Your hands can recover under or over the water but your elbows should remain below the surface. Generate propulsion 2. Driving, working at a computer, and other common activities also contribute to this. Breaststroke Arm Pull. Focus on rhythm (early hips) and body position. Also make sure that your elbows are high and firm coming into the insweep, and remain high until the last few seconds. As long as your chest is slightly lower than your hips, you have achieved a downhill position, and will move forward better during the glide than if your hips and chest were equal in depth, or worse, that your hips were the lowest part of your float. The arm pull is short, the legs whip out against the water to get you into this sliding, gliding, streamlined position. When you are treading water, you are sculling your hands through the water to hold yourself up and counteract gravity. Since the breaststroke arm stroke is much more compact than the other strokes, it produces much less forward motion. Choose a pull buoy, a foam flotation device, that is a comfortable fit for your body. It is now accepted that the legs are where the majority of the potential power is in breaststroke, so the arm stroke has evolved into a compact, lateral action, with its main function being to balance the action of the kick, and to facilitate breathing. your shoulders up, then forward and down into the recovery. Nov … The goal of the following drills for breaststroke body position is to learn to use core tension to achieve the best floating technique, while minimizing drag and maximizing glide productivity. With free and back, emphasize a long body line, hip and shoulder rotation, minimizing resistance. Heighten the hand position and the catch phase of the stroke and feel the water on the forearm. For example: If you swim 50 freestyle with 20 strokes per 25 in a time of 0:40, you would have a score of 80 (20 + 20 + 40). NO PULL OUTS (except for 4th 50) #1: pull w/ body dolphin #2: separation drill #3: 2 kicks, 1 pull… Set up to shoot into line •Have to find balance between the two –Pulling too much can compromise body/hip position and decrease speed –Pulling too little so you’re definitely not getting stuck doesn’t help propulsion. It is important to make a smooth transition from the breathing position into the streamlined glide. #4: breaststroke pull with flutter kick. I hear an occasional splash from my feet. Concentrate on “landing in front”, and exaggerate the press in front that allows the hips to rise. If you chin starts in a low position, you would not have to lower it during the recovery. Improves distance per stroke and backstroke kick. For stability on the wall, your feet should be about shoulder width apart. Keep a light easy rhythm: don’t muscle the water. Exercise 1 Breaststroke arms standing (poolside or shoulder high in water) Notice that the shrug helps keep your momentum going through the praying position, where a disadvantageous pause often occurs. The breaststroke balancer: Breaststroke (and these shoulder drills) require extensive use of the pectoral muscles, which over time will tend to pull the shoulders forward into poor posture. That is fine. Some swimmers successfully position their knees a bit wider than shoulder width apart, but they still keep them stable through the sweep of the power phase, until the very end when the legs straighten. Again, swim a set of 8 x 25 yards, though you probably will need to rest longer than 20 seconds between swims. Then execute a quick switch to your opposite side. Alternate three strokes butterfly with three strokes breaststroke. Try to hold your kick even longer so that you can avoid your recovery action working against your kick action. This is a great “AB” workout. To overcome this drag, the breaststroke recovery must be an active part of the stroke, rather than a resting phase, as in other strokes. Use your straight spine together with your abdominal muscles to create a streamlined body position from head to toe. Practice flexing your feet more, achieving a right angle to your ankle, curling your toes upward, and pitching your feet outward before you kick. 1. 