Swim Question: training breathing vs race breathing??

It will help you to breathe every stroke. Your training friend was correct in that is gives your body more oxygen. I breathe every stroke on my left side and have done so for 37 years of swimming. Most elite swimmers breathe every stroke as well.

Bilateral breathing can be more balanced and I actually teach kids to breathe bilaterally, especially for practice. It may help prevent some overuse injuries as well. I've had my share of shoulder tendonitis in the past. I can't say it was from breathing every stroke as I had tendonitis in both shoulders.

If you're more comfortable breathing every stroke then I would breathe every stroke when you train and race. Oxygen is your friend in endurance sports.

I breathe bilaterally in training and unilaterally during races.  Being able to breathe on either side is important in the event that race conditions (chop, sun, etc) prevent you from breathing on your 'strong' side.  It's also like an oxygen bonus breathing more frequently during a race, though with the faster pace/adrenaline of racing, that might not be the case.

Wow, after swimming today I told myself to post on this very subject - and what do you know? I too struggle to maintain the bilateral 'every third stroke' for a long period of time. Cadmus, you make a great point. I plan to stick with it during my training, but during the race - adapt to conditions and be capable of both.  

x2.

In training, I breathe when it's convenient, based on the workout...so there's value in bilateral...with one exception...during intervals or hard sets, when I'm pushing, I breathe only right, to simulate race conditions, because your stroke changes based on where you breathe...it just does. I get a cadence and pull that's different in the one-side stroke....it's more like stroke-stroke-glide than stroke-glide-stroke-glide.

But in races, right side only, on every stroke. It institutionalizes the different cadence and pull, but it's faster. I'm chalking it up to more air, but let the debate begin.  

Breathing bilateral is very important in open water swim, especially when it is choppy , if you breath in both sides you can watch the ocean for a bit and figure out which side you would be breathing in the first leg of the swim and than alternate in the way back, avoiding some salt water intake , which can upset your stomach and make you stop.

It's not the answer you are looking for , but i thought i would share what i learned the other day. 

If one is breathing bilaterally during a race for sighting purposes, don't.  You get more oxygen breathing every other stroke, and, you'd be surprised how little extra distance you swim when you go off course.  Sighting is really overrated.

Say you swim 500m, and you end up 50m off course.  Then you swim another 500m, and come back in line at the end of the 500m.  Think of a really long isosceles triangle with the middle point being the midpoint of your swim.  50m off course!  That's a pretty big error.  Know how much you'll actually swim?  1005 meters.  5 extra meters.  That's a difference of what?  1 or 2 seconds?  Seems wrong, but do the math and see for yourself.

This is why I say sighting is overrated.  If you do ocean swims, like another poster said, bilateral can be very valuable.  But if you are doing it for sighting, you're wasting your time IMHO. 

I try to work on bilateral breathing just in case I need it in a race but generally breath to one side.  Really the only advantage to being able to bi lateral breath is that if you need to breath on the opposite side for some reason during the race (someone next to your normal breathing side, sighting, etc.). 

It can't hurt to work on bilateral breathing but watch the pros in a race and they breath to one side for a reason.

I mostly swim breathing bilaterally.  But on occaision, I'll breathe every other stroke to the same side.  But what I've found is most important is to switch it every length of the pool.  One length breathing to the right, one length breathing to the left.  An easy way to remember this is to simply always be breathing to the same side of the pool no matter which direction you're going.  Breathing to one side is OK if an individual's body needs the O2 intake.  Just don't become unbalanced by always breathing to one side.

Oh and BTW...  I usually train with bilateral breathing, but race breathing every other stroke to a single side.  The adreniline, the faster pace, the "washing machine effect" - I find I need more air.  So I'll go for 20 strokes breathing to one side and then switch it to the other side.  This allows me to stay balanced, keep myself sighted, goign straight and keep an eye on the competition.