Bilateral Breathing

Instead of breathing every three strokes right off the bat try breathing every two strokes on your strong side and throw in the occasional three strokes with a breath on your weak side and then go back to your strong side.  As you feel more comfortable with it you can throw it in more often until you get to the point where breathing every three won't effect your form.

Also while you're practicing this don't worry about speed but be more concerned about technique and form.

Good luck

The 'throw in a breath on the other side every so often' doesn't do it for me, but maybe it'll work for you.

I'm going to throw out a different strategy:  spend some time making yourself breathe to your 'weak' side on every breath.  After all, that's how you learned to breathe to your current 'strong' side, right?  Just make yourself do it.  You won't drown.

x2 one arm drills have helped my breathing a lot! 

X2

I would swim 50 breathing on my weak side followed by 50 on my strong side. I would also alternate breathing every 2 and 4 strokes.

Once you are comfortable breathing on your weak side I would start breathing every 3rd. You know you have it mastered when you can't remember which side is your weak side.

I do a breath every 2 strokes. One length is right side, the opposite length is left side.  I try to do a breath every 3 strokes and I just wind up out of breath for some reason. Plus this helps keep the sun out of my eyes if I face away from it!

But, doing my method, I was comfortably bilateral within 4 swim sessions. 

How long have you been working on this?  There's not a real 'trick' to getting it. Rather, it's just practice.  As suggested, trying to breath consistently to your weak side will help you get the hang of it, but that's still just a version of repetition.

For me, I did years of swim team only ever breathing to my left. It took me about a month of trying before I was really comfortable doing bilateral. Now it comes naturally, and in fact I like the option of a breath every 3, instead of only choosing between 2 or 4.

You know what you have to do.  You're just not willing to admit it.

For now, don't breathe bilaterally.  Only breathe from one side...  THE "BAD SIDE"!  If you feel more comfortable breathing to one side than the other, then you have to practice and force out the bad habits and bad balance on the other.  Work on it.  And only work on it with perfect form.  You may not even be able to do a single complete length, but you have to hammer it down right.  Do you side-balance drills from the "bad side".  Once you feel just as comfortable breathing from the "bad side" as you do the "good side", then we'll talk about bilateral breathing.

Good luck!

Bi lateral breathing is completely unnecessary.  Phelps doesn't do it.  Breathe how you feel most comfortable as long as you have proper technique.  The obsession with learning blb will take away from more positive gains you can make via technique improvements.

What about when there are 2 foot breakers coming in from your right side for 80% of the swim? I think bl breathing is totally necessary for a triathlete.  Phelps...maybe not.

I agree wiith aquageek that you don't need bilateral breathing in a triathlon and, I believe, maybe wrongly, that if are able to go bilateral versus one side, that you are not going hard enough. But, being able to breathe on either side is a real plus. (I should follow my own advice).

But that's where you are wrong.  Phelps can get away with breathing to one side because he is balanced on both sides.  Blb helps to improve your balance on both sides.  Most beginner swimmers find it hard to balance on one side let alone both sides.  If you don't have balance in the water in doesn't matter what your technique looks like you're still going to struggle with the stroke.

Bi-lateral is not necessarily something you do during the race.  It gives you the option of breathing to whichever side conditions make more desirable.  Nor is it all that hard to learn.  Doesn't require 'obsession'.  Just a little practice.

Phelps doesn't do it, because he's in a pool, and there's no advantage to it in a pool race.

There are many advantages to doing it in an OWS race.  Besides sloclyde's example, the sun could be glaring off the water on one side, or there could be someone swimming on one side close to you who splashes like crazy.  I also switch sides many times throughout races to keep track of where I am by looking at different landmarks to reduce how often I need to sight.  No, it's not necessary, but it's not without benefits either.

Greyg8r, what connection does breathing bilaterally have to do with how hard you are going?

Hey great question.

I was a collegiate national level swimmer in the 1650 and 500 freestyle.  Personally I don't bilateral breath when I swim, but I am able to as needed.  As someone mentioned before hand it's more about your ability to get a balanced stroke.  Still it's a nice skill to have in Triathlon since swimming is a contact sport

That being said, if you want to work on bilateral breathing I suggest using a pull buoy in the early stages.  Using a buoy will reduce the need for oxygen and let you focus on your breathing.

With a pull buoy I can comfortably breath every 5 or even 7 strokes in workouts.  Without one 3 is much more comfortable.  As you increase effort you will increase the need for oxygen so I for training purposes I would work toward a 2-2-3-2-2-3 pattern to increase your ability to breath on both sides.

I wish you the best and may you turn into a fish =)

-jason

Maybe I should have said that you never need to bilateral breath but you should have the ability to breathe to either side, if needed in certain conditions.  However, I have yet to blb in any tri or OW race and I place #1 or #2 in my swims.   This is where triathletes come off the rail, a focus on some technique they think they need.  That's fine if you want to focus on blb, but you will do so at the expense of your kick, your walls, your head position, your straight line, etc. 

Oh, and ditch the toys (pull buoy/fins/paddles), another cardinal sin of the tri swimmer.  Those are devices used by expert swimmers to supplement, not a crutch.

That's a good point about people focusing on something that they think they need, but is really just a complementary skill that should be farther down on the priority list of skills to develop.  I agree about all the toys too.  They should only be used in moderation for specific purposes.

So from what I can understand, the basic idea is to breathe to the bad side, until it's no longer the "bad side" then just breathe whenever, or whatever is convenient depending on the race so you don't get clocked in the face with someone's arm or foot?

  In lakes I find the wind can whip up these little waves that can force me to hydrate more that I would like. Be able to bilateral breathe allows me to avoid that on windy days by just breathing on the  lee side.

Correct.

When I am going hard, I have to breathe every stroke and will run out of air if I try to go bilateral.

Wait a second ... what is bilateral breathing? Is it:

1. Breathe on right, breathe on left, breathe on right, etc. This requires that you go 1.5 strokes between breaths.

2. The ability to go breathe on right or left so that you can breathe on every stroke?

I thought it was number 1.

Edited by greyg8r 2010-06-14 8:28 PM

1. Stroke= either the left or right arm making a pull

2. Stroke cycle- the left and right both making one pull

I found that I was trying to gulp in to much air when trying to bilateral breathe, Once I found out that taking in all that air only made me want to expel sooner thus breathe faster! AHA, Now I try to take in a regular breath, weird it almost feels like a nice easy run pace now and I feel better coming out of the water!