Breathing, It’s Not Overrated!
By Coach Doug Garcia
The most recent issue of Swimmer Magazine included an article about breathing, in particular about open water swimming and bilateral breathing. You’ll hear a wide variety of opinions from coaches about breathing patterns, but all coaches agree it all depends on the event in which you’re swimming. Let’s break it down.
Open Water and Distance Events
Learning to bilateral breathe for open water events is critical, mainly due to the conditions. The day the sun is in your eyes, or the waves are hitting you in the face because that’s the side you breathe on, is the day you wish you had learned to bilateral breathe.
Learning to bilateral breathe can assist you in navigation. Some of you might think, what does that have to do with breathing? I see it in our pool every so often where a swimmer breathes only to one side, and veers in that direction. In a swimming pool with lane lines you can easily correct the navigation error. In an open water situation, the correction is not so easy. I’ve seen a few open water swimmers veer as much as a quarter-mile off course because they breathed only to one side. One trick to see if you veer off-course is to swim a 25 with your eyes closed. You should know how many strokes you take from wall to wall, so try to swim to the other end without hitting the lane line. If you make it, you’re doing good in terms of your symmetry, and probably pretty decent when it comes to open water navigation.
Oxygen is good, and I am not suggesting that you bilateral breathe or breathe every third stroke to limit the amount of oxygen intake. In endurance events such as biking, hiking, running, or rowing, your body can get oxygen anytime it wants. Swimming should be the same way. I like that bilateral breathing gets the body into a more symmetrical position. Many of you have heard me say, your body and hips should be like the pendulum on a clock, they should rotate equally to both sides. If you can swim only breathing to one side but your body stays symmetrical, you’re doing well(remember the navigation test noted above).
Sprint Events
Sprint events are dramatically different from open water and distance events. Most shorter events (1000 yards and less), are in a pool and as such, navigation isn’t an issue. Keeping your body symmetrical is still critical to be an efficient swimmer. The shorter the event, planning your breathing pattern becomes more critical. I am willing to bet that every Olympic swimmer can tell you how many breaths they take per 50 of their events. Yes, in the shorter events, holding your breath longer to avoid breaking your pace is a good thing. However, I have seen swimmers hold their breath so long that when they finally took a breath they almost came to a stop, which is counter-productive. Sprint events mean a bigger kick, and using those big leg muscles more forcefully burn up a lot of oxygen. There is a fine line between holding your breath and getting the oxygen your body needs to perform.
As you can see, breathing during swimming is more than just taking in a breath. Navigation, speed, and symmetry all contribute to the breathing equation. Your comfort level with the amount of oxygen you need is the ultimate determining factor.