Today we're gonna talk about breathing on every stroke. And this is more of a philosophy and and as well as physiological depending on the length of the race. So what events, David, what events would you breathe on every stroke?

I mean, I used to swim upwards of 200 yards, I never really swam anything above that, but mostly 100 yards and above, I'll be breathing every stroke. So you know, to get the oxygen so I can sustain throughout the entirety of the race.

So I think he just answered it, you know, how long race? When do you start breathing on every shirt? Is this something that you specifically do? long course or as soon as you get to 100, you would start thinking about that.

It's just 100 anywhere. Really, my philosophy on breathing every strokes has slightly changed since talking with Eddie Reese, from Texas, but it's usually any 100 of any distance, and I'll be swimming, you know, swimming and breathing every stroke there. It's maybe if it's 100 freestyle, not necessarily every stroke, or what I'll do is I'll go 123, and then a breadth and then one, two, and then a breadth. So it's not necessarily every single stroke. But as I strive to get through that 100, more, my main objective is to get as much as possible, because it's very important for me when I'm pushing off walls, especially in short course. Yes, the importance of that is not as much in long course, because there's not as many walls but oxygen is the main focus when I'm breathing every stroke, because I need that to get through turns to get there with the rest of the race. So yeah, I mean, hundreds and above, it's kind of necessary since that race is just that much longer.

I know you have a strategy for breathing on the 50. Do you have a strategy for when you stop breathing on every stroke in the 100?

Um, yes. So I was at the Texas meet that happened this year, Texas have a great, had a great lead for us there, a lot of people went, it was a lot of fun. Edie was talking to me about my 100 freestyle. And he says, maybe you should try not breathing every stroke. And I was like, Yeah, all right, I'll give it a try. And then we went to ACC. And what I did was I took 123 strokes into a breath, put my head back down, and then did one two, where I breathe to the same side, or Yeah, I think that's what it was, it was basically, I think it's called for to where you take four strokes, and then you breathe, but I mainly breathe, I only really breathe on my left side. So for that, it was mainly trying to keep my head in line. And so as fast as I can try to keep my body also in line. So I'm not moving around as much, but still getting that maximum oxygen and my strategy for that race. When I went to personal bests in 100 Freestyle at ACC was four to four laps, one and two, every breath, every stroke for lap three, and then just bring it home with whatever I have left. And I always save a little bit of oxygen for that last surg into the wall. So like the last five, four strokes, where am I put my head down? No breath as fast as I can strong finish into the wall.

So when you breathe more frequently, and when there's sequential breath, so three, four and row, you assume more of a gallop or a loping stroke? Is is that something that's planned? Or is that just what comes out?

Really, that's just kind of what's come out. I kind of gallop stroke just naturally when breathing in excess, like every stroke, but um, I've really I've kind of adopted that and gallop stroke and adapted it and started changing a little bit, especially at NC State they've had they've been working a lot on the efficiency in that gallop, not as efficient in this video, but we've gotten a lot better since then. Kind of working to keep myself higher up in the water less up and down motion. So yeah, I mean, it just happens. But what we've done is kind of adopted and adapted with it and change things to make it faster and more like efficient through heatstroke.

You know, even even with as you saying, you've worked on this, the one thing that we really look at here is the lead arm. And as you come up, one of the things that's really evident is that even though there's a slight up and down movement of the body, the arm is always directly in front of the shoulder, it's very parallel to the surface of the water. So it's not that you're out of balance as much. It really is just again, that slight up and down motion. So I'm just really impressed with how the hand stays absolutely level through this.

Yeah, one thing that we work on a lot, is try not to let our hand strap and keep them in mind, kind of in that straight line with our body, we do that with. With mesh paddles with hand socks, we do it. So it basically makes it more difficult for us to do that motion and stay in that straight line. And it just creates that strength and allows me to maintain that kind of straight line strong position through the stroke regardless of how up and down I am. We've eliminated the up and down motion significantly since this video because it essentially just wastes unnecessary energy in some parts of my body when I do that, so swimming flatter and straighter, even with a little bit less rotation in the hips is kind of fixed that made it more efficient and stronger.

Very good. All right, we'll be back with more breathing


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DC Talks Breathing Every Stroke