Quote Originally Posted by Robyn Maislin View Post
Thanks for the swim lesson! Now I know why i can't swim. I always breathe and turn my head to the left. It feels more natural. In fact, I have trouble with this with cycling,too. I am right handed, but "left sided/dominant." In other words, my laterality is really screwed up. I will start practicing in the tub for the next month and then start the lessons.....
It doesn't seem chfldish. I am a real learn by doing person and I have to do things a lot to unlearn bad habits from muscle memory.
Robyn

I am a left side breather also and don't have any problem. I have found you learn best what comes naturally. I can breathe on my right when I do 3 count breathing but it feels awkward to do it all the time.

I have found that most people have trouble breathing because their body and arm position is wrong and they have their head too far out of the water. the back of the neck should be elongated, your chin in your chest and eyes directly down at the bottom of the pool - to breathe you rotate from your hips not your neck. Also your right ear stays in the water and your mouth barely comes out

The best way to learn by far is to get a competitive swimmers snorkel (different than snorkeling snorkels) and nose plug and get the muscle memory for proper body and head position. Once you take the snorkel off the rotation to breathe comes naturally. A friend of mine who couldn't do crawl stroke at all just went through this way of learning last year and now keeps up with me on 50 yd sprints I can still do them w/ less recovery time though