Learning Bilateral Breathing

^^^^^me 2^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

It took me 2 weeks of at least 4-5 swims/week to get somewhat comfortable with it.  I did use a pull buoy the 1st week.  I was having neck/shoulder pain in my left side.  I've always had bursitis in that shoulder and only breathing to the right was apparently causing some strain.  Now, it feels pretty natural.  I've been swimming this way since July.

jami 

Not a surprise - you're getting 33% less air.

Hahaha, yeah. Teaching my body it doesn't need as much air is hard!

Swim slow (cool-down & war-up) and breathe on both sides (focus on breathing out under water)

side kick drill, you automatically breathe on both sides (25 kick on left, 25 kick on right, etc.)

The pull buoy is a good tool as someone said.  Also just need to practice it as the others said.

But in MY opinion, just get proficient at it.  No need to become perfect at it or have it feel just as normal.  I learned it to have a tool in the bag in case I needed it.

I still swim breathing from my right side 95% of the time.  The only time I may switch to the left is if I'm forced to.  IE, waves from the right, another swimmer on the right, the sun in my eyes from the right.

I work with someone that coaches ultra swimmers (all OWS) and he has the same theory.  Good to know it if you need it, but you don't need to be an expert at it.

Doing pull sets with a pullbuoy or fins--the extra buoyancy seems to make it easier to breathe on the don-dominant side, and the buoy allows you to concentrate more on rotation and breathing without having to put it all together yet. Also, there's a drill (we call it 6-beat-breathe) where you extend one arm and leave the other by your side. Take six kicks, then breathe to the side of the non-extended arm, take a stroke, then switch sides. Follow this with some actual swimming where you try to breathe bilaterally. 

That being said, I really mastered bilateral breathing when I messed up my elbow last fall and couldn't fully extend it without a lot of discomfort for several weeks. I was allowed to swim as long as I didn't do anything that hurt, as the drs. could never quite decide if I had a hairline fracture or just messed-up ligaments. You can't really breathe without normal extension on the opposite arm (it throws rhythm totally off), so I was able to do freestyle only breathing on my non-dominant side, with fins. After about two months of that, once I was able to swim normally again, I forced myself to do bilateral breathing instead of breathing only to the right, so as not to overload the injury, and it now seems totally natural. (Before I had always breathed to the right with a 2-2-4 pattern; swam competitively as a kid and teen with it.) Short of breaking your arm, maybe one-arm swim drills could mimic this effect?

Wow, thanks for all the replies.  I have been using a pull bouy and have also been swallowing gallons of pool water, so I am glad I am not alone.  Ill keep at it.  Thanks for all the suggestions.

That will be about as effective as teaching your body it doesn't need food or water.   ;-)

X2...dead on.

If you need more air, practice all left on the way down and all right on the way back.  It doesn't have to be every three or 5 or 7 strokes.

Start with a few drills to get comfortable breathing to either side:

On the deck: Warm up, turn your head and keep shoulders fixed, look to the left, look to the right, get some flexibility. That should show you if you are actually restricted in your neck.

One arm drills: Going down keep left arm stretched and stroke with right, breathe to the right, going back switch side.

Two arm drills: Breathe every 2, going down breathe to the right, going back to the left

Bilateral: Count 1-2-breathe