What is "hinging" in BR and how do you do it?

Jeff is right. A mistake many (most?) non-breastrokers make is that they keep their hips high in the water when kicking, which leads to: (a) knees forward, creating resistance (like putting on the brakes), and/or (b) feet out of the water when kicking (loses power) Focus on driving your hips down while bringing your feet up to your butt, and keep your kees fairly close together. Does this help? Jim, does this mean you breathe with chin forward? I've been told to breathe looking down 45 degrees without curling the neck, and stay as flat as possible in the water. I also found that at least 2/3 of propulsion comes from the legs in breaststroke.

I think this makes sense. So your hips are low while you're drawing your knees up. Then your hips pop back up as you are lunging forward to finish the pull? I guess, as Jeff mentioned, too big a hinge and you're up too high in the water? Leslie, one of the positive effects of the hinge in breaststroke is that, during the post-arm-recovery dive and subsequent kick, your legs and trunk power downward in the water, hinged at the hips. There is a component of downward thrust to the kick as well as the froggy-type motion. That is, the body's core produces some element of power in the kick, much the same way as dolphin kicking does in fly. Because of a hinge at the waist, the breaststroke kick now provides power in two planes in the water: one is the horizontal (froggy-style) plane and the other is vertical from the downward component of the kick. It's not dolphin but has a dolphin-like action to it. It is this part of the kick that seems to me to give breaststrokers their common problems with 'sports hernias,' the strain to the groin muscles. When you've got this working, you should feel like the Loch Ness Monster snaking through the water!

The myth about breaststroke is that the knees do not drop or leave the pocket. meldyck I like what you say. Please explain is the hinge exclusivley at the waist or is the hinge in the arms - elbows also.

The myth about breaststroke is that the knees do not drop or leave the pocket. meldyck I like what you say. Please explain is the hinge exclusivley at the waist or is the hinge in the arms - elbows also. George, for me, it's just at the waist. And, yes, my knees do drop during the pull. I read something from Kurt Grote (I think it was) that said that he didn't successfully learn the wave until he learned how to thrust his hips forward during the pull. This aids the trunk in coming high enough in the water to achieve an arm recovery that is either slightly out of or just below the surface of the water where the resistance is lower due to mixing in air in the water (hence the speed of the arm recovery can be faster). During that part of the stroke, the knees will drop, while the swimmer is loading the legs for the kick - bringing the heels up to the butt. Hope this helps!

Thanks Mel I remember being told I was wrong when I mentioned knee position in breaststroke, but what I teach is what you described. I was a very good breaststroker in my youth but after a car accident and my knees putting a dent in the dashboard, my knees were useless when trying to be a breastroker. I did fake the kick after that without applying pressure.

Are these techniques (hinge, wave, etc) that lead to big time drops if you can get the hang of them? I think i'm stuck behind a wall of water that just presses back more the harder I work. A recent time is :41.02 for 50 BR SCM, nothing to get excited about.

That wall of water - to me it looks like they grab the other side of the wall and press on it as the wall moves forward.

If you feel like you are pushing a wall of water then probably you are probably either lifting your head or getting stuck in the transition from insweep to recovery.Work on keeping your head down and on accelerating your pull from catch through insweep to recovery.

I am going to give you all I can find on the hinge. www.jcswimschool.co.nz/effective_breaststroke.htm books.google.com/books 8. The last word of a champion: Keep your stroke in shape with drills. "Nothing puts my stroke right as quickly as stroke drills." In fact, 10 minutes before he went off the blocks for the world championships final in Perth, Grote was in the warm-up pool, getting in a few last minute tune-up lengths with stroke drills. That's clearly a strategy that works. How about that! "The last word of a champion." I apologize to anyone who has previously quoted #8 above. I didn't make it any further than this entry in the thread. 'nuff said in my opinion. Thanks Geochuck, you nvr cs t amz. jst btifl!