I have noticed a change in the breaststroke after a few years of not coaching. I haven't been formally educated in the changes and was wondering what others understand about them.
I swam in the late 80's when the emphasis was getting the upper body out of the water for an almost out of the water recovery. I spent all sorts of time pulling breaststroke with fins and a dolphin kick through college.
Now, it seems that staying a bit lower to the water and actually diving under at the front of the stroke is the key. I have to say this stroke is actually easier for me to do and seems logical in that the emphasis should be forward as opposed to expending energy recovering too high. Seems like you can get much better distance per stroke this way.
Is this a correct understanding? I don't swim with a team in my area as there are none close by with any kind of serious coaching.
I think breaststroke exhibits the widest range of styles of any stroke at the top level. For example, chaeck out the different styles in the women's 100 *** from the Santa Clara meet this past weekend: www.swimnetwork.com/.../women_s_100m_breast___a_final-12060.html
Tara Kirk stays very low in the water. Genna Patterson, who's third in this race, has a very flat stroke that probably would have been legal in 1980. Amanda Beard, who is lane 9, so a little difficult to see still uses the wave style stroke where she lifts alomost her entire upper body out of the water.
The bottom line is there are many ways to swim breaststroke fast. I think Ande is right. No matter the style the key is power during the stroke and staying very streamlined during the glide. I guess this is sort of a "duh," but most of us--me definitely included--haven't gotten this down yet!
I think breaststroke exhibits the widest range of styles of any stroke at the top level. For example, chaeck out the different styles in the women's 100 *** from the Santa Clara meet this past weekend: www.swimnetwork.com/.../women_s_100m_breast___a_final-12060.html
Tara Kirk stays very low in the water. Genna Patterson, who's third in this race, has a very flat stroke that probably would have been legal in 1980. Amanda Beard, who is lane 9, so a little difficult to see still uses the wave style stroke where she lifts alomost her entire upper body out of the water.
The bottom line is there are many ways to swim breaststroke fast. I think Ande is right. No matter the style the key is power during the stroke and staying very streamlined during the glide. I guess this is sort of a "duh," but most of us--me definitely included--haven't gotten this down yet!
