Balancing the Stroke

I recently saw a drill on GoSwim regarding Shoulder Rotation for Freestyle. It dealt with balancing the stroke especially for those who breath unilaterally (one-sided). Since the tendency is to favor the breathing side, the stroke becomes lop-sided or unbalanced. The drill mentions the use of a heads-up free stroke coz it is one sure way to balance the strokes. This is because the head is facing center forward and you can always see the arms clearing the water. I agree with this.

Ever since I started heads-up free, I noticed that my freestyle is now relatively symmetrical even if I breath only on the right side. My problematic left arm now clears the water surface with ease. So when I read the article, I said wow, that makes a lot of sense. This may just be the breakthrough I need to finally learn bilateral breathing.

I spent a short time today at the pool. It was back at the lame butterfly strokes. Somehow I still couldn't find the groove of breathing correctly. Since I still don't have the stamina, I always feel tired after 4 strokes. At my last short laps, I remembered about the rule that said "the hips go up when arms enter the water". I tried that and felt the much needed undulation in effect. Wow! Gotta do that more often.