My son (14) has a natural and powerful breaststroke leg kick. With a kickboard he can beat everyone in his club except for one swimmer (who was a state champion). However, his full stroke is much less successful and I'm not sure what the problem is. He does not glide enough but when he tries to glide he slows down. His hips are lower in the water than when he uses the kickboard. His head is a little high. Could this be his problem? He is much more succesful at short sprints than long distance.
Parents
Former Member
Originally posted by rbertolo
....He does not glide enough but when he tries to glide he slows down. His hips are lower in the water than when he uses the kickboard. His head is a little high. Could this be his problem?....
Yes, but I’m no expert.
The only time I feel like I can raise my head a bit, and allow my hips to drop a bit, are when I’m really powered up in a freestyle sprint. (I don’t have any scientific proof of this, it just “feels” faster.) In all other cases raising my head forces my hips to drop and kills my speed.
In practice I work on finding a glide position in all my strokes, it works wonders for locating an ideal streamlined position. I use the longest glide in breaststroke. You won’t find my name in any record books, but I am efficient.
I believe speed is a natural byproduct of efficiency, so I focus mostly on technique. Physical conditioning and natural talent is also going to be a deciding factor in being fastest, but I believe it is mental attitude more than anything else that really separates the winners from the rest of the crowd. And furthermore, not being fastest does not necessarily mean you are not a winner.
There are also a lot of great videos at:
swim.ee/.../index_example.html
But in recent months the transfer rate has been abysmally slow. (Has anyone else experienced this?)
I find the best way to watch these vids is to download then to my local HDD and watch them with QuickTime, which allows me to pause and then view the vid frame-by-frame (by dragging the slider/scrollbar and/or using the arrow keys).
expert \`ek-spert\ n - "x" = the unknown factor, "spurt" = a drip under pressure.
Originally posted by rbertolo
....He does not glide enough but when he tries to glide he slows down. His hips are lower in the water than when he uses the kickboard. His head is a little high. Could this be his problem?....
Yes, but I’m no expert.
The only time I feel like I can raise my head a bit, and allow my hips to drop a bit, are when I’m really powered up in a freestyle sprint. (I don’t have any scientific proof of this, it just “feels” faster.) In all other cases raising my head forces my hips to drop and kills my speed.
In practice I work on finding a glide position in all my strokes, it works wonders for locating an ideal streamlined position. I use the longest glide in breaststroke. You won’t find my name in any record books, but I am efficient.
I believe speed is a natural byproduct of efficiency, so I focus mostly on technique. Physical conditioning and natural talent is also going to be a deciding factor in being fastest, but I believe it is mental attitude more than anything else that really separates the winners from the rest of the crowd. And furthermore, not being fastest does not necessarily mean you are not a winner.
There are also a lot of great videos at:
swim.ee/.../index_example.html
But in recent months the transfer rate has been abysmally slow. (Has anyone else experienced this?)
I find the best way to watch these vids is to download then to my local HDD and watch them with QuickTime, which allows me to pause and then view the vid frame-by-frame (by dragging the slider/scrollbar and/or using the arrow keys).
expert \`ek-spert\ n - "x" = the unknown factor, "spurt" = a drip under pressure.
