Hi all, I'm new back into swimming after taking the last 14 or so years "off". When I was last swimming, the wave style breaststroke was really just coming into its own and I never fully got it down. I'm trying to train it now but I have a question--are people still pulling their hands out of the water with each stroke? These seems like a terrible waste of effort if you're just going to push back down into a streamline... Thanks for your thoughts!
Keith
Here I am, chiming in.
You are allowed to recover your hands over the water on breaststroke, but as you might have seen and heard, all sorts of great swimmers recover in varying degrees. Because there is no absolute way to efficiently recover your arms on breaststroke (as opposed to backstroke or freestyle), work to find what suits you best.
I recover my hands underwater, with a very slight skimming of the surface, for the reason you mentioned, Midas: why recover so far above the water if they're just going right back in? But to do the wave breaststroke properly, you must have some type of arc in the recovery to facilitate the body moving in that same motion.
Start by doing a lot of breaststroke pulling, either with fins or without them. In either case, do a slight dolphin kick and work on a fast arm recovery. Give your body a few weeks -- four to five of constant work -- to find what suits your body type best.
As I say many times, it's great to watch the best in the world swim perfectly. But it's best to find what works best for you.
Here I am, chiming in.
You are allowed to recover your hands over the water on breaststroke, but as you might have seen and heard, all sorts of great swimmers recover in varying degrees. Because there is no absolute way to efficiently recover your arms on breaststroke (as opposed to backstroke or freestyle), work to find what suits you best.
I recover my hands underwater, with a very slight skimming of the surface, for the reason you mentioned, Midas: why recover so far above the water if they're just going right back in? But to do the wave breaststroke properly, you must have some type of arc in the recovery to facilitate the body moving in that same motion.
Start by doing a lot of breaststroke pulling, either with fins or without them. In either case, do a slight dolphin kick and work on a fast arm recovery. Give your body a few weeks -- four to five of constant work -- to find what suits your body type best.
As I say many times, it's great to watch the best in the world swim perfectly. But it's best to find what works best for you.
