Strokes per breath

I think mostly, it depends on your personal stroke technique. I know for a fact that when I breathe on every right stroke, for the way that *I* swim, my times are faster, and also feel like I swim stronger.

Having said that, I DON'T swim like that when I train, and only sometimes like that when I race (only as a last ditch effort when I am feeling breathless or am trying to speed it up). The only reason why I don't swim breathing with every stroke is due to my unbalanced and imperfect stroke technique - my left shoulder begins to get sore with time. So I've conceeded to bilateral breathing every 3rd stroke to save my left shoulder, but I give up time.

One way you can gauge your efficiency is to do what is called swim golf:

Warmed up, but rested, time how long it takes you to swim a 50, (at a moderate effort, not necessarily all-out sprint or slow endurance pace). While you are swimming, you also have to count how many strokes you take.

Add up the time in seconds to the number of strokes you take. (Ex: 45 seconds and 42 strokes = 87)

Calculate your swim golf breathing every 3 or 4 strokes, or every stroke. Whichever method ends up giving you the SMALLER number is YOUR most efficient way to swim!

Swim golf? I have enough problems with GOLF golf!

I, too, breathe on every right stroke. I've tried to breathe on alternate sides, and only end up with a lungful of water. I'll work on that AFTER my tri. I do know that I typically have about 16-20 strokes per 25y. I've been working on turning from the hips, and not the waist, and I can see a big difference in my swimming because of that. Better endurance, heart doesn't race like it did. Keeping my head down (looking almost straight down, instead of slightly ahead) also has helped, keeps my legs higher, although it feels like I'm swimming down to the bottom of the pool.

I've noticed one other thing watching these swimmers; on average, I can swim 50y in about 50 seconds. If I really push, I can do it in about 45 (but I'm dying after that!) These guys are faster, but I'm thinking that my form isn't quite as bad as I thought, if I'm not that far behind after only 6 months of training. Yeah, I'm reaching, but it makes me feel better about my swimming! ;-)

Edited by joeinco 2004-08-16 9:45 PM