PURPOSE:To assess the effect of adding a dolphin kick to a breaststroke pullout.
METHODS:Eleven (20.9±2.3 yrs, 1.86±0.05 m, 79.6±5.5 kg) swimmers experienced with performing traditional and dolphin kick breaststroke pullouts participated in the study. Underwater video analysis was used to track whole body center of mass kinematics during a pullout. Time for the center of mass to travel distances ranging from 2.5-4 m from the initiation of the pullout were computed. Hand force data were derived from differential pressure measurements during the pulling phase of the pullout.
RESULTS:Use of a dolphin kick in a breaststroke pullout significantly (p=0.016) improved performance. Time for the center of mass to travel 4m after the initiation of the pull was reduced by 0.19 s. This performance improvement was not attributable to enhanced force production from the pull. Hand force was not significantly different between pullout techniques for the right hand (p=0.142) nor left hand (p=0.303). Total impulse produced by the pull was reduced by 3.6% (p=0.039, ES=0.34) when using the dolphin kick pullout.
CONCLUSIONS:These data suggest that the use of a dolphin kick during a breaststroke pullout provides a significant advantage over the traditional no-dolphin kick pullout. Furthermore, this advantage comes from enhanced propulsion from the kick but not the pull.
I'd be more interested in time differences, a 50/100/200 *** with and without the dolphin kicks. I have no idea what the results referenced mean.
It seems to me an average of 0.19 seconds per pullout. Pretty significant when you get out to a short course 200 ***. That would be 1.5 seconds.
If I'm reading the excerpt correctly, it references a range of 2.5 to 4 m. I'd rather see that range increased to a full event distance.
That wouldn't work. They need to isolate the effect of the dolphin kick. If they measured an entire race it would be too difficult to exclude other effects.
Anything allowed in the rules is, by definition, not cheating. You don't see many people still touching the wall on their backs in backstroke turns, do you?
It's good to see validation, but I thought most breaststrokers now did a butterfly kick during their pulldown. What I want to know is when is the optimal time to do it. I've had this debate before, but Kitajima and Liesel Jones both do their butterfly kick BEFORE their pulldowns. Most Americans do their butterfly kick near the end of their pulldowns. Arguably, doing the butterfly kick first is not consistent with the rules (and if so, the rule should be revised to clearly permit this). It FEELS faster to me to do the butterfly kick first, but I don't know if this is true for a fact. My times don't appear to bear that out, though clearly there are many factors to take into consideration...
It's not hard to do the butterfly kick near the end of the pulldown, since the pulldown is close enough to a butterfly pull that the kick can feel very natural. It sounds like at a minimum, everybody should at least do that.
eh - this is good info for this breaststroker. What's the information source?
Dang it though, my ankle inflexibility makes this somewhat limiting for me. My ankles make my feet nothing but two big old boat anchors.
PURPOSE:To assess the effect of adding a dolphin kick to a breaststroke pullout.
METHODS:Eleven (20.9±2.3 yrs, 1.86±0.05 m, 79.6±5.5 kg) swimmers experienced with performing traditional and dolphin kick breaststroke pullouts participated in the study. Underwater video analysis was used to track whole body center of mass kinematics during a pullout. Time for the center of mass to travel distances ranging from 2.5-4 m from the initiation of the pullout were computed. Hand force data were derived from differential pressure measurements during the pulling phase of the pullout.
RESULTS:Use of a dolphin kick in a breaststroke pullout significantly (p=0.016) improved performance. Time for the center of mass to travel 4m after the initiation of the pull was reduced by 0.19 s. This performance improvement was not attributable to enhanced force production from the pull. Hand force was not significantly different between pullout techniques for the right hand (p=0.142) nor left hand (p=0.303). Total impulse produced by the pull was reduced by 3.6% (p=0.039, ES=0.34) when using the dolphin kick pullout.
CONCLUSIONS:These data suggest that the use of a dolphin kick during a breaststroke pullout provides a significant advantage over the traditional no-dolphin kick pullout. Furthermore, this advantage comes from enhanced propulsion from the kick but not the pull.
Here is the source - they often come up with all kinds of interesting stuff. There is another one on the thumb position: ACSM 55th Annual Meeting Indianapolis, Presentation Number, 2110.
Just to clarify and translate -
Time for the center of mass to travel distances ranging from 2.5-4 m from the initiation of the pullout were computed
This is for a single pull-out and the analysis starts from the initiation of the pull-out (not starting from the wall - and no, they did not study Kitajima's pullout)
if I expend extra energy for a dolphin kick every 25/50 it will cost me somewhere else.
Even if it were 1.5 seconds over the course of a 200, for me that is about a .5% to 1% improvement. I'd rather spend the time I could spend on this to learn better effeciencies elsewhere in my stroke. Time spent learning a more efficient dive could probably give as much or more improvement, and could be transferrable to other strokes.
That makes no sense - are you really trying to tell me that you are not doing a single dolphin kick on your breaststroke pull-out ?
Correct, never have and never will. I consider it cheating
It used to be cheating.
Do you still touch the wall with your hand on freestyle turns? Do you let your head go underwater on breaststroke?...
Anything that can be done to make that stroke faster is a plus.
Bless you Kitajima you cheater you.
