Breaststroke has always been my favourite stroke, but I've had these questions/problems for the longest times, could someone answer them for me? By the way, I'm 15.
1) How in the WORLD is it possible to do that ankle snap thing? I've been trying to turn my ankle out and in but it just wouldn't budge. It's just stuck there, and it cannot move side to side. I've seen some pictures of breaststrokers' feet turning 90 degrees in, but how can I do that? What are some exercises to improve side-to-side ankle flexibility?
2) I have a pretty narrow kick, and I think it is decent. However, I never feel the "explosion" everyone's talking about. I try my hardest to kick hardest, accelerating, but my legs just feel like pasta at the end of each kick. I can get pretty far with my kicks, but I feel like I can do better - I sometimes don't feel a lot of water resistance against my feet.
3) I've been having a bit of trouble with slipping recently. When I'm doing a 50 or 100m *** at a faster pace, my hands will sometimes fail to grab water, and sometimes a foot, sometimes both feet! I think it has to do with my pulling too fast, but I dunno.
4) When I go into a wall during ***, I am usually not tired, not even in a sprint (Short Course). However, the minute I complete my turn and start my underwater pull out, all hell breaks lose. I feel like my lungs will explode, and right after my first breath every single muscle begins hurting like never before. All fatigue comes at this one turn, and worsens every turn, until the last turn my underwater pullout is much shorter than my first pullout (from pushoff, I can usually do 10 meters from the pushoff while still maintaining a decent speed).
5) What are some workouts I can do to improve my sprint 50m and 100m breaststroke (short course)? I think I can do a near 40s 41s for 50m short course breaststroke from pushoff, but I want to get close to and under 35s.
6) What are some dry-land exercises I can do to improve my breaststroke?
7) Any other advice for faster sprint breaststroke?
Thanks A BUNCH to everyone who replies. I am really frustrated right now. Thanks again.
Hip flexibility is indeed a major part of a good breaststroke kick. Apologies for not mentioning that. You can do the eggbeater kick in the water to help, but I like sitting on my ankles. I'll try to explain it:
Start out by placing your ankles together on the floor and legs together, too. At this point, imagine your body at a 90 degree angle, with the bend happening at your knees. Then, lower your butt to your ankles, so that you're sitting on them.
Now, to simulate the breaststroke kick position, turn your feet out from under you with one hand and feel your hip joint move to turn the ENTIRE LEG around the hip joint. What you're doing is turning all the bones below your hip joint around so your ankles can rotate better.
Geez. It's much better to show you. If you can, ask a breaststroker you know to show you how. He or she will no doubt know what I'm referring to.
And yes, your lung capacity is a big reason why you're tired after a breaststroke pullout. It takes so much energy to do the pull, that the oxygen leaves your lungs quickly and is replaced by carbon dioxide. It's a lot harder than simply kicking underwater.
Hip flexibility is indeed a major part of a good breaststroke kick. Apologies for not mentioning that. You can do the eggbeater kick in the water to help, but I like sitting on my ankles. I'll try to explain it:
Start out by placing your ankles together on the floor and legs together, too. At this point, imagine your body at a 90 degree angle, with the bend happening at your knees. Then, lower your butt to your ankles, so that you're sitting on them.
Now, to simulate the breaststroke kick position, turn your feet out from under you with one hand and feel your hip joint move to turn the ENTIRE LEG around the hip joint. What you're doing is turning all the bones below your hip joint around so your ankles can rotate better.
Geez. It's much better to show you. If you can, ask a breaststroker you know to show you how. He or she will no doubt know what I'm referring to.
And yes, your lung capacity is a big reason why you're tired after a breaststroke pullout. It takes so much energy to do the pull, that the oxygen leaves your lungs quickly and is replaced by carbon dioxide. It's a lot harder than simply kicking underwater.
