Swim - Breath

Depends.  If I'm hauling, I need a breath on every other stroke (every time I lift my right arm).

If I'm in cruise mode, it's every fourth stroke (every OTHER time I lift my right arm).

If I'm in between, I do one of two things.  Take a breath on the 4th stroke, then the second, then the 4th, and so on.  It's sort on an odd pattern, but seems to work for me.  OR, I breath on every 3 stroke (right and breath, left, right, left and breath, right, left, right and breath) and so on..

The only thing that matters is that you are getting sufficient air (or expelling sufficient CO2).  2, 3, whatever works for you.

That said, sometimes better to train on 3, or even 5 on occasion, but I generally train and race on 2

You must look hilarious in the water.....have you ever kinked your neck or died from inhaling water? or are you just really good at it?

What Chris said.

I train and race on 2.  When in the pool, I always breathe to the same side of the pool.  So I'm on the right on one length, then coming back I'm on the left.  It's important to be able to breathe from both sides for a few reasons:

1.  To be able to use a shoreline for sighting

2.  Direction of the waves

3.  The ability to get air when you need it

The ability to breathe every three strokes constantly is nice, but being comfortable breathing to either side whenever you need to is what's really important.

Chris...as I respect your opinion a lot...I swam a 1500M in  a crowded lane (got smacked in the head, floaters, doggy-paddlers, swam underneath someone) in 31:38 in a 25m pool, and I breathe every time I take a right stroke....do I need a coach?  I want to break 10:00 per 500m, and the closest I've come so far is 10:05.

Not Chris, but what helped me lower my times were

1.  Swimming more.  More times per week and longer sessions

2.  Drills to nail down form

3.  Speeeeeeed work.  One of my roughest swims had a 20x50 sprint set in it.  Then there's the ever popular 12x100 set.  Ugh.

What Sesh said ( I LOVE that avatar......)

I focused on 1 and 3, I do some drills during warmup, but not much.  

Coach?  I think maybe a coach for one or two sessions, but a much better option if you have it available is a masters class.  You'll be pushed like never before, and you can work your way up the ranks and join a faster lane for certain sets to challenge yourself.   SOunds like you swim at a Y?  is there a class there?

And speed is IMHO very important.  More specifically, consistent speed over a set.  If you can do that 12 x 100 on a fairly fast interval and hold each 100 within a couple seconds at a challenging pace, you'll see improvements.  We just did a 16 x 100 set on a pretty fast interval for me and I consider it a benchmark set against which all future sets will be measured.  Over the last few years (swimming speed comes slowly.....) I've gone from 1:40 100 intervals to 1:20

I guess I'm counting strokes incorrectly.  I breath every time I my right arm comes out of the water, which I'm learning is every 2 strokes.  Sometimes I alternate to every time my left arm comes out of the water to try to not overuse the one side but I'm not as good on that side.  This is why I love this forum...I learn something every time I log on!

I've been training every two with 4 or 6 thrown in when I feel like it.  I sometimes blow out my air and simulate missing a breath so I can get used to that too.  I've recently learned that getting used to hypoxia is a very good thing.

I absolutely plan to race breathing every second stroke.  You never know when you're going to get a wave in the face when you're looking for air and I'm not waiting 6 or 8 strokes for my next breath.

I suck at breathing. I actually don't really understand why , although I'm definitely new to swimming. My form isn't terrible (14-15 strokes/25m), but I pretty much need a breath every other stroke to keep going at a reasonable clip. It's strange, because aerobically, I'm fairly strong (18:00 5k), and my arms NEVER get tired at my enduro swim pace, but I just need to keep on sucking for air. Will keep working on it.

Every 2 strokes for me, but I train on both sides just in case I am forced to breath on my other side.  I find every 3rd stroke to be just a tad bit too long of an exhale for me so I went with 2 and it has worked out great.  Like most people here, don't go with what we do, go with what your body is most comfortable with and become more efficient.

X2, I would die if I could not breath every stroke.

Efficient breathing=more efficiency

2,3,4,5 and so on is perfectly ok.  The ability to do all, even if just for a short time is excellent.  I also fail to see how breathing makes you wiggle or creates more drag.  If that's the case, you are breathing wrong.

Because they don't have to, especially in an anaerobic event.  Besides, what does the breathing pattern of a 50 yard sprint have to do with triathlon swimming?  There is not a triathlete on this planet that swims a half mile at the speed of college level sprinter.  If three strokes is "correct" then there are a ton of elite triathletes doing it wrong.  In fact, there were some swimmers doing the 800m in the Olympics doing it wrong.  If there is a "slow down" with breathing in the water, it is completely negligible at distance.  Maybe at the sprint speed it matters, but not at distance.

But yeah, you'll be an overall better swimmer if you strive for three or four stroke breathing.  Then when you get to that point, you start trying to go faster, until you get to the point where you have to breathe every two again.  Then you try to increase your oxygen efficiency to the point where you can go three or four again.  Then you try and go faster... and so on.  When it's time to race, you do what's comfortable for yourself and what gets you out of the water the fastest and most efficiently.  For the majority of triathletes it's two strokes.  Doesn't mean that applies to everyone, that's just the largest sample.