If you can breath every three, that's the best way to do it. If breathing every two is going to keep you from getting winded, you should do that until you can go longer. Nobody cares how much or how little you breathe, it's just about going as fast as you can, and if breathing less is going to do that for you, just go ahead and do it.

The more you swim, though, the more comfortable you'll be with the breathing. Have someone who knows what they are doing look at your stroke and help you with your mechanics.

I had problems with breathing when I started in this sport and have to agree with triad. At least in my case it was NOT a matter of breathing every 3, 4, 2, 5 or don´t know how many strokes. For me my problem was the exhale. I did it very aggressively and hold hard to my breath before I did. You have to learn to relax.

Let´s say for example you breath every 4 strokes. you might like to start to exhale softly at the en of stroke 2 so by the time you have to inhale again your lungs are clear of carbon dioxide. ( only an example. this is not how I do it and have to say it does change a little depending on how fast you are trying to swim but you´ll find your right combination with practice and practice and practice)

I learned this by try and mistake. Also when doing this don´t put too much effort in getting read of ALL the air you have in; when I tried to hard it tired me. You have to be able not to think about it in the future.

To start maybe you want to slow down a bit and focus only in finding a right breathing pattern. It´s not about how many strokes you do but how you inhale and exhale in between. When I used a coach he had me sometimes doing drills that forced me to breath every 6, 8, 10 or even 12 strokes. YOU HAVE TO BE PREPARED for missing a breath specially if you are going to be involved in tris and open water swimming. (you´ll never know with waves and other competitors when you will be forced to miss a breath).

This was my personal experience.

I breathe when I want. I mostly breathe every 2 strokes but some times go six strokes or even more. If you watch me in the riverpool I only breathe when I feel like it. Although not swimming at a fast clip this was taken during a five minute swim on my home page swimdownhill.com

I only breathe explosively when changing gear in order to increase my stroke rate. When the stroke rate is increased I just breathe the regular way.

Nice having those videos - Thanks Geochuck!

Thanks Geo - I'll take a look - anything to help my running as I usually look like I'm running backwards as it is!;)