Learning bilateral breathing for swimming

My efforts in triathlon training are basically focusing on the swim right now. That's exactly where it shouldn't be, by the way. My annual plan is to focus on run and bike in the winter and maintain my swim. Well, starting on this master's swim team has completely changed everything.

I now swim for an hour three times a week (Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday), and it's kicking my butt, kind of. But I'm also finally learning how to breathe to my right side. For twenty..actually thirty... years, I breathed solely to the left.  Ms Keller...you failed me 30 years ago when you didn't force me to breathe to both sides! But you were then at 6am every day, so thank you for that!

Anyway, the process for learning to breathe to both sides is coming along a bit faster than I expected. It's coming along nicely, but it's not at all easy.

Below are a few comments and tips for people who want to learn to bilateral breathe on the swim. Set aside about two months to learn to breathe bilaterally (alternating sides).

1. Start now! The sooner you start, the better. It's hard to break thirty years of muscle memory.

2. Expect to slow down significantly while you learn. If you're doing 100's on 1:50, expect to do them on 2:10 or so for a bit because you will struggle in ways you never thought possible. You'll lose your streamlining and any efficiencies you have. You'll be sucking for air, which will break down your endurance.

3. Take it slow and concentrate on streamlining, head position, shoulder rotation, and arm extension at the top of the stroke.

4. One drill the coach is having me do is breathe to one wall only. Effectively, I'm then breathing to one side for 25 yards, then another side for 25 yards. That is a good starter drill. Pretty soon, you'll want to move to always breathing on the "new" side so you can get used to that and get your muscles in shape for the new actions they take.

5.  Remember to exhale in the water. The timing of the breath is so very important, and you don't have time to keep your head sticking out of the water sucking air. Breathe out while your face is in the water. Breathe in quickly with your face to the side and out of the water.

6. You'll find that you tire very quickly when breathing solely to the new side. Use your pull-buoy when you get tired so you can force yourself to learn good form. It's hard to learn good form when you're tired and weak. In fact, it's not a bad idea to just concentrate on form and totally forget about speed until you build up strength and endurance for those actions required to breathe to the new side.

Here's a quick sample of progression for those who might try to learn this on their own:

First week: Breathe to one wall only, thus alternating which side you breathe to for entire length of the pool. Focus on good form over speed. Expect to tire much more quickly than normal. Use the pull buoy when you get tired, and consider using it the entire time you are doing freestyle.

Second week: Breath to your new side almost exclusively. Start with no pull bouy and then use it whenever you need it (error on the side of sooner rather than later). Expect to be out of breath the entire time; focus on your streamlining and breathing.

Third week: Go back to nearly 100% use of pull-bouy, and assuming you are grasping onto some good form, start adding thoughts about speed and strength of stroke. Focus on extension of the arms at the top of the stroke, shoulder rotation, and breathing.

Fourth week: Alternate use of pull-bouy and no pull-bouy while maintaining the same focus areas of the week prior.

Fifth week: Still alternating us and no-use of pull-bouy and assuming your strength and endurance has built up, start alternating the breathing sides with two strokes in the middle. You will now be almost back to step one or two and sucking for air like never before. Why? Because you aren't breathing every stroke, and you're basically getting about half the oxygen you are used to getting! Prepare to slow down again because you can't get enough air to keep going. Focus on good form, streamlining, rotation, and breathing.

Sixth week: You might be ready to swim entirely with no pull-buoy while alternating breathing sides. Your body is stronger with more endurance for breathing to both sides.

Good luck with your training!