Breaststroke head drill

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. I hear that. I'm just trying to eradicate the throw up motion...over correction for a bit might help overhaul me into a neutral position. My big problem is either timing or lack of flexibility in getting my torso clear enough to breathe. Possibly I am just a flat stroker, and thus sucking in some water due to not clearing the surface properly.

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. Okies. Thanks Jeff. I'll skip the ball for now. Any tips for getting a bit more height on the wave. Or is this perhaps more a mental thing with the breathing?

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. 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.

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. Ugh dolphin kick is a bigger issue for me...I just get deeper and deeper... I'm just going to work on the streamline and head position for now. Too much will just ruin my stroke (further) and make me miserable ahead of Zones. Season is almost over anwhooooo. Then I can get to work. Only plan one pool event over the summer.

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!