I've always tried to breathe every other stroke in fly, but watching the elites at Worlds breathe every stroke made me want to try it out. So recently I experimented with breathing every stroke in fly. Findings after a couple workouts where I averaged about 600 total yards of full-stroke fly:
Breathing every stroke has a negative impact on my body position
I can help that by kicking harder
The additional oxygen that I get from all the extra breathing helps fuel the harder kicking, but it seems like I'm working harder overall (higher perceived pulse rate at the end of each swim, but I didn't actually measure it)
Stroke counts and times are about the same
So I think I've found a useful drill to make me kick harder, but I doubt I'll be trying this in a race anytime soon. Has anyone else (who hasn't always swum fly this way) messed around with breathing every stroke in fly? What were your findings?
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I breathe every stroke. My kick is very weak to nonexistant. I am pretty buoyant though.
On entry, I leave my hands and head nearer the water surface but press the chest and air-filled lungs deeper so the hips rise. Elbows stay high. There is a rebound at just the right time in the stroke to take a nice big relaxed breath. Without this gentle body undulation I also can't recover the arms without dragging them through the water. I swim pretty flat since I don't have leg drive to support a big amplitude and that helps me focus on moving forward. Jutting the chin forward or lifting my head to breathe constricted my airway and made my neck tired, so I keep my head mostly inline in a relaxed position. Fly is a lot more fun if you get plenty of air.
I breathe every stroke. My kick is very weak to nonexistant. I am pretty buoyant though.
On entry, I leave my hands and head nearer the water surface but press the chest and air-filled lungs deeper so the hips rise. Elbows stay high. There is a rebound at just the right time in the stroke to take a nice big relaxed breath. Without this gentle body undulation I also can't recover the arms without dragging them through the water. I swim pretty flat since I don't have leg drive to support a big amplitude and that helps me focus on moving forward. Jutting the chin forward or lifting my head to breathe constricted my airway and made my neck tired, so I keep my head mostly inline in a relaxed position. Fly is a lot more fun if you get plenty of air.
