Re: bilateral breathing- exercises.

Why do you want to learn to breath to both sides?

As you are finding out, in the short term it will make swimming much
harder and slower for you.

I don't think all elites can bilaterally breath. Some can, as
evidenced by the video data, and some can't. I've never seen video of
Michael Phelps breathing to his left. So I suspect he trains virtually
all the time breathing to his dominant side. At the end of the epic
800 meter relay in Athens, Keller breathed left the entire last 50 even
though Thorpe was running him down on his right. Keller either can't
bilaterally breath, or thinks it slows him down at least a little. So
he just put the hammer down and let the chips fall - the timer was
going to reveal who won - he didn't have to see Thorpe to hold him off.
So there are plenty of men and women with gold medals who can't
bilaterally breath.

Eric

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