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.
Former Member
www.breaststroke.info/Waynes BreaststrokeRev1.ppt
Wayne's Powerpoint presentation "Advanced Breaststroke - Ideas and drills that work" from the to the 2003 ASCA World Clinic
You need powerpoint to view it.
The mpg file is 1.4 MB, send me your email address and I will send it seperate of the PowerPoint
Wayne,
I am having trouble accesseing your great breaststroke site. Have there been any problems lately or is my network just messing with me?
Anxious to see the kicking drills, as my kick seems to have lost some of its oomph and my kick has always been the bedrock of my breaststroke.
Thanks.
It's a small metal thing that's basically like two whisks with a handle that you turn really fast and it beats the eggs together better than other more conventional methods such as a fork.
Swirl you legs from the knees down in small circles. Kinda like "Wax on. Wax off." Think about making big circles with your ankles and feet.
Err, could someone answer my question please (namely you Wayne lol share some of that infathomable knowledge about ze art of breaststroke =)).
The questions were:
1) Should I do forward or backward eggbeater?
2) Also, are the muscles that are hurting (described in the above post) the RIGHT muscles to be hurting? Or should some other muscles hurt and those muscles not hurt at all?
3) Can any dryland exercises help my ankles to make my soles clap together? Or is it impossible and one has to be born with that kind of ankles? If it is the former, what are some dryland exercises that can help me clap my soles together?
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
oh yes, one more thing. I almost fell over when I read suggestions that you should 'hold' your breath. One should never actually 'hold' their breath at anytime in a race, unless you like CO2 build up. One needs to learn to employ a 'controlled' exhale. That is, exhale slowly during the time you'd be holding your breath. You should be able to time this exhale, leaving just alittle bit of excess air to blow out prior breaking the surface for your inhale. You will find much less lung fatigue, and less feeling of oxygen starvation. Take it from a smoker, it really helps.
Try it in freestyle. Try 100s, breathing every 5 strokes (or 6 if you, like me, hate bi-latteral breathing). Try it holding your breath, and try the way I describe. Which method do you find yourself giving up the 5 stroke count the earliest?
You might find the tennis ball drill interesting. Tuck a tennis ball under your chin and try and swim normal breastroke without losing it. I found this forced me to keep my head down and also come much higher out of the water than normal in order to breathe. Like most drills, it exaggerates the desired effect.
