WHITEFACE TURNS 50 - Adirondack Sports & Fitness

4 Adirondack Sports & Fitness
SWIMMING
BILATERAL BREATHING
From: Donal Fagan
Date: January 29, 2008 11:40am
Last week, while I was doing the 5 x 50
freestyle, I happened to switch between
“breathe alternate sides” and “25 breathe
left, 25 breathe right.” Though I swam with
the same effort, breathe alternate sides was
always a few seconds faster.
From: Grant Hall
Date: January 29, 2008 12:07pm
This is still true for me as well. My conclusion
has been that I have still not completely
mastered a perfectly executed, seamless
breath.
From: Richard Skerrett
Date: January 29, 2008 12:23pm
In my limited experience, I would say
that while breathing alternate sides is highly
benefi cial, breathing to one side on odd
lengths and the other side on even lengths
may be even better. Further, although I
haven’t established it with certainty I think
that I swim better breathing to the “wrong”
side. Perhaps not faster yet, but with a more
effi cient stroke. I must do some timed tests
to compare them.
From: Donal Fagan
Date: January 29, 2008 1:26pm
I did some timed 500s a few years ago.
Even though I feel better breathing left,
or alternating breathing side by 25, I was
fastest breathing exclusively to the right. I
never timed alternate breathing for a full
500, though. I’ve only managed that once
or twice.
From: Terry Laughlin
Date: January 29, 2008 10:49pm
This is an excellent series of observations
on the different choices one has for breathing
bilaterally. My introduction to bilateral
breathing came after I had “retired” from
competitive swimming at age 21 to begin
coaching.
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On my fi rst practice as a coach, I noticed
that nearly my entire team of 15 college
men had lopsided strokes. The left-breathers
swung wider on recovery on the left side
and the right-hand stroke crossed the centerline.
The right-breathers did the opposite.
After pondering what I’d seen that evening,
I decided to experiment with “wrong side
breathing” the next day.
The next day I instructed the team to
breathe on their less natural side throughout
our 800-yard warm-up. Instantly nearly
everyone was far more symmetrical in their
stroking. Being a new coach, I wasn’t exactly
sure why or what the effect of that might
be, but I was pretty sure that “practicing
symmetry” would be good for their swimming.
Thirty-fi ve years later, I’m also pretty
sure that most probably felt awkward and
swam slower during that warm-up though
they looked better. From that day I became
a believer in bilateral breathing during practice
though I didn’t insist on it during races.
I was still swimming a bit myself at
that time (I didn’t resume regular training
for another 17 years) and I began breathing
alternate sides. Breathing to the right
felt awkward, but I kept at it. For the next
25 years my bilateral breathing was mostly
alternate sides – every 3, 5 or 7 strokes.
As I approached my 50th birthday, I
became dissatisfi ed with the fact that my
right-hand catch never felt as good as my left.
I understood why. For my fi rst ten years of
swimming, a period when I gave little thought
to technique, I’d developed many bad habits.
Several – poor alignment and “collapsing
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by Terry Laughlin
catch” on my right side – were related to my
being a left-breather. My other side had never
developed bad habits so it was “virgin.”
In my late 40s I decided to breathe mostly
to my right for a year or two, to somewhat
compensate for breathing exclusively left for
my fi rst 10 years as a swimmer. It was challenging
at fi rst, because it felt unnatural.
Breathing alternate sides, even for 20-plus
years, had not exposed me to the sense of
full-time awkwardness one gets from breathing
hundreds of times in a row to one’s less
natural side. But my alignment and catch on
both sides were unquestionably better when
I breathed only to the right.
Consequently I had immediate, measurable
gains in effi ciency, taking one less
stroke-per-length in 25-yard pools and two
to three less in 50-meter pools. I didn’t time
myself too much in the beginning, but I was
probably a bit slower.
I was comfortable with what I was sure
would be a temporary sacrifi ce in speed,
because concentrated right-breathing
seemed the only way to reeducate my right
hand to an effective catch. Which is precisely
what occurred – my right hand is still not
quite as “patient” as my left, but it’s dramatically
better than before.
I take an estimated half-million freestyle
strokes a year. A quarter-million of those
strokes – all those I take with my right hand
– feel markedly more effective now than
eight years ago because I spent a year or two
breathing mainly to my right, followed over
the past six years, taking a roughly equal
number of breaths to each side.
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This year I’ve resumed breathing more
often to the left, my original side. Why?
Because I’m still unquestionably faster when I
breathe left, but after so many years of “remedial”
breathing I’m now a much more effi cient
swimmer whichever side I breathe on.
Try These Exercises in “Examined”
Bilateral Breathing
� Swim three rounds of “4 x 50” freestyle. Rest
for fi ve or more deep, slow “cleansing” breaths
between 50s – or choose an interval that
allows at least 15 seconds recovery between
50s. Rest for a minute between rounds.
� In each round, swim one 50 of each: breathe
to your left for the entire 50; breathe to your
right for the entire 50; breathe to your left for
25 and your right for 25; and breathe bilaterally
(every three strokes) for the entire 50.
� On the fi rst round just count strokes for
each 50. On the second round, time yourself
for each 50. On the third round, calculate
your Swim Golf score for each 50 (add
strokes + time in seconds).
Are you more effi cient (fewer strokes) with
one breathing pattern than others? Are you
faster with one breathing pattern than others?
Are you more effective (lower golf score) with
one breathing pattern than others?
Terry Laughlin (totalimmersion.net) is head
coach and founder of Total Immersion
Swimming in New Paltz. This article is
excerpted from his next book, O2 in H2O:
A Guide to Better Breathing Skills, a
companion to Total Immersion’s latest DVD,
O2 in H2O: How to Breathe (Better and
Easier Than Ever) While Swimming.
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