UNILATERAL BREATHING

IN SWIMMING

SUBMITTED BY:
JOHN BENEDICT VOCALES

SUBMITTED TO:
HENSON BANAYLO
Unilateral breathing

Unilateral breathing is great for speed over a short to middle distance. If you
greatly favor one side and struggle on the other pick your most effective side and
master it.

Benefits of Unilateral front crawl breathing pattern:

Reduced head movement

Increased efficiency and speed

Maximised oxygen uptake from breathing to most effective side

Breathing unilaterally usually means every other stroke and so every time your lef
(or right, but always the same one) arm comes out of the water, you breathe.
Other forms of unilateral breathing - on the same side but afer two stroke cycles
or three cycles - do not have as many problems.

In good freestyle swimming, the head only moves when you breathe. At the same
time, your whole body is twisting from side to side as you swim. Your lef hand
goes into the water and your lef shoulder sinks and the right shoulder comes out
making the right arm recovery - hand going from hip to overhead- easier. The right
hand goes in and the right shoulder sinks and the lef shoulder rises. It is not just
the shoulders either; the hips also twist and your toes point a little to the side.
Everything moves but your head until it is time to breathe.

Unilateral breathing is good for certain events, bilateral is good for some other,
where reducing the no of breaths is needed. It is a tradeoff between time wasted
to breath, versus the oxygen that comes in from each breath.

1. Short distance events: Here, reducing the number of breaths is what gets
you furthest. You anyway have a good stock of oxygen in your blood at the
start of the race, so it is possible to complete the first 20m without taking
any breath. And then another 6-7 strokes without breath. Then another 4-5.
By then you have reached the end of the pool. If you cant breathe
bilaterally, you are screwed in this format.

2. Mid distance events. This is where your tradeoffs depend on your personal
style. But people still prefer unilateral breathing here.

3. Long distance events: Almost all professional swimmers use unilateral

breathing. Their arms are getting tired due to lack of oxygen. The full
amount of oxygen taken in during a breath, gets consumed by the time they
finish one cycle. If you continue to push your boundaries, your arms begin
to pain (more than it otherwise would). Heres the olympic relay race
4x100m freestyle. Even though 100m is short distance, the principles
remain the same. In the start, they take few breaths. Later, they ALL breathe
every cycle.