Hi,
36 years ago, I competed in butterfly and backstroke, and my breaststroke was severely slow. I've returned to swimming for about one year and now is as fast in freestyle as back then. However, my breaststroke is now faster than backstroke and butterfly is the slowest of the three. The 100m pace of my breaststroke now is faster than my 1k freestyle, which is surprisingly satisfying (for me).
What does this physiologically indicate? I just look to see what are missing for swimming butterfly and backstroke.
Thanks
For butterfly I'd suspect it is because you are out of shape and your form needs work. I'm pretty sure there's nothing special physiologically (aside from injury or disability, which you don't mention) about you that predisposes your freestyle or backstroke to be slower than your breaststroke. I bet your core is not tight at all and you're wiggling side-to-side like a fish. Are you kicking?
Interesting way to calculate where we stand per stroke, or event, is by using the event rankings database for the age group. Just find the percentage and compare to the other stroke.
For butterfly I'd suspect it is because you are out of shape and your form needs work. I'm pretty sure there's nothing special physiologically (aside from injury or disability, which you don't mention) about you that predisposes your freestyle or backstroke to be slower than your breaststroke. I bet your core is not tight at all and you're wiggling side-to-side like a fish. Are you kicking?
My freestyle is way faster than breaststroke. Only butterfly and backstroke is slower than the breaststroke. But I agree about the core. Will work on that and see if it makes some improvement. Thanks.
Interesting way to calculate where we stand per stroke, or event, is by using the event rankings database for the age group. Just find the percentage and compare to the other stroke.
Somehow, in practice, I cannot get my time (any event) even close to what I can do in race. (5 seconds difference per 100m approximately). But either in relative (age-group records) or absolute (time) term, my breaststroke is currently superior to my butterfly and my backstroke. 36 years ago, my butterfly and backstroke were much faster than my breaststroke. I doubt if technique alone can be the reason because I haven't really worked on any of them specifically. So I question whether physiological change (due to age) might be the cause.
So your bk/fl got worse and your br/fr improved,
or just bk/fl only got worse with age?
Freestyle now is about as fast as 36 years ago, but I have practiced it for one year. Breaststroke is improved, without any specific practice. Bk/Fl were slower, also without serious practice.
I am no expert by any means but i'm almost 100% sure that it has nothing to do with psychological state of yours. Butterfly is the most intense of them all as far as i know so you are doing better with those that require less strength/stamina to perform.
Age related improvements? My fly is slower than 20 years ago but, still better than by *** stroke.
I had expected that too, for me. So what seems like an anomaly is why I posted this thread.
I wonder if you have less flexibility extending your foot than flexing it. Extension flexibility is important for flutter and dolphin kick, whereas flexion flexibility is more important in breaststroke. If this is true, your free is probably less affected than fly and back.
Actually, it seems so. I'll check further. Thanks.
