Bilatteral breathing

I learned to breathe bilaterally by alternating unilateral breathing on the right and left (by length).  I'm now very comfortable with bilateral breathing, but still usually do unilateral breathing in triathlons (I seem to come out of the water less winded).  What's nice about practicing bad-side unilateral breathing is that in the open water, sometimes the only place to breathe is to the left (if there are waves coming from the right), and it's really nice to be at least capable of breathing to other side.

Yes you will feel slow. Don't worry about your times relative to your unilateral times in practice. As you improve your times will improve reflecting your improved stroke.

Part of the feeling of awkwardness and weirdness is that you haven't been doing it that way, but mostly is because you haven't mastered the skill. Keep working on it, a little bit more each week. Focus on you body position and elbow position during the recovery and catch phase of the stroke. Also during your warm up practice a long reach, with good body rotation. I almost glide momentarily. It makes me program my stroke. Many people do find the one arm drill helpful.

It is a difficult but important skill, and takes time. I remember when I first learned it I went through the same process. I also found myself resorting to my strong side when I was racing, but occasionally breathed to my weak side for a break. Now because of long standing shoulder problems, I have been working on it extensively and am almost at the point of switching back and forth without thinking.

When I did Alcatraz I breathed almost entirely to my weak side because of wind chop coming from my strong side.

Agree with several, one-armed-drill is the best way.  But when I started to try to get better at it, I had the same problem and it was because I was completely losing form when I tried to breathe left.  Make sure you check your form with your left arm breathing also.  Tuck chin to shoulder, good roll, breathe out before your mouth gets to the surface, etc. 

Now, I'm faster with the Breathe R, L, R, Breathe L, R, L, Breathe Right.  than with my 4-count right breathing only.

Gotta learn how to bilatteral so you can see if someone's on the left, to follow the shore if you're in the ocean, in-case some jerk is on your right and he keeps hugging-up too close to you.  There's a lot of reasons to learn to breathe on both sides.

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