I practiced a few lenghts of breaststroke the other day and had an instructor watch me. He suggested pulling the arms in almost a dog -paddle like fashion, with the hands going no more than shoulder width all the way through the stroke. It did this a few times and it felt pretty good. However, it looks like recommendations on this site and others is to open the arms much wider and higher in the water.
Is this the newer method? Perhaps, he just knows the way that he was taught many years ago. I assume that stroke technique recommendations change over time and there's some debate over what works and what doesn't. Is this an accurate statement???
As always, thanks for your insight!
:wave:
Hello!
However, to be able to swim this wide with the arms you need to be very strong (and fully tapered) IMO:
I agree with Allen that you should build up to a good stroke, then if you choose to do a meet and taper, keep at what you're doing at that point, while cutting back distance. When I did meets, I was always cautious when a coach would have me change things close to a meet, especially with breaststroke.
Swimming *** is usually the best practice. Sure, you can do some weights also; I've found that chest/fly reps (both with a machine and dumbells) help me the most for *** arms. If you plan to do a meet some day, practice doing some fast sets periodically, depending when the meet is and the distance you'd plan to swim.
Hello!
However, to be able to swim this wide with the arms you need to be very strong (and fully tapered) IMO:
I agree with Allen that you should build up to a good stroke, then if you choose to do a meet and taper, keep at what you're doing at that point, while cutting back distance. When I did meets, I was always cautious when a coach would have me change things close to a meet, especially with breaststroke.
Swimming *** is usually the best practice. Sure, you can do some weights also; I've found that chest/fly reps (both with a machine and dumbells) help me the most for *** arms. If you plan to do a meet some day, practice doing some fast sets periodically, depending when the meet is and the distance you'd plan to swim.
