bilateral breathing drills (Page 2)

yaqui - 2005-01-05 5:49 PM

Some drills:

Side kicking (ala TI) on your "weak side" (facing the direction that's difficult to breathe to) with down arm extended.
Side kicking with arms at your side.
Single arm swimming with non working arm extended.
Single arm swimming with non working arm at side.

Do each of them separately as drill progressions in a couple of workouts. Then do them as a drill/swim (one length drill, one length swim) sets. If you're really struggling try using fins the first few times. A pull bouy can also be useful to get comfortable, but it's important that you wean yourself off of the tools so they don't become a crutch.

Once you can breathe to the opposite side, start doing sets where you'll breathe one direction on one length, then the opposite on the next. The final step is to begin mixing in lengths of breathing every third.

Most people tend to lift their head when breathing to the "off-side" at first, which causes you to lose your body position, which results in a mouthful of water, which makes you nervous, which......makes you go back to what's comfortable.

Even most top swimmers don't bi-lateral breathe when racing. But being able to insures that you can breathe to the "clear side" (important in lake swims as well as ocean swims. i've seen some very choppy water in some lake swims); it will balance out your stroke in practice; and you'll develop another "gear".

scott