I could use some advice from experienced breaststrokers on the proper pull technique. I have a naturally good breaststroke kick, which probably makes up 90% of my propulsion at this point. I know that breaststroke is the stroke with the most potential for me, but I seem unable to get the right feel for the pull. Every once in a while I have one of those really smooth swims where I can feel myself riding the wave, but I cannot recreate that at will.
I've tried the hand paddles drill where I swim BR with the paddles on backwards so they are not attached to my hands at all. I can keep the paddles on pretty easily. I think I'm using the right basic technique, at least based on all the descriptions I've been able to find. Yet when I swim ***, my coach says that my arms look "stiff", like I'm not turning them in enough.
I would like to understand what the proper pull should look like and feel like, before I start increasing my yardage and intensity.
TIA
Parents
Former Member
I was just told recently that the trend is moving towards keeping the palms down, that it is supposed to help you push down and stay on top of the water. Unfortunately I can't get it to work all that well, though maybe it is the absence of a froggy kick. :cane:
I was fast as a kid palms up old style...faster than my peers were at freestyle. I think there is a way around everything. Kick timing is key...trying to optimise the "when" myself.
The way I see it, you're turning your wrists at some point; just as you lunge or at the start of the outsweep. You have to turn them. Hands up or down at during the streamline will not make a difference. I'd like to hear from some top BR'ers who have experimented with theis and who have the insight to define what works best.
In my limited knowledge of the stroke, the fly pull rather than and outsweep gives you more of a lift from the arms. I've been avoiding that in search of finding the lift from the core and the "undulation" that should come from the wave. Sometimes it's there and it's glorious...othertimes it is not.
Mainly though, I'm a masters swimmer, within reason I'll do what doesn't hurt/comes easiest. Heck my recovery near goes over the water anyhow...I was critiqued on this several times but my fastest time was with hands over; not skimming...not under. Anyhow I'm not going for the olympics a tenth of a second here or there doesn't ruin my life. :D
I was just told recently that the trend is moving towards keeping the palms down, that it is supposed to help you push down and stay on top of the water. Unfortunately I can't get it to work all that well, though maybe it is the absence of a froggy kick. :cane:
I was fast as a kid palms up old style...faster than my peers were at freestyle. I think there is a way around everything. Kick timing is key...trying to optimise the "when" myself.
The way I see it, you're turning your wrists at some point; just as you lunge or at the start of the outsweep. You have to turn them. Hands up or down at during the streamline will not make a difference. I'd like to hear from some top BR'ers who have experimented with theis and who have the insight to define what works best.
In my limited knowledge of the stroke, the fly pull rather than and outsweep gives you more of a lift from the arms. I've been avoiding that in search of finding the lift from the core and the "undulation" that should come from the wave. Sometimes it's there and it's glorious...othertimes it is not.
Mainly though, I'm a masters swimmer, within reason I'll do what doesn't hurt/comes easiest. Heck my recovery near goes over the water anyhow...I was critiqued on this several times but my fastest time was with hands over; not skimming...not under. Anyhow I'm not going for the olympics a tenth of a second here or there doesn't ruin my life. :D
