In breaststroke, why head pops vertically so much?
Former Member
As obvious from watching breaststrokers in the pool, their heads and upper body seem to have more vertical movements than forward movements?? The scene is: up, down, up, down,... Some swimmers seem to be even looking down at the water under their chin, rather than looking forward. Isn't that a lot of waste of energy? Why not flatten and extend your body more and keep parallel to the water so most of the movement is going forward instead of vertical popping? :confused: There must be a reason behind this since a lot (maybe most) of people do so?
Too much up and down movement does slow one down.Look at videos of Kitajima from 2007vs 2008 and you can see he is flatter and faster in 2008.Some up and down movement is necessary however.If you raise your head at the neck to breath your hips will sink,so you should raise at the torso to breath.Go to www.breaststroke.info and read Wayne's articles on"What Went Wrong with the Wave Breaststroke" and "What Went Right with the Wave Breaststroke."
Former Member
My coach always tells me "stop looking at the wall", I watch my hands and concentrate my thinking on the stroke
you should keep your spine extended, if you look forward it wont be extended because of your head up (looking down is an option)
If you watch videos, the best swimmers have little head movement (hansen, kitajima,), I think that makes you lose control of the stroke, thats why
Former Member
Many thanks for the link, Allen. That's just what I'm interested to read about. Very interesting this "wave" style. Whether it's faster or not, I honestly don't find it look very graceful :cool:
Former Member
Too much up and down movement does slow one down.Look at videos of Kitajima from 2007vs 2008 and you can see he is flatter and faster in 2008.Some up and down movement is necessary however.If you raise your head at the neck to breath your hips will sink,so you should raise at the torso to breath.Go to www.breaststroke.info and read Wayne's articles on"What Went Wrong with the Wave Breaststroke" and "What Went Right with the Wave Breaststroke."
I could not agree more with this post!
I'm curious about this statement from "What Went Wrong ...":
Wave drag or surface drag is velocity multiplied by area cubed, while underwater drag is velocity multiplied by area squared. It is much better to spend more time underwater than on the surface.
Cubed vs. squared or just a larger constant of proportionality?
Underwater,drag goes up as the square of speed.On the surface it is much more complicated,but drag going up as the cube of speed is roughly accurate at elite human racing speeds.At these speeds on the surface,wave drag is the main "force" to be overcome.
Former Member
That was very good. I learned a lot from that, especially when they verified doing most of it under water. I never knew exactly what to look for in breaststroke, I just knew how to teach the basics. I also like the thumb over hand stream line thing. That's awesome. I'm going to start teaching that asap.