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?
Thanks Gary! From my 3-month experiment, I learned that I don't generate enough power to be faster breathing every stroke. It's not a big difference really, but I am indeed slower swimming that way. Since going back to breathing every other stroke, my practice and competition times have been faster.
Thanks Gary! From my 3-month experiment, I learned that I don't generate enough power to be faster breathing every stroke. It's not a big difference really, but I am indeed slower swimming that way. Since going back to breathing every other stroke, my practice and competition times have been faster.
