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.
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Former Member
Hmmm, not sure if I have ever (in modern times) seen world class swimmers not breathe every stroke in the breaststroke. The motion is as part of the breaststroke as the hip thrust is to fly. Not my point though, what I was saying is, if you hold your breath for 10 seconds for the pull out, try releasing air from your lungs for that same 10 seconds. You will find this exercise to be repeatable more times than if you were to hold your breath.
The closer you can get to normal breathing during a race, the less winded you are going to feel.
Lindsay, you know when you get those pesky stitches (what some may call cramps) in your diaphram? That's from holding your breath, and not getting all the air out from your lungs between exhale in inhale. If you perform the slow release correctly, there will only be small amount to exhale before inhaling, reducing the risk of keeping 'old' air in your lungs.
Hmmm, not sure if I have ever (in modern times) seen world class swimmers not breathe every stroke in the breaststroke. The motion is as part of the breaststroke as the hip thrust is to fly. Not my point though, what I was saying is, if you hold your breath for 10 seconds for the pull out, try releasing air from your lungs for that same 10 seconds. You will find this exercise to be repeatable more times than if you were to hold your breath.
The closer you can get to normal breathing during a race, the less winded you are going to feel.
Lindsay, you know when you get those pesky stitches (what some may call cramps) in your diaphram? That's from holding your breath, and not getting all the air out from your lungs between exhale in inhale. If you perform the slow release correctly, there will only be small amount to exhale before inhaling, reducing the risk of keeping 'old' air in your lungs.
