How do you breathe when you swim?

ephiemarie

I finally dragged my butt back into the pool today, and a gentlemen commented on the way I breathe. I always do one breath per 3 strokes, alternating sides. For me that's the pattern that comes naturally and doesn't require thought.

I'm not a strong swimmer by any means. I can do 400 yards in a pool at a not-too-embarrassing speed, but my endurance stinks. Anyhow, I know I could Google the "proper" way to coordinate breaths while swimming, but I'm just curious what works for all of you. The man at the pool this morning caught me off guard because I didn't think I was doing anything odd enough to be noticeable.

turkeytrotter

What you are doing is great, don't know what he was talking about!

Drudoo

You really should just establish a system that works, while making sure to breathe on each side. This will help if you are forced to swim in choppy water and have to be able to brethe away from the waves. It also helps with maintaining good form.

Personally, I breathe 2-2-3-2-2-3. In may seem excessive to some, but it's help me be a sub-hour Ironman swimmer.

jacksonpt

I agree that the only real "requirement" would be the ability to breath to both sides if forced to, and beyond that it's largely personal preference.

I breathe every time my left arm comes out of the water. That, paired with my rather poor technique, makes me a pretty inefficient swimmer... but I can swim just about forever.

scott091501

For me it all depends on which side the buoys are on and which side the waves are coming from in a race. I do however prefer to breathe to my right. I do breathe bilaterally in the pool, much like Drew.

aceink64

I breath every stroke

daj150

From one newbie to another, I started off with single-side breathing, then trying to increase the strokes between each breath. However, the first time I finally had to share a lane at the pool, I got to drink half the pool during the swim. After that, I switched to bi-lateral breathing (alternating sides). When I am in the pool by myself in a lane, I bilateral breathe. When I share a lane, I will bilateral and sight when the other person is coming, then stay breathing on 1 side until I pass. I use the same technique for races. For choppy OWS, I make sure to breathe to the opposite side of the waves / splash. Hope this helps. For bilateral, I am typically doing stroke-stroke-breathe, repeat. I have tried recently increasing strokes per breath.

ShawnTX

What that guy was talking about might be true for a competitive swimmer. If you were swimming a sprint, you might only breath every 6-8 strokes or more. As a triathlete, what you were doing is great. Even a lot of elites breathe every 3rd stroke for bilateral breathing. Some may do more, but there is nothing wrong with every 3rd stroke. A lot of people struggle to get it to that so, if you are starting off with that being comfortable, you are way ahead of the pack in that game.

I recently had a swim coach, not my swim coach, approach me at the pool and tell me I wasn't kicking fast enough. I advised her that my swimming was for triathlons and that triathletes typically don't kick as vigorously as they have to save their legs for the bike/run. She didn't care for that answer, but was clueless when it came to triathlons. I tried to explain to her that I could swim all out with my legs on a swim and it might gain me a couple of minutes, but that I would lose twice that afterward on the bike/run.

Swim coaches tend to think that swimming is life and that holding anything back in the swim is blasphemy. They don't understand that we have a lot more to gain from having an awesome bike/run than a swim. You can go blast it out on the swim and be dead for everything else. I just take with a grain of salt some of the advice the local pool "expert" gives me.

scott091501

Kicking in tris needs to be efficient, not necessarily strong. Kicking helps keep your legs at the surface and helps to keep your balance. You don't necessarily need to use it as a propulsive mechanism in tris.

EnduranceGirl2

I'm also a bilateral breather in the pool but generally breathe to my right during races. If I'm getting anxious and my form is breaking down, switching to a bilateral pattern helps. Drew's planned pattern sounds like it could work for me too - will need to try it.

ShawnTX

scott091501 wrote: »

Kicking in tris needs to be efficient, not necessarily strong. Kicking helps keep your legs at the surface and helps to keep your balance. You don't necessarily need to use it as a propulsive mechanism in tris.

Couldn't have said it better. Have never heard it quite so succinctly. I'm stealing that!

chunkytfg

From a symmetry point of view bilateral breathing is a great idea as just doing it to one side can make your stroke uneven which while not a massive issue in a pool(plenty of olympic swimmers do it) becomes a real problem out in the open water as you will naturally swim in circles without a black line to follow on the floor!

On top of that as has been mentioned being able to breath away from the chop is a nice tool to have.

marlt

I used to breath only to one side. This year I decided one of my off season goals is to tech myself to breath bilaterally. So far so good, I'm finding my stroke a lot more balanced. I'm a little slower but I'm hoping with practice that will improve. It is nice to have when your dealing with other swimmers and waves in the open water.

