Crawl stroke breathing

yes it does help in Pool Swimming, it keeps you straight and makes you relax more, it also ensures
that the body position is correct due to rolling from right to left to breathe.

The thing is that it's all very well but when you need to navigate in a open water swim this is
difficult to maintain due to having to keep looking up to see where your'e going!

"Bernard" <bernard> wrote in message "]news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

I am used to breath on one side every stroke. He said that I had to breath every 3 strokes, left
and right side.

Is this right, and will it bring extra speed with it, or other advantages.

It will probably not bring any extra speed (with one exception) and could possibly slow you down as
breathing less often will limit the amount of oxygen you can intake, however in most cases cross
breathing will get you more than sufficient air.

The only possible speed boost you would get from it is that, as someone else pointed out, it can
make it easier to stay a strait line. Less zigzagging means less distance traveled which would
indirectly make you faster.

All that being said, it is really not hard to learn to cross breath. Just go to the pool and force
yourself to do it. When I did, within 10 laps I no longer had to work at it and by the end of one
session it was completely natural.

James

"Bernard" <bernard> wrote in message news:<[email hidden]>...

Quoted message said:

Hi,

Yesterday I was talking to a swimtrainer that had seen me swimming.

I am used to breath on one side every stroke. He said that I had to breath every 3 strokes, left
and right side.

Is this right, and will it bring extra speed with it, or other advantages. Will I find soon a good
pace with this new technique, or will I slow down my endurance training?

Ho knows?

Bernard

There's mixed advantages\disadvantages to this. The big advantages are that it can help sighting,
and can make one's stroke more even. This is something that is easier to learn when you are less
experienced.

Now, if you're looking to do this in order to help you speed up, I probably wouldn't count on it.
Unless you have a stroke that is really uneven, it's not a speed thing. Many coaches simply tell
swimmers to do this, period - it is a better way to learn, especially in the open water. However,
there are disadvantages too. My biggest complaint is that you get to breathe 50% less. With
switching sides, you breathe every third stroke vs every other one - this can cause you to get a lot
less O2, and if you get fatigued, try to grab too much air at the surface and then REALLY throw off
your stroke!

My take on it is this - it's a good thing to learn in practice, especially if you are a more novice
swimmer. If you're an old pro, it might actually throw a monkeywrench in things, but for 90% of the
people out there, it's not a bad thing to learn. Another good thing - if you are adept at breathing
on either side, it will allow you to switch if the water conditions require it.

That said, I would NOT try to swim a race breathing every 3rd stroke. IMHO you simply need the extra
O2 you would get from "normal" breathing.

"topdog" <[email hidden]> wrote in message

Quoted message said:

Now, if you're looking to do this in order to help you speed up, I probably wouldn't count on it.

I think it will improve speed. It is easier to stay streamlined when you are breathing less -
chances are your head and shoulders are creating drag - this will reduce if you change to breathing
every 3 or 4 strokes.

Quoted message said:

My biggest complaint is that you get to breathe 50% less. With switching sides, you breathe every
third stroke vs every other one - this can cause you to get a lot less O2, and if you get
fatigued, try to grab too much air at the surface and then REALLY throw off your stroke!

This should not be a problem. Even if you are triathlon sprinting (and even more so on longer
distances) then you need to learn to maximise your oxygen intake from less breathing. Otherwise you
will come out of the pool panting.

Incidentally, a Russian professor Buteyko demonstrated that overbreathing causes exercise induced
asthma. Although not accepted by all Doctors in the UK there is a lot of evidence that breathing
less helps asthma.

[email hidden] (Cow Parsley Man) wrote in
:"]news:[email hidden]:

Quoted message said:

yes it does help in Pool Swimming, it keeps you straight and makes you relax more, it also ensures
that the body position is correct due to rolling from right to left to breathe.

The thing is that it's all very well but when you need to navigate in a open water swim this is
difficult to maintain due to having to keep looking up to see where your'e going!

However, when the surf is hitting you in the face on the only side you know how to breathe on,
you'll appreciate the advantage of being comfortable breathing to both sides. I'm not sure I
understand your second point, as breathing to only one side doesn't make "looking up" any easier.

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

My biggest complaint is that you get to breathe 50% less. With switching sides, you breathe
every third stroke vs every other one - this can cause you to get a lot less O2, and if you get
fatigued, try to grab too much air at the surface and then REALLY throw off your stroke!

This should not be a problem. Even if you are triathlon sprinting (and even more so on longer
distances) then you need to learn to maximise your oxygen intake from less breathing. Otherwise
you will come out of the pool panting.

Incidentally, a Russian professor Buteyko demonstrated that overbreathing causes exercise induced
asthma. Although not accepted by all Doctors in the UK there is a lot of evidence that breathing
less helps asthma.

Ideally, yes, it's great if you can do more work with less O2 required. The better shape that one is
in, the more that this will occur. That said, I wouldn't want to be trying to conserve much in a
race situation. The last thing that you want to do is to go into oxygen deprivation.

The important thing for a race is to be comfortable, and to maintain a smooth stroke. Part of the
problem with swimming is that you can't simply breathe as much and as often as you'd like - you have
to grab a quick breath and keep moving until the next stroke. Once you start to feel really winded,
there's a tendency to try and grab TOO much air, to keep your head up too long, which then makes
your stroke uneven and choppy, which in turn makes you work even harder (and feel more tired). Most
people racing simply NEED the air you get breathing every other stroke - I know that I do, and the
1500m was one of my main events in college. The bottom line is that, when racing, do what you are
comfortable with. Keep your stroke long and smooth, and make sure you don't go anaerobic with two
legs ahead!

Tom Henderson <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:<[email hidden]>...

Quoted message said:

[email hidden] (Cow Parsley Man) wrote in
:"]news:[email hidden]:

Quoted message said:

yes it does help in Pool Swimming, it keeps you straight and makes you relax more, it also
ensures that the body position is correct due to rolling from right to left to breathe.

The thing is that it's all very well but when you need to navigate in a open water swim this is
difficult to maintain due to having to keep looking up to see where your'e going!

However, when the surf is hitting you in the face on the only side you know how to breathe on,
you'll appreciate the advantage of being comfortable breathing to both sides. I'm not sure I
understand your second point, as breathing to only one side doesn't make "looking up" any easier.

One drill that can REALLY help with sighting is what we refer to as "Tarzan swimming". (Ever notice
how Tarzan swam with his head above water?) All too often, I see people STOP and look up when they
are trying to sight. Needless to say, this is slow, and can cause some problems with collisions.
Now, you can practice swimming some distance with your head above water, a la Tarzan. This way, you
can get used to doing this, and then when you need to sight in a race, you can continue swimming
while you stick your head above the water for a stroke or two. (It's also a good stroke drill for
teaching you how to ride higher in the water.)

This all makes me a lot smarter, I will see what I do, but can not bring up so much effort to change
my style I think now ;-)