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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Personally, I breathe every stroke in butterfly EXCEPT for my break out strokes and finishes. It does not mess up my rythm, but infact actually helps me control my stroke and go faster. With that said, I have been doing butterfly this way for almost 15 years...
Personally, I breathe every stroke in butterfly EXCEPT for my break out strokes and finishes. It does not mess up my rythm, but infact actually helps me control my stroke and go faster. With that said, I have been doing butterfly this way for almost 15 years...