Codefox

In the pool it just depends on what I'm doing...sometimes its ever 2...sometimes 6 or 7. Once in the open water I try and breath so I'm not drinking waves or staring at the sun 8)

glevinso

I always breath bilaterally (every 3rd stroke) for any effort slower than LT. Once I am crossing LT I need more air and will breath every second stroke (same side every time).

You aren't doing anything wrong and in fact that breathing pattern is a GOOD THING!

derrickyoung

I am mouth full of water every third stroke and gasping for breath by the end. God my swimming sucks

mandster

Derrick - I started freestyle/front crawl in November and my swimming was like that - had to explain to the lifeguards that I did know how to swim and just ignore me if I looked like I was drowning! (Otherwise they paced alongside me looking nervous!)

Not drinking the water anymore and stroke much better but struggling with endurance. I'm finding that doing sets of 10 x 25m and alternating strokes (bs and fc) has helped my confidence and endurance. I rest for a minute and do another 2 sets of that. I was doing sets of 4 x 50's but feeling disheartened and wondering if I would EVER be able to swim 750m in a lake with no edge to hang onto every 25m! I'm going to gradually add more fc as I get better.

mandster

Drudoo - that tip was helpful. Might try alternating between 2 and 3 strokes to breathe. I've been doing bilateral every 3 strokes but find when I get tired I need to randomly do extra breaths. Good to know that you can do sub hour ironman with that rythm, thanks

Edwardshar

I breath through my mouth.

Djproulx

I"m a newbie swimmer who began bilateral breathing right at the start. One stupid little trick that I use to try to keep my cadence smooth and to be sure I don't hold my breath is to repeat "bubbles.... bubbles.....breathe," as I go, chanted in time with my strokes.

Of course as a newbie swimmer, I still count on my wetsuit to keep me from drowning during the OWS portion of a tri. Need to solve that this year, so I hired a swim coach to help me improve stroke mechanics and develop swim fitness. Fingers crossed.

3dogsrunning

ShawnTX wrote: »

What that guy was talking about might be true for a competitive swimmer. If you were swimming a sprint, you might only breath every 6-8 strokes or more. As a triathlete, what you were doing is great. Even a lot of elites breathe every 3rd stroke for bilateral breathing. Some may do more, but there is nothing wrong with every 3rd stroke. A lot of people struggle to get it to that so, if you are starting off with that being comfortable, you are way ahead of the pack in that game.

I recently had a swim coach, not my swim coach, approach me at the pool and tell me I wasn't kicking fast enough. I advised her that my swimming was for triathlons and that triathletes typically don't kick as vigorously as they have to save their legs for the bike/run. She didn't care for that answer, but was clueless when it came to triathlons. I tried to explain to her that I could swim all out with my legs on a swim and it might gain me a couple of minutes, but that I would lose twice that afterward on the bike/run.

Swim coaches tend to think that swimming is life and that holding anything back in the swim is blasphemy. They don't understand that we have a lot more to gain from having an awesome bike/run than a swim. You can go blast it out on the swim and be dead for everything else. I just take with a grain of salt some of the advice the local pool "expert" gives me.

I'm glad I finally opened this thread. A very good swimmer friend told me I breathe too much when I'm sprinting. He is a very good swimmer (holds quite a few provincial titles) but not a triathlete. I don't think I ever clued into the fact there may be a difference.
I can do every 5 breathes in the pool if taking it easy but usually do every 3, especially in open water.

solieco1

Do whatever feels right for you. I know many sub 1 hr ironman swimmers that do not bilateral breathe and many that breathe every 2nd stroke. If every 3rd feels right, do it. There are bigger dragons to slay. Rule 1: Politely ignore random advice from people at the pool, gym, transition area

Drudoo

What?!? I always get the 'best' advide in T1 and T2! Happy Monday Everyone!

KathleenKP

I grew up on a swim team, breathing on one side. I taught myself to bilateral breathe as an adult.

It's pretty shocking (in a good way) that most of the responses here are for bilateral breathing. If you go to the pool, most breathe on the right, some on the left, and very few bilateral. Swim coaches do a bilateral drill to practice breath control (breathe every 3-5-7). I always get to skip that one. (and do something else that makes me groan)

I breathe most often every 5th stroke, every 7th or more if I'm taking it slow and working on form. Every 3rd if I've been "all out" for more than a 100. I just breathe when I need air.

getfitrenee22

bilateral breathing is awesome! not only does it give you the flexibility to look either direction (and some confidence when sighting during triathlons) it also helps to balance out the use of shoulder muscles and keep the stroke more even.

holding every 3 or 5 strokes is good way to begin...for extended distance swimming, most elites find they need more oxygen to keep their legs fresh so they will do a 3/2 pattern...some still breathe every

as a swim coach, we teach our athletes from a young age to bilaterally breath. we also teach our athletes to use their core & legs to balance in the water...equally important for triathletes