Why do professional swimmers breathe every stroke in freestyle?

Question

TL;DR: What is the thinking behind turning to breathe every stroke (i.e. every two arm pulls) in freestyle?

Isn't this wasteful, since breathing necessarily disrupts your flow?

I'm a keen swimmer, swimming 3-4 miles a week freestyle. I breathe every 3 strokes (six arm pulls) and thought this was a great idea since

1. it doesn't disrupt my stroke to keep turning to breathe
2. it presumably means I have decent lung capacity.

But then I see Michael Phelps and all the others breathing each and every stroke, and I can't exactly argue with them. Why?

Answer 1

"since breathing necessarily disrupts your flow"

I think the amount of disruption relates to how far from perfect your form is. Since they need to breathe, they put a lot of work in perfecting their body and stroke movement so there is almost no additional body movement related to breathing. If the catch and pull are done correctly, the body is swiveling back and forth along the center-line/spine axis with every stroke cycle.

So, if they do it efficiently, there is just a minimal turn of the head and opening of the mouth. At that level, swimming as form-perfectly as they do, lactic acid build up and maximizing oxygen intake is a major consideration that trumps any very minor form imperfections that breathing brings.

They are swimming 7, 8 or more miles every DAY during peak conditioning training, so avoiding that kind of oxygen deprivation is much more important for their training than someone who does half of that in a week.

Answer 2

I suspect they breathe that much because that's just how much they need to... when going all out at that pace. From what you described of your own experience, you seem to be doing more long-distance/endurance swimming, which is pretty different from sprinting.

Speaking for myself, when I do long distance, I definitely breathe less often than when I'm sprinting.

Could it be that simple? :)

Answer 3

Trent Grimsey swam the English Channel in 6hrs 55mins (WR time) breathing every stroke (every two arm pulls). There is exceptional balance to his stroke and it doesn’t compromise his efficiency. It takes a lot of work to perfect. I have also noticed that swimmers that breathe every stroke tend to swim with a regularly irregular rhythm. I don’t understand it but it’s obviously what the science has indicated to the pros as the best method.

Answer 4

It very much depends on the swimmer, the distance and the type of race. If you watch the 50 freestyle swimmers, they will breathe once, maybe twice in the whole race. As you get to the longer races, they will breathe less often at the beginning, more at the end.

Freestyle is unique in the strokes in that it's the only one you don't automatically get a chance to breathe on every stroke. If you are swimming an IM (All 4 strokes in a race) then by the time you get to freestyle, you are definitely in oxygen debt.

The other reason they may do this is to keep an eye on opponents in other lanes. You are taught bilateral (Both sides) breathing for this exact reason.