Hey, Coach Marty here.
Why do a bobbing drill?

This video is for some swimmers that never learned to breath properly in Freestyle.

I observed a swimmer recently while coaching him.  His stroke wasn’t horrible - at first I had trouble figuring out what he was doing wrong. 

Then I asked him if he was breathing out AND in while his head was turned. He said ‘yes’.

He started swimming later in life and never got the bobbing drill as a child swimmer.

A lot of adult swimmers don’t want to do this drill - they are too embarrassed or feel too silly or something.

But it will cure your breathing issues.
Stand in somewhat shallow water.

Breath in above water.

Breath out slowly underwater.
Come back up and take one breath while above water.  (No more!)

Breath out slowly underwater.
Do this over and over until you have a good rhythm going.

Until it is comfortable.
If it is not comfortable here it is going to be very difficult to be comfortable while swimming.

Breathing to the side

Next drill is to stand in the shallow water bent over with hands on the edge of the pool.  So your upper body is flat - parallel with the surface.

Same drill now: turn to the side and breath in.
Turn you face into the water and breath out slowly. 
Repeat over and over. 

Do these two drills before each swim.  And over time muscle memory will  kick in.

As you can see in the video, I’m taking my time, exaggerating the rhythm.
When you are swimming it likely will be faster.
That’s OK. Start with the drill slower.
Get a rhythm.
Steady.
When you can do that without thinking, you can try and speed it up a bit.

A lot of swimmers will breath every second or third stroke when doing distance swim.
So, this slower rhythm is not unrealistic.