Breaststroke head drill

So, If my head is above water and I'm looking forward how can my head be in the right position? cause your supposed to look forward, this drill doesn't give your perfect head position but it teaches you not to drop your head early. according to eddie resse the way it should be is if you atached a string to your thumbs and taped it to your forehead you should look foreward untill your arms are about 4 to 5 inches from being fully extendend at which point the string would become tight and pull your head down.

Our age group coach has the kids do this drill from time to time. Usually on a set of 25's. It helps to limit the head bobbing during the pull/breath part of the stroke. Stussy told me to swim with a tennis ball under my chin to get used to not moving. anyone else tried this? Or hae other drills and a set for such? I was just gong to do some streamline, turns and pull outs work and throw in 4x 50 with the tennis ball. Slow at first and try to add speed. Then move into my regular BR work. Thoughts?

Seems to me that would put your head in an unfavorable flexed position for the stroke. Unless you have an unusually long chin or extremely prominent Adam's Apple, that is.

Your head should not be rigid while swimming breaststroke. There should be movement in your neck, which is why I condemn this drill. I agree your eyes should not be looking parallel to the water's surface, but there is some variance in head position, which helps give your body the undulation it needs (the "wave" starts at your head and works down to your feet). If you want to work on head position, do some underwater breaststroke swimming. If you lift your head, you'll feel a lot of resistance. Keep it fairly neutral, but do not tuck your chin in.

I find the tennis ball drill does keep my neck too flexed,but it is a good reminder to keep my head down. What I use more is this: I take my center mount snorkle,turn it upside down,turn the mouthpiece backward,and wear it backwards. this has the long end down my back keeping my head in neutral position.

I wouldn't worry about getting height on the breath,look at how flat Liesel Jones is. As long as you do not flex at the hips on the kick and do not raise your head to breath you will have to have some undulation. The more important thing is being streamlined for the kick. See Wayne's article "What went right with the wave breaststroke." at breaststroke.info.

Your head should not be rigid while swimming breaststroke. There should be movement in your neck, which is why I condemn this drill. If you want to work on head position, do some underwater breaststroke swimming. If you lift your head, you'll feel a lot of resistance. Keep it fairly neutral, but do not tuck your chin in. There's a drill the Auburn breaststrokers call the "Carla Drill". It's basically 3 underwater breaststroke pulls with a dolphin kick rather than a whip kick, with a single-arm fly breath after each 3 underwater pulls. It reinforces undulation while helping minimize drag on the pull recovery. That might help your overall issue, though it doesn't specifically address head position.

Argh I need a clinic... LOL I try to raise the hips just as I kick and then press my chest into the glide--to aim for "downhill" I may delay my kick a touch longer and get those arms right out first. You're getting a clinic right here, albeit a dry one. I'm a horrible breaststroker but it's improving as a result of the advice you're recieving from the experts. I've been delaying the kick and it has made a difference. I try to keep my feet in contact with each other, legs straight and toes pointed until my hands have nearly finished the insweep. By doing this, I've found that my upper body is back in a streamline as I kick.

If you can do the fly drill for pushing the chest forward, try alternating one fly stroke and one *** stroke concentrating on pushing down with the chest on both.....hope that makes sense! This is a great drill for both *** and fly.

I have done the breaststroke head up drill and I think it is a great handspeed drill.I have never thought of it as a head position drill. It's a little hard to see Hansen's head position on that tape as the best shots are underwater,but he certainly does't seem to move his head much on the other tapes that I've seen of him.I agree with Jeff that a little neck motion is natural(it's hard to go wrong about breaststroke agreeing with Jeff) but I don't agree with looking forward. Also looking at Rich's video his neck is too arched when he swims so any drill to correct that will be good. Jeff,I find the underwater breaststroke drill good for many things,but not for undulation,am I missing something? Well I did 1250 free tonight to warm up worked on streamlining and was getting to the 10yard area without anything more than a push (I'm working to 1650 Free), then I went to my 50's of BR 12x50, 9x50 +5sec, 6x 50 +5 sec, 4 x50+5 sec. I couldn't go after the first 2 sets I'd worked streamline and keeping head still and my form was as the point where I would have been starting to get sloppy. I'd glugged a couple of mouthfuls and decided to call it and not do BAD form just to get yards in (I think that was wise). I then did some *** pullouts,and got past the halfway mark of the pool from both a push and from a dive--I actually had a couple of really nice feeling 50's where I felt myself diving forward. Finished off with 200 Free for about a 2500 workout. This post makes me sound like a poor man's version of Ande lol