It’s only three months before we head off to Europe for our Italian swimtour to Lake Orta. T-shirts, caps, etc have been ordered and I will be in touch soon-ish with those of us in Brisbane to pass them over.

In August and September, in addition to Orta San Giulio, I will be venturing to Croatia’s Dalmatian Coast (with another of our group) and to Germany’s Lake Constance to check out our batch of 2016 European summer swimtours. It’s not too early to express interest in one, two or all three of them – without commitment at this stage of course. Some of you already have.

I am keen to run the ‘Iconic and Historic Swimming Places of Sydney’ in December this year. We will fly from Brisbane to Sydney on Boxing Day, do lots of swimming and non-swimming things over six days and return to Brisbane on New Year’s Day after experiencing a memorable News Year’s Eve on the shores of Sydney Harbour. Let me know if you would like more info.

I am also keen to explore parts of the world beyond Australia and Europe. If you think you may be interested in a swimming-based trip to Taiwan or Hong Kong next year, please let me know. Taiwan is the home of the world’s largest mass-participation swim on Sun Moon Lake. Last year, it attracted 28,390 swimmers. We would also venture to other places in this fascinating country, including Taipei (night markets and ‘Taipei 101’), offshore islands, a number of national parks and some of Taiwan’s 150 hot springs.

Hong Kong is home to some of the world’s major marathon open water swims and a few other highly competitive swimming events. But that’s against Otter Aquatics’ swimtour philosophy of non-competition and much more moderate distances combined with fun and interesting travel. But we can still go to Honkers as that Chinese SAR has numerous open water swimming opportunities on Hong Kong Island as well as on some of Hong Kong’s off-shore islands. Perhaps we can combine Hong Kong and Taiwan?

This is formally known as bilateral breathing or, sometimes, alternate breathing. But I use the term Three Stroke Breathing simply because it tells us how to do it: we breathe on every third stroke.

What is it?
3SB is the breathing pattern that most of us progress to after first mastering basic two stroke breathing. By breathing every two strokes, your head turns to inhale to the same side every second arm stroke while exhaling into the water with your head down on the other arm stroke. With 3SB, you have one arm stroke to inhale on followed by two arm strokes to exhale on. Your head alternates from the left to right sides to inhale while still exhaling into the water with your head down.

Actually, inhaling with any odd number of strokes (e.g. 3, 5 or 7) will turn your head alternately from side to side – and any even number (e.g. 2, 4, or 6) will turn your head to the same side every time. But two or three stroke breathing are the most commonly used patterns.

How do we do it?
It is far better to only think of counting your strokes and breathing on every third, rather than trying to remember to turn your head to one side and then the other - that’s a sure way to muck it up.

A drill I sometimes use is to teach the student to count from one to three in a language they do not know. For example, they count their strokes Eine, Zwei, Drei, (or Un, Deux, Trois, etc) remembering to inhale on Drei (or Troi). It is a simple trick from the brain training literature that really does work. You are thinking of the new words rather than what seems like an impossibly hard breathing technique.

What are its benefits?

•  3SB evens out our stroke so that our stroke on one side is on same as on the other
  
•  It exercises our muscles (arms, shoulders, etc)on both halves of our body evenly
  
•  Our body’s directional alignment is better
  
•  In open water, we swim a straighter line
  
•  3SB helps us to relax. Because 3SB involves two exhalation strokes to one inhalation stroke – or, to put it another way, we exhale for twice as long as we inhale – we relax more. Exhalation is a proven yoga relaxation technique (relaxation, itself, is an important swimming tip)
  
•  3SB also allows us to completely exhale more easily. With two-stroke breathing, we often struggle to completely exhale as we have only one stroke to do it on. If we don’t exhale fully, we can’t take a full breath in and, if we don’t take in a full oxygen-rich breath, how far we can swim - or how fast – is severely limited
  
•  Finally, with 3SB, we get to exercise both hemispheres of our brain. After all, swimming is very much a cerebral activity.
  

Do I have to do it all the time?
No. If your body is telling you that it needs more air that it is getting, you should revert to two-stroke breathing until you are ready to resume your ‘default’ 3SB pattern. Also, if you are in the open water and it is rough, you do not want to inhale on the windward side – that will only give you a mouthful of water. So you need to adapt to the conditions.

A final word. There are many technical reasons why 3SB is better but, in the end, you do whatever breathing pattern works for you.