I have been practising with a masters team since June 17. It has been 3 months and my 25m breaststroke seem to be stuck at 20 secs. It is very frustrating and even increasing the stroke rate and tempo did not seem to help.
At a slow pace, my stroke count is 7 and time wise 20 to 25 seconds. At faster tempo, stroke count increases to 13 -15, and time still 20 seconds. 50m length wise, the lowest stroke count was 16.
Anyone have an idea why this is happening and what I can work on to improve? I have a meet coming up in November and I hope to better than 20 secs...
Thanks in advance guys.
Generally speaking, I think you need to err on the side of a faster stroke rate in the 50. But that doesn't mean spinning your arms. When I'm racing breaststroke, I'm thinking about thrusting my hands in front of me to speed up the recovery portion of the stroke where no propulsion takes place. careful not to speed through the propulsive portion of the stroke and sacrifice efficiency.
It is very hard to diagnose the problem without seeing your stroke. A video would make helping much easier. Water Rat has good advice. How far are you getting on your pullouts? Are you making sure to start each pull when the kick is completely finished and you are maximally streamlined. How tall are you? 13-15 strokes/25M is a lot of strokes, implying to me you are either overlapping your strokes(starting the pull before the kick is finished) or shortening your pull &/or kick, or not getting a good catch in the pull &/or kick.
Just keep plugging away at it. Plateaus are normal and when it comes to a meet you will be faster than 20 sec. Ideas, however, would be to try doing some of your sets as builds and/or descending. Also, keep the rate and tempo the same but try to squeeze a little extra distance out of each stroke and overemphasize your push-offs and turns. Good luck!
To reiterate what others have said, it looks like you might be rushing your pull. Once you make your catch, then you should accelerate continuously through the finish. If you try to pull too fast too soon you risk losing your hold on the water.
You have a nice forward extension, but might want to try to cut down a bit on your glide in order to increase your turnover rate, especially when swimming 25's and 50's.
Otherwise it looks pretty good.
Thanks everyone for the advices.
Am definitely going to try more descending training. My stroke effciency definitely drops a lot when I try to hasten my tempo.
Allen, my height is 1.72m. I am posting a short clip here and looking forward to your opinion. I believe theres definitely lots of room for improvement.
Actually the timing is pretty good and the kick is good. You are pulling with "dropped elbows" and that is really impairing your power. Your elbows should always be near the surface. During the pull they should be above the hands. Think reaching over a barrel, or think of a position somewhat similar to EVF in free.
