I was recently (yesterday) approached regarding breathing technique and frequency for the butterfly stroke. As a swim coach, I like to see as little stroke and velocity altering movements as possible. In other words, breath as little as possible. However, if you are going to breath (which is somewhat inevitable), try to stay as low profile as possible. You can do this in two ways as long as they don’t alter your stroke velocity significantly.
The first is a fading technique called side breathing. It’s basically a freestyle breath to the side instead of a “regular” breath. This may be a little difficult at first but it helps maintain an extremely low profile through the water and when it is mastered should not have a significant effect on the overall stroke velocity.
The second is to breath up, but jutting the chin forward in the water while maintaining a head position of 45 degrees (give or take). This will, essentially, give you a lower profile than trying to lift the body/head up because you are trying to stay lower keep the chin in the water.
Either way you choose to breath, make sure that you stay as low in the water as possible, and maintain the same stroke efficiency and speed throughout.
As always, if you have any questions feel free to let me know by leaving comments and/or follow the discussion by subscribing to this blog!
Happy swimming!
