Weak side breathing
 

I continue to struggle with weak side breathing. My mouth is probably 4 inches below water level on my weak side rotation. I could raise my head and reach to find air but I am trying to avoid this. It's been a focus for a long time but am not getting much results.

I've tried nod drill, I've concentrated on mirroring my strong side, skating ...

Anyone have any suggestions? Of course I'm looking for the magic bullet

How long have you been working on this? It has taken me about a year and a half to two years to get to the point where I feel a bit more comfortable! But I work on my own.

Perhaps if you could find a coach and have them watch you to see what you are doing wrong.

Or post a video.

You may be pushing your head down too much as you swim causing your head to be too far under the water ,you could be breathing too late or over rotating to the weak side as you go to breathe. So, relax the head and neck and try breathe early in the stroke as soon as you recovery hand enters and the other hand pulls back .

Dave

Can you roll to your interrupted breathing position on both sides?


Bob

Thanks for the replies. Perhaps my head is forced low, I'll check that out. And I'll focus on an early breath too.

I ride low on my weak side with interrupted breathing, okay on my strong side as I can rest / lean on my armpit, not sure that makes sense.

Thanks for your help.

The reason I asked is that the interrupted breathing position is far enough removed from whole stroke swimming that the muscle memories associated with your swimming stroke won't automatically kick in, which will give you a "clean slate" on which to engrain a new set of habits.

The first step is to try to become as comfortable in your interrupted breathing position on your weak side as you are on your strong side. Try to analyze what is different on the two sides and adjust your weak side to become more like your strong side.

The second step is to try to become equally comfortable rolling to your interrupted breathing position on both sides.

Regular breathing just consists of an aborted roll to your interrupted breathing position. Make sure you exhale underwater, then roll just far enough to take in a full breath, then abort the roll, turn your nose toward the bottom, and then continue.


Bob

Hi efdoucette,

I'll add another thing. I must disclose that I've lost touch with the newer TI terminology, and I don't know what an interrupted breath is. It's not the same as sweet spot breathing is it? Anyway, I'll just describe a drill that helped me:-

Go into head lead balance, arms moulded to front of thighs. You'll need a light flutter kick. Now rotate from side to side. That's hard enough. And then try to take a breath as well. I always breathe every side on this drill. It's a very revealing drill, you have no support from the arms, and no momentum to make a bow wave. Don't swallow too much water!

PS
Do you gym? Since incorporating some pretty hardcore core strength work to my routine, it's really, really helped my body position in the water. Lots of plank variations - look on YouTube for "hardest core exercises"...

Sweet spot breathing is referred to as interrupted breathing in some of the more recent TI materials. We used to start the freestyle training process by having swimmers learn sweet spot, but now we introduce it later as an alternative to taking a regular freestyle breath. And open water swimmers sometimes use it to pause, catch their breath, and rest a bit before proceeding.


Bob

Hi efdoucette,

Which side is your weak side?

Breathing to my right is my weak side. And I am right handed.

Any insight would be appreciated. Still can't figure out why my head rides low on my right side breath.

Thanks