I saw a post on these forums with a link to a site discussing the future of breaststroke and the idea of NOT breathing every stroke. I can see how it might be advantageous, especially in a 50.
For those not familiar, the idea is that during your main stroke phase, every other stroke you pull as though you're going to take a breath, you still come up but not nearly as much as a breathing stroke. It seems to me (this, having not tried it yet) that this would allow you to not only conserve energy but also actually deliver more force to the water due to a more opportune angle to move forward. It also seems like it would allow you to stay in a lower stroke, also allowing for a quicker and more effective streamline each non-breathing stroke.
Well, my question is this, do you guys think that it's a good idea to start working toward this sort of stroke, also, if I have a meet tonight should I risk it?
I think that for the 50 it is a definite plus, but what about the 100? My 100 Breaststroke time is a 1:07.16 currently so I would be more than just a bit outside of the 40 second rule for no breathing. I'm also worried that breathing less means that my pullout will be less effective due to a lack of oxygen, is this concern warranted?
My 50 time is currently a 30.19, I really want to get it under 30 seconds. Do you guys think that not breathing each stroke will make a significant difference?
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my opening 50 is normally a 31 or so, and my closer is the one that weighs me down the most. I basically closed a 38 tonight. That seems wrong. What can I work on to maximize my stroke for the second 50? Should I glide more? Should I stroke faster? What can counteract the losses due to fatigue?
You seem to be suffering from the same thing I am suffering from. You probably have a strong start and turn which gives you a reasonable good time in the 50...but your swimming is not relatively as good as your start and turns so you suffer heavily when you dont have the same speed advantage from the start in the second 50. A normal second 50 would say +4-5 seconds from the first one given that you are in good shape. However if you can do 29 in practice you should definately not open in 31...you should be going 29.5 or something...then back home in 33.5 ending up with 1.03.0
Check your 2nd and 3rd 25 splits. add them together. That is the time you should be able to go in your last 50 if you dont suffer too much from fatigue.
Another tip when not in top shape to avoid a poor second 50 is to open the first 25 in 95% go 97% in the second end then all out in the last 50.
:2cents:
/Per
PS Are you talking SCY/SCM/LCM times here?
my opening 50 is normally a 31 or so, and my closer is the one that weighs me down the most. I basically closed a 38 tonight. That seems wrong. What can I work on to maximize my stroke for the second 50? Should I glide more? Should I stroke faster? What can counteract the losses due to fatigue?
You seem to be suffering from the same thing I am suffering from. You probably have a strong start and turn which gives you a reasonable good time in the 50...but your swimming is not relatively as good as your start and turns so you suffer heavily when you dont have the same speed advantage from the start in the second 50. A normal second 50 would say +4-5 seconds from the first one given that you are in good shape. However if you can do 29 in practice you should definately not open in 31...you should be going 29.5 or something...then back home in 33.5 ending up with 1.03.0
Check your 2nd and 3rd 25 splits. add them together. That is the time you should be able to go in your last 50 if you dont suffer too much from fatigue.
Another tip when not in top shape to avoid a poor second 50 is to open the first 25 in 95% go 97% in the second end then all out in the last 50.
:2cents:
/Per
PS Are you talking SCY/SCM/LCM times here?
