Hello fellow-swimmers!
Could you please check out videos of my breaststroke. So far 50m *** is my best distance. But for the last two years I haven’t been able to break 36+ seconds limit (SC).
That’s a snippet of 50m at race speed:
www.youtube.com/watch
I have more videos, but so far the forum allows me to add only one.
Mistakes, drills to fix them, stretching exercises?
I’m total amateur, 35 years old, it’s my 6th year of competitive swimming.
Thanks!
Looks like you need to work on adjusting your head position and achieving greater distance per stroke (without losing momentum). From this angle it also appears that you need to work on keeping your hips closer to the surface while you are swimming.
We have some breaststroke drill videos on Swimspire featuring Olympic silver medalist Kristy Kowal that you can watch to get some ideas: www.swimspire.com/.../
As swimspire said,you need to work om your head position.The head should remain in neutral position at all times.The standard drill for this is swimming BR with a tennis ball under the chin.I can't be sure but it looks like you are overlapping your pull and your kick.You should be in streamline position with the kick completed before the pull begins.A good drill for this is swim a length with a 3 sec glide,then a 2 sec glide,then 1 sec,then no glide,but make sure you are extended in streamline.Finally,in your kick recovery,you have your knees too far apart.This breaks streamline and slows you down.The standard drill for this is swim BR with a pullbuoy between your knees(or at least right above your knees.There is a lot to like about your BR,but these things can make it faster.
These are really good drills.One caveat,this is showing the swimmer with hands overlapping,that is a good drill,but if you have your hands overlapping at the touch for the turn or finish,that is a DQ. Also in BR everything is a trade off between drag and propulsion.I find that for me,the drag at the moment of separation of the hands necessary to start the pull from the hand overlapping position slows me more than starting the pull with the hands pressed together(thumbs and first finger touching),but not overlapping.YMMV.It is undeniable that the shoulders need to be as far forward as possible and the arms really squeezing the head.
Thank you all for the input! I'll try the drills and upload videos of the progress. And what drill can help me keeping pelvis as high as possible? BR pull with fly kick?
That is a good drill,but I suspect if you get your head position right it will take care of your hips.If the head is too high, the hips sink.
Thank you all for the input! I'll try the drills and upload videos of the progress. And what drill can help me keeping pelvis as high as possible? BR pull with fly kick?
Here is the link to all of the breaststroke drill series we have done with Kristy: www.swimspire.com/.../
And this video, with Estonian national champion Merle Liivand, may also be of help. In the video, Merle demonstrates breaststroke where she kicks with a pullbuoy. This will be helpful in keeping your hips higher: www.swimspire.com/.../
Like Allen said, there is definitely a lot to like about your breaststroke. The improvements you make will hopefully help you get past your current plateau. Good luck!
Thank you all for the input! I'll try the drills and upload videos of the progress. And what drill can help me keeping pelvis as high as possible? BR pull with fly kick?
my 2 cents:
knees are way too wide. 2 drills for this are 1) kick breaststroke with your hands at your butt and try to kick your hands with your heels. 2) kick breaststroke on your back.
head is up, butt is low. there's a direct correlation there. think about keeping your head, neck and back in constant alignment provided your eyes are down. almost like there's a rod from your head through your spine.
one thing you are doing well (among many by the way) is that you're not diving too deep to compensate for your hips. try to stay in the top 12" below the surface of the water.
i noticed a big diffrence in my stroke from narrowing my body/kick. it's drag 101. drag is not your friend!
Ok, this is what I have so far (twice slowed down):
http://youtu.be/icvP7c20lc0
It's not a race pace but I tried to do it properly and applying most of the power to the water. I was trying to cover my head with my arms (to get in streamline) as soon as I can. To keep neutral head position I tried to look down, right to the water surface. But my knees are still to far apart. After 40sec of the video you’ll see several tries with pullbuoy and kicking on the back.
And I really don’t like this improper position – my core is not aligned the moment I’m about to do a kick:
9404
Much better video.
Looking at frame 15 & 28 I notice a place where you may be able to make a minor improvement. Your left foot foot is pointing straight down and then brought up to the proper position. I believe this causes you to lose some leg lift to get a better and earlier glide. You might be doing the thrust in two motions instead of one.
