George Brustand, the oldest individual to successfully cross the English Channel at the age of 70, talks about bilateral breathing for open water swimmers, “This is from someone who is 75 and has been swimming since age 3. I have no idea how many strokes I have swum in the past 72 years, but it is a bunch.”

“I cannot imagine how screwed up my shoulders and back would be with millions and millions of twists to one side and none to the other. Rarely does one arm do the same thing as the other in the case of a one-side breather. Then there is the ability to look the other way in competition, especially in open water, or switch sides when rough breakers hit you from the other.”

“I have taught more than a thousand kids to swim and none of them escaped me without being able to breath bilaterally.”

Wisdom for the ages.

Copyright © 2009 by Steven Munatones