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.
Parents
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
....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.
