I know that in the "wave" breaststroke you should not come up too high because your hip sinks, so one should not over emphasize the out-of-water part of the wave.
But then, what about the in-the-water part of the wave? How much should you undulate?
I know that I should move forward, but then I see like some of the other great breaststrokers, like Oleg Lisogor, Mark Warnecke and Polyakov, they undulate going up and down a lot. Especially in the Shanghai World Cup you could see Lisogor and Polyakov's butts coming out of the water on every stroke, and the same was for Warnecke in 2005's World Championships.
So basically, to wave or not to wave, that is the question. Does it also depend on the swimmer's body type and everything?
One more quickie question: I also saw on the videos Lisogor's hips were VERY shallow in the water and he seems to be skimming ont he water. He also has this beautiful forward arched-back lunge movement and his hip STILL stays high. How can I practice that?
Incidentally, I saw this on wikipedia today:
Professional breaststrokers utilize abdominal muscles and hips to add extra power to the kick, although most do not perfect this technique until the collegiate level.
Due to the nature of wikipedia I didn't believe it immediately. Is this true? If so, how are those muscles and hips used?
Thanks everyone.
Former Member
Originally posted by aquafiend
....Due to the nature of wikipedia I didn't believe it immediately. Is this true? If so, how are those muscles and hips used?....
It wouldn’t surprise me. I did not realize how important core body strength was to all four competitive strokes until I began to feel like I truly had an understanding of butterfly.
The moment of truth was brief, but memorable. It came as I really began making fly a whole body stroke and those previously unused core muscles (now complaining) began to spark up as I tried to stretch out and relax deeper into the other three strokes. I don’t notice it so much now, I reckon because I’ve either gotten better conditioning, or I’ve gotten lazy (again).
Fly is a spin-off of ***. As I got more adept at fly I noticed changes in my breaststroke, a sort of wave motion. I’d heard of “wave breaststroke”, but did not understand what it was till then as I had not been instructed in it. This understanding was a bit of a revelation to me, which either proves how clueless I really am, or that paying careful attention to your body as it moves through the water can do a lot toward improving your stroke efficiency.
I’ve used Wikipedia.org for a lot of things, but not swimming, thanks for the tip.
Originally posted by aquafiend
....Especially in the Shanghai World Cup you could see Lisogor and Polyakov's butts coming out of the water on every stroke, and the same was for Warnecke in 2005's World Championships....
I’ve been curious about the current theory on this issue for quite some time, so I’d like to hear some feedback from some of our local “experts” too. ;-)
In the early 70’s, when I was in high school, I was informed that your butt was supposed to come up out of the water for every stroke. I still apply that thought in my practice today. But today I see folks launching themselves (and their hands) out of the water on the recovery for breaststroke, and have wondered if the “butt out” rule still applies. It looks like it would be really awkward and not worth the effort, though obviously the flatter your body is in the water the better the streamlining (thus reducing drag). I’ve heard the same (“butt out”) about butterfly, and it makes sense, and seems difficult, for all the same reasons.
Occasionally I hit a sweet spot in my rhythm for fly and *** where I can keep my hips (or butt) up and still have it feel like the stroke is flowing naturally (as opposed to feeling like I’m trying to twist it into something unnatural). It is a difficult spot to hold onto, but you only have to hit it once to make you keep trying. The image that I focus on that helps most is one of going forward over the water as opposed to through it, or even up over it.
I don’t ever see myself doing the lunge, hands over the water recovery for ***, it is just way to stressful on my (arthritic) shoulders.
I gotta agree with Bud. I was trying underwater dolphin kick (on my belly) and going nowhere. (Fish flopping on a dock comes to mind.) After experimenting, I am finally coordinated enough to undulate down the pool... Just moving the hips up and down won't work unless you can channel that into forward motion.
As for the over-the-water hand lunge, I'll trust what Nadine said at her clinic. The emphasis is not getting the hands out of the water. Instead, their upper body is high enough (as part of the lunge), that their normal hand recovery is (naturally) out of the water.