3. Less. Simply download my book ' How To Swim Breaststroke' and a get a full set of breaststroke drills, covering all strokes parts, from body position to timing and coordination. Make sure you are looking at the bottom of the pool and not forward. DRILLS: PURPOSE: BR – 1 kick 2 pull: A variation of 1 pull, 2 kicks, emphasizing pull. Swim a Freestyle Pull Drill With a Buoy. Created with Sketch. It is hard to get a strong push off with my feet apart. Spend half as much time in the breathing position as the glide position. Make sure you are not trying to keep your head too high out of the water. Note that your swimming strokes are a combination of sculling motions that allow you to hold the water as your large body core muscles act as the engine. Achieving an effective rocking motion requires the swimmer to maintain a stable hip position, while the head and legs switch back and forth between the extremes of the tipping float. Use a low chin breathing position, with a quick arm recovery, so your head will drop between your elbows as soon as they are straight, threading the needle with your arms and head, as you achieve a full upper body streamline during the kick rather than after it. Try swinging your heels outward more, when you are drawing your heels back. If your core is not unified, your hips will actually limit the lift effects your arms can achieve at the corners. Kick. This could mean you are not maintaining a straight spine during breathing, but rocking your head back as you lift your chin. Make sure you are using flexed feet to kick, and that your kick is following a rounded path. The goal of the following breathing drills is to learn the correct timing of the breaststroke breathing and to unify the head and body into a single action that benefits the stroke. Identify identical hip motion for short axis strokes. It is also fine if your palms face down. Make sure you are looking at the bottom of the pool during your glide. In the Fast Recovery Breaststroke Pull Technique requires a swimmer to swim with a FAST Tempo. Incorrect timing will make good leg kick and arm techniques cancel each other out and render them ineffective. Practice maintaining a balanced stroke rhythm and rotation while clearly seeing the target object. Make sure your are tracing a rounded path with your feet, outward then inward, not straight back. 5. Be sure your arms are aligned forward from the shoulders, elbows and wrists. Breaststroke and butterfly, the short axis strokes, are called such because you are rotating on the short axis of your body. Great for learning to glide and lots of breath control. It is important to sweep outward with straight arms, because the insweep that follows uses the longest to shortest dimension of the stroke to accelerate the arm stroke. It also should allow you to fully focus more on the productivity of the arm stroke alone, without any assistance from the breaststroke kick. Kick from the hips and torso. I end up going uphill in the breathing position. Glide and rest for three to five seconds. Breaststroke is the only stroke with a recovery that passes through the water rather than over it, leading to the potential for a great deal of drag. Keep your hands and elbows in front of your chest. Speeds up stroke tempo, adds a dolphin like wave motion to the stroke. I am getting a lot of bubbles in my outsweep. Look at the line on the bottom of the pool. Drive the rotation of your stroke with your hips. Start with the breaststroke kick, noticing exactly when you start the power phase of the kick in relation to the recovery. Teaches sweeping action in underwater pull. To make the most of the insweep, it is important to maintain high, still elbows. Helps correct hand entry position & deep entry. While it has remained a simultaneous stroke, many theories about what the arms do have been developed. Allow your face to rise with each stroke cycle, as your stroke produces lift. Step 1: Push off the wall preparing to swim breaststroke, arms extended. This is fine. Step 1: Push off the wall preparing to swim breaststroke, arms extended. Try accelerating out of the corners more to increase your natural lift. You should have the arms stretchedto the front while gliding, this way you create less drag and will be able to move forward more easily. Your ankles must be active, adjusting the pitch of the feet throughout the kick. This could mean you are drawing your feet up the middle. Created with Sketch. 4. The point of the drill is to keep your stroke compact, entirely within your field of vision, thereby reducing drag and effort. Achieving an advantageous breaststroke glide position, Feeling effective core tension and stability, Using ankle rotation to keep hold of the water, Using your senses to recognize a productive kick, Learning to feel the water with the forearm, Understanding the changing elbow position, Recovering with the rocking motion of the stroke, Eliminating any pause between insweep and recovery, Learning the correct timing of the inhale, Transferring power through the rocking action of the stroke, Maintaining the forward line of the stroke, Using the most efficient breaststroke timing, Learning the correct sequence of stroke actions, Avoiding cancelling out the effect of one stroke action with another, Practicing the correct timing of the breaststroke, Recognizing when to start the next stroke, Using momentum to rest and benefit the next stroke, Learning to rest during the glide instead of the recovery.