figure out why you can do a few sets of 25s without breathing but progressively it gets more difficult...got to read more...billy fanstone