Keep one eye in the water as you breathe
No need to look at the sky
It's one of the little things we have to get right.
Your head acts much like a steering wheel when you swim, so it's important to keep the top of your head pointed where you want to go. If you bend your neck while you breathe it makes tracking a straight line difficult, so don't be a bendy straw. Keep a long straight neck in line with your spine throughout the stroke and keep a long straight neck when breathing.
Don't take too long about this, the window for breathing is small. Breathe and quickly reset your head to a neutral position, looking straight down. Exhale continuously underwater through your nose, come up empty, ready to breathe through your mouth.
Breathing only on one side is, over time, stressful for your neck and shoulders. If you're not comfortable breathing to both sides, you won't be comfortable rotating to both sides. Freestyle is rotation and linetation to both sides. If you favor breathing to one side spend a week or two only breathing to your weak side, and soon rotating either way will be natural and easy.
• Bring up a long straight neck (in line with your spine), return a long straight neck (in line with your spine).
• Torso rotation makes breathing easy.
Fit the breath into the stroke so it doesn't interrupt moving forward. Make it a small event not a big event.
