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.
Jeff had some great tips.Be careful of the sitting stretch,do it slowly to avoid straining your knees. A good drill for the ankle snap that I just started doing is swim breaststroke kick with your legs straight,using only the ankle snap for propulsion. Also what helps me on the underwater pullout is to think of it as a time to relax That doesn't mean to not streamline nor to not pull and kick REALLY HARD,but to realize that during the glide you really are not exerting yourself(it is also like flying and feels great.)
Jeff had some great tips.Be careful of the sitting stretch,do it slowly to avoid straining your knees. A good drill for the ankle snap that I just started doing is swim breaststroke kick with your legs straight,using only the ankle snap for propulsion. Also what helps me on the underwater pullout is to think of it as a time to relax That doesn't mean to not streamline nor to not pull and kick REALLY HARD,but to realize that during the glide you really are not exerting yourself(it is also like flying and feels great.)
