After the I.M. thread and watching my daughter at her meet I got to wondering if being good at certain strokes has anything to do with heredity. If you read the I.M. thread you know that I am terrible at the breaststroke. Today my daughter had to do the 100 I.M. She was second after the fly and doing the backstroke. She had at least a 1/4 of a pool length on the two swimmers behind her. All the parents around me were commenting on how good she looked. I told them to wait and see what happens on the breaststroke. What do you know the two swimmers behind her caught her and past her on the breaststroke. She dropped down to fourth place. Is she destined to be a terrible breaststroker like me? Keep in mind that she has always done lessons at the Y and not with me.
Parents
Former Member
Originally posted by Phil Arcuni
In order to not be disruptive to my lane, I often do a butterfly kick during breaststroke -- that way I can keep up. Oddly enough, good breaststrokers don't understand how I can go faster with the butterfly kick, and I can't understand how it could be any other way.
I can understand it. There are two main differences between the breaststroke kick and the butterfly kick:
1) The breaststroke kick has a recovery; the butterfly kick doesn't. In butterfly, your legs just go up and down. In breaststroke, you have to bring your feet forward, against the flow of the water moving past you. If you don't do this recovery properly, it can bring you to a grinding halt.
2) The main propulsive part of the breaststroke kick is what I like to call the "paddle kick", in which you use the sides of your ankles as paddles. If you can do this properly, it can be very powerful because your "paddles" have a lot of surface area. But to do it properly, you have to be able to point your toes literally in opposite directions (i.e., toward the side walls). Because of this, people who can easily point their toes in opposite directions have a decided advantage in breaststroke. Personally, I can't. If I stand with my heels together and spread my toes as far apart as possible, I have to really strain to get them past 10 o'clock and 2 o'clock, and can't get them anywhere near 9 o'clock and 3 o'clock. As a result, when I do the paddle kick, it's like trying to paddle a boat with the paddle turned at an angle.
I think my pulldowns are pretty good. I come out well past the flags, and when swimming breaststroke in practice I am usually ahead 1/3 of the way from the first push off. It does not last.
Well, that brings up another important difference between butterfly and breaststroke: In butterfly, you recover your arms over the water; in breaststroke, you have to recover them under the water. Again, part of your body is moving contrary to the flow of the water moving past you. Because of this, you can do a great pulldown and then lose all of your momentum when you recover your arms forward. And the same thing can happen with your arm stroke.
Originally posted by Phil Arcuni
In order to not be disruptive to my lane, I often do a butterfly kick during breaststroke -- that way I can keep up. Oddly enough, good breaststrokers don't understand how I can go faster with the butterfly kick, and I can't understand how it could be any other way.
I can understand it. There are two main differences between the breaststroke kick and the butterfly kick:
1) The breaststroke kick has a recovery; the butterfly kick doesn't. In butterfly, your legs just go up and down. In breaststroke, you have to bring your feet forward, against the flow of the water moving past you. If you don't do this recovery properly, it can bring you to a grinding halt.
2) The main propulsive part of the breaststroke kick is what I like to call the "paddle kick", in which you use the sides of your ankles as paddles. If you can do this properly, it can be very powerful because your "paddles" have a lot of surface area. But to do it properly, you have to be able to point your toes literally in opposite directions (i.e., toward the side walls). Because of this, people who can easily point their toes in opposite directions have a decided advantage in breaststroke. Personally, I can't. If I stand with my heels together and spread my toes as far apart as possible, I have to really strain to get them past 10 o'clock and 2 o'clock, and can't get them anywhere near 9 o'clock and 3 o'clock. As a result, when I do the paddle kick, it's like trying to paddle a boat with the paddle turned at an angle.
I think my pulldowns are pretty good. I come out well past the flags, and when swimming breaststroke in practice I am usually ahead 1/3 of the way from the first push off. It does not last.
Well, that brings up another important difference between butterfly and breaststroke: In butterfly, you recover your arms over the water; in breaststroke, you have to recover them under the water. Again, part of your body is moving contrary to the flow of the water moving past you. Because of this, you can do a great pulldown and then lose all of your momentum when you recover your arms forward. And the same thing can happen with your arm stroke.
