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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Former Member
he is wright!
depends on the person...
breath every stroke 2:30... 200 fly, 40-44Darn, bloooody fast. This is my target for next year, same age group. And even then, this is not a guaranteed winning time here up north in Quebec. 2:30 wasn't enough for Gold at our last State Championship LCM
However, for swimming the 200, I'd say that it doesn't depend that much on the person. Starting for a 200 breathing every other at 40yo, not sure if it can be a winning strategy for anyone.
he is wright!
depends on the person...
breath every stroke 2:30... 200 fly, 40-44Darn, bloooody fast. This is my target for next year, same age group. And even then, this is not a guaranteed winning time here up north in Quebec. 2:30 wasn't enough for Gold at our last State Championship LCM
However, for swimming the 200, I'd say that it doesn't depend that much on the person. Starting for a 200 breathing every other at 40yo, not sure if it can be a winning strategy for anyone.
