Swimming Help Needed

You might check out this website, it has a ton of great information. http://www.swimsmooth.com/

Yes, breathing on both sides is a bit wierd at first, but it actually has a lot of benefits (like less shoulder injury, keeping your stroke straighter, etc.) I was like you and learned to breath on one side. It took a month or so but eventually I have gotten used to breathing on both sides and it almost feels natural now.

HI JULIE!
I coach swimming and I am a swimmer myself =] These are my suggestions!

1) STRETCHING I do both, stretching increases strength and allows your muscles to receive more blood flow.
2) HEAD do what feels natural, its like snowboarding or long jumping you have a dominate foot, this is a similar situation, do what is most comfortable to you. This can also help form a pattern and help you focus more on your body as a whole.
3) LAKE VS POOL The lake is going to be much harder simply because you have nature working against your body as a whole. The lake will have movement against you. If I am swimming in a pool i always push myself a little harder than if I were to be in a lake simply because you will be working 60% harder while swimming in the lake. Weights in the swimming pool can give you the lake simulation, LIGHT WEIGHTS!!! =] you can get pool weights (for shallow water) or resistance floats.
4) TIPS its ok to rest while you swim, its called treading water. Keeps you moving but allows you to catch your breath. While swimming focus on your body as a whole, don't separate legs and arms =]

Hope this helps! Good Luck!

I swim all the time, both out on the ocean and lane swimming in the pool.

(1) I definitely warm up before swimming, or otherwise I can sometimes cramp up. If I don't bike to where ever I'm swimming as my warm up, I usually splash around and doggie paddle a bit, or do some water dumbbell exercises and a couple of slow kick board laps. About 10min of warm up is fine.

(2) It doesn't matter which side you breathe on. Though it's handy for open water swimming to be able to breath on both sides - you want to be able to breathe on the opposite side the wind is blowing so that you don't get a face full of waves

(3) For open water you're going to have to work harder getting your head out of he water to breathe as the waves can really build up. If it's too choppy, I swim with my head out of water completely or use my kickboard and do mostly leg work. You can also get those combo snorkle/goggles that have a breathing tube that goes straight up your face so you can face forward while swimming freestyle, but I find those uncomfortable and difficult to swim with. Also, there will be lots of currents you won't find in a pool, so you'll be working a lot harder to keep your form correct and your body properly aligned against those forces - a much better all over body workout! Works the core muscles a lot more.

General tips:

* Use nose clips, especially in open water! Breathing water is no fun.
* Get the new goggle masks instead of regular goggles, they are far more comfy and worth the premium price tag.
* I like to swim with some tunes - you can get waterproof MP3 players, but I find they usually suck. You're better off with a MP3 player water proof bag and headphones like a DryPak or Waterseals. I've been using them for a couple years and they are great!

Freestyle tips:

* Make sure your elbow is slightly bent or you may wind up with swimmer's elbow (like tennis elbow except on the upper part of the elbow).
* On the down stroke, when your arm is about halfway thru the stroke, move your lower arm in an "S" shaped motion to help build up speed.
* On the up stroke, make sure you are leading with your hand into the water, not slapping down your forearm. (I see soooo many people do this)
* On the up stroke, don't windmill your arm out of the water - it should be an over arm crawling motion, with your forearm more or less parallel to the water's surface and your hand point down as your leading 'scoop' back into the water.
* Keep your stomach and lower back firm to keep your body angled correctly in the water - don't let your belly sag down or you'll give yourself lower back and hip pain!
* Practice your form one half at a time - use a kickboard so you can concentrate on holding your lower body correctly and kicking from the hips properly without using your arms, and use floats between your thighs to keep your lower body up while you concentrate on your upper body form and positioning.

Hope those help!

EDITED to add form practice advice.

I've been teaching swimming for just over 5 years now and coaching jr squad/swim for fit stuff for just over 3 years now (as context) Previously did some low level squad stuff as well.

1) current literature around stretching for any exercise is that you don't need to, however dynamic stretching can be a good part of a warm up. Its m ore important to warm up properly than stretch, ie. as previously stated slow laps etc.

2) bi-lateral breathing is a good skill if you plan on swimming longer distances, it also reduced the risk of injury as previously stated. for the longer distances, while you aren't supposed to, when people get tired they tend to lean on there arm to breath and this can cause blood pooling etc, which feels like getting a dead arm/corkie occasionally

3) not sure about this one I've only really worked/swam in pool situations - there would be different safety concerns, so I'd check out what they are in whatever body of water you wanted to swim in.

4) It's good to do things like work on both, techniquie (drills, kick, pull) as well as whole strokes. Also mixing up sprints, distance and lactic-building distances speeds can make it fun and burn lots of calories. Also mixing up the strokes you swim (assuming you know at least 3) can be good and work different muscles.

a good structure that I and other coaches I know use is roughly
warm up - slow swimming, can be drills or whole stroke for about 5-15minutes
drills - kicking, pull, breath control, etc (can find heaps on the net on different sites) 10 - 20 minutes
main set - either a longer distance slower 30 - 40 minutes or some shorter high rep, fast/lactic sets for 2 x 10 - 20
** occasionally throwing in 2 -5 minutes of sprints here
cool down - 5+ minutes of slow swimming (try use a different stroke to what was in the main set ie M/S bk, C/D free etc.)
then you can stretch at the end if you want

This goes for about 60-90minutes, however you could shorten/lengthen bits etc.

Oh and two more things...

1. If you like your boobs both being the same size i would definatley learn to breathe on both sides.

2. Eat bananas! Cramps Suck<- Just sayin'