text: in front crawl, how important is it to be able to breath to the left? over the last year i have been trying to practice breathing to the left as well as the right.  however i tend to get disorientated and my breathing goes to pot.  i only decided to try this because i saw top swimmers do it.  it feels very unnatural to me. you should actually do bi-lateral breathing.  try breathing every 3, 5, or 7 striokes.  everyone says it is to be able to look at your competition, but it isn't.  it is so that one of your shoulders doesn't grow a lot stronger than the other.  it will kepp your muscles balanced.  my friend didn't do bi-lateral breathing, and now his stronger shoulder is pulling his spine towards it and giving him scholiosis.  so just try breathing on odd number strokes and you will soon get a hang of it.  good luck!