Why are some of us breaststrokers terrible at backstroke. Most of my swimming career except at around 12 to 14 years old. I'm been a terrible backstroker. Is it because breaststroke uses very different muscles. Fly has never been as bad as back but fly of course came from ***. Freestyle as a youth was the 3rd best stroke and and as an adult the 2nd best stroke. I know some breastsrokers mastered the stroke and some can't do free too good or fly.
Parents
Former Member
Its interesting to note that backstroke is the only stroke where you don't visually focus on your hands and arm movements because you literally can't see them while doing it. Just an observation. I liken backstroke to going on a kayak journey. Except you can't see where your going!
Back to the thread...
That was certainly a good point about body types. Breaststrokers can actually do quite well despite being shorter in many cases. Short strong legs can certainly power a torso through the water very nicely. Not saying that being tall has an advantage, but it can help for freestyle, and in acquiring some impressive distance on the turns.
As an age group swimmer, our coach would single out various people and proudly announce that they were to join the ranks of flyers, backstrokers, or breaststrokers. Being over six foot two at fourteen years old, he surmised that I would excel at backstroke which indeed I did. Breaststroke was never exactly my specialty, but probably because it hadn't been "assigned" to me. I would argue that there are no bounds for learning the different strokes. It's just that some of us are built with the right design for doing certain strokes very well.
Its interesting to note that backstroke is the only stroke where you don't visually focus on your hands and arm movements because you literally can't see them while doing it. Just an observation. I liken backstroke to going on a kayak journey. Except you can't see where your going!
Back to the thread...
That was certainly a good point about body types. Breaststrokers can actually do quite well despite being shorter in many cases. Short strong legs can certainly power a torso through the water very nicely. Not saying that being tall has an advantage, but it can help for freestyle, and in acquiring some impressive distance on the turns.
As an age group swimmer, our coach would single out various people and proudly announce that they were to join the ranks of flyers, backstrokers, or breaststrokers. Being over six foot two at fourteen years old, he surmised that I would excel at backstroke which indeed I did. Breaststroke was never exactly my specialty, but probably because it hadn't been "assigned" to me. I would argue that there are no bounds for learning the different strokes. It's just that some of us are built with the right design for doing certain strokes very well.
