swimming - how much does breathing slow you down?

Not as much as NOT breathing, especially after about 2 minutes.

but seriously, if your breathing technique is proper, slowing should be minimal.

Edited by Kido 2010-01-04 10:41 AM

'xactly!

Breathing slows the stroke down, but I think you'll find that swimming all almost all technique and its starts to feel like the slower/smoother you stroke the faster you go in the water.  Also, the more effeicent you are at breathing the less tired you get.

Breathing every 2 strokes doesn't seem to slow Michael Phelps down too much. Seriously though, with proper breathing technique it should not slow you down at all.

I did an experimental set of 100's a few weeks ago and found that even sighting every 3 strokes I was hitting the wall within 1 second of the 100's I did breathing normally (every 2 strokes for me).

It depends on who you are.

Elite swimmers (e.g. Phelps & company) have mastered their stroke to the degree that their body position and stroke are not compromised by the act of turning the head to breathe. Thus, there is minimal impact from breathing on speed. So they can breath every 2 strokes or 3 strokes and it really doesn't matter much for them.

Casual swimmers (e.g. everybody else) have varying degrees of error introduced into their body position and/or stroke mechanics each time they turn their heads to breathe. If your technique is poor and your stroke suffers each time you breathe, then it will slow you down. So theoretically, if you breathe less often (e.g. every 3rd stroke) you could see some slight improvement in speed. But that really doesn't address the underlying problem - improper technique.

The solution is not necessarily bilateral breathing (every 3 strokes), but instead to focus on maintaining your body position and stroke technique each time you breathe.

Bilateral breathing does help some people improve their technique - in my own experience it helped balance my stroke and improve the efficiency of breathing - but it is not necessary. It is more important as an endurance athlete to develop a stroke that is as comfortable and efficient as possible.

If you keep your head "in the pocket" then it should have very minimal effect, though this is easier said than done.  What I mean by that is that you don't raise your head to breathe.  If you keep it down and turn, the top of your head should form a channel that allows you to breath in and still keep one eye in the water.  If your eyes come out of the water, your head is raising, thus your feet are sinking, thus you are becoming less of a torpedoe and more of an anchor. 
Or - as my daughter says - breath like popeye (out the side of your mouth.)

once i start racing/swimming near race pace i am breathing every stroke cycle. i cant really go that fast without it. breathing every other i can hold in the 1:15 range for 200m or so but after that, or anything faster and i cant do it.

In a 50m race, breathing 4 times rather than breathing 2 times would add maybe 0.3 seconds to your time. This effect would be minimized if you are not sprinting because there is less overall drag.