I watch lap swimmers and many have difficulty learning the breastroke kick. When they swim breastroke, the kick is off. Freestyle and backstroke not nearly the same problems. Butterfly is also difficult to master. As someone who has swim both fly and breastroke, sometimes I fell that *** is harder on you than fly. And in my middle years I'm more of a breastroker. What do you think? Which one is harder?
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It's interesting that while *** and fly are vertical axis strokes, seldom are there swimmers who excel at both. *** stroke for me is harder, although I can swim a longer distance in *** than fly. I think most people are that way.
Why is *** harder? Aside from the knee issue (and my left knee has been surgically reconstructed due to a silly foray into basketball...) I find *** harder because it requires inner thigh muscles, unlike the other three stokes. Maybe I just don't swim enough *** so these muscles are weaker than my quads, hamstring, and butt. I find fly easier because it has a rhythm: once you're going, it's easier to keep going. I often find that in a practice (we have very narrow lanes and a 20 metre pool) that if I do one arm fly for one or two strokes to avoid collision with an oncoming swimmer, the rest of the length is arduous. But uninterruted fly is not so tiring. Thus I conclude the dolphin rhythm makes fly easier.
The turn in any stroke is hard due to oxygen debt: all stokes benefit from a long underwater kick, pull, or glide. I feel like a rock cod coming up from 200 metres off the wall on the third turn of a 100...even though I'm in pretty good shape. Anybody have any suggestions (drills, etc.) on how to ease this feeling?
It's interesting that while *** and fly are vertical axis strokes, seldom are there swimmers who excel at both. *** stroke for me is harder, although I can swim a longer distance in *** than fly. I think most people are that way.
Why is *** harder? Aside from the knee issue (and my left knee has been surgically reconstructed due to a silly foray into basketball...) I find *** harder because it requires inner thigh muscles, unlike the other three stokes. Maybe I just don't swim enough *** so these muscles are weaker than my quads, hamstring, and butt. I find fly easier because it has a rhythm: once you're going, it's easier to keep going. I often find that in a practice (we have very narrow lanes and a 20 metre pool) that if I do one arm fly for one or two strokes to avoid collision with an oncoming swimmer, the rest of the length is arduous. But uninterruted fly is not so tiring. Thus I conclude the dolphin rhythm makes fly easier.
The turn in any stroke is hard due to oxygen debt: all stokes benefit from a long underwater kick, pull, or glide. I feel like a rock cod coming up from 200 metres off the wall on the third turn of a 100...even though I'm in pretty good shape. Anybody have any suggestions (drills, etc.) on how to ease this feeling?
