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.
Parents
Former Member
Draconis,
Get a 2x4 (or a 2x6 if you got wide feet :) ), stand on it making sure your entire foot is on the board, feet facing away from one another. Depending on how flexible your hips are, you may have to 'squat' to do this (like a summo wrestler). There you have it, your feet will be turned 90 degrees.
Once you get comfortable with this position, do jumps. Start squated with your feet turned out and placed outside the line with your shoulders, jump into the air, and clap the bottoms of your feet together (all in a single motion). Then try to land with your feet turned out again, outside the line with your shoulders.
Or you can do what I did, by habbit, and walk duckfooted. My college coach new immediately what stroke I swam, when I came walking (or waddling) onto the pool deck.
Joe Bubel
Draconis,
Get a 2x4 (or a 2x6 if you got wide feet :) ), stand on it making sure your entire foot is on the board, feet facing away from one another. Depending on how flexible your hips are, you may have to 'squat' to do this (like a summo wrestler). There you have it, your feet will be turned 90 degrees.
Once you get comfortable with this position, do jumps. Start squated with your feet turned out and placed outside the line with your shoulders, jump into the air, and clap the bottoms of your feet together (all in a single motion). Then try to land with your feet turned out again, outside the line with your shoulders.
Or you can do what I did, by habbit, and walk duckfooted. My college coach new immediately what stroke I swam, when I came walking (or waddling) onto the pool deck.
Joe Bubel
