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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Former Member
100 Breaststroke: Not a best time but still a 1:08. My turns were ALL terrible, and my pullouts were no better. :(
www.youtube.com/watch
Thx for the vid!
I have a hard time seeing your kick when watching this but I think you should focus heavily on your arm movements anyway in the coming 6 months. In my opinion you are doing four mistakes.
#1 You pull your arms too slow.
#2 The recovery of the arms is below the water surface...creating unnecessary resistance.
#3 Your head is popping up and down disturbing your position in the water (already mentioned in a post above).
#4 Your head is never totally below the surface at any time in each stroke cycle... creating unnecessary resistance
My stroke looked like this little bit over one year ago as well. I started to mentally focus on "exploding the arms forward" in the recovery phase...and to do it on the water surface instead of beneath. This also created the positive effect that I pulled a little bit faster in the later part of the pull. This made me go faster. Dramatically. I practically "shaved off" 0.5 seconds on my personal best every 6 months as i refined my stroke. Now I have "shaved off" 2,3 seconds since I changed my technique and I still think I have lots of room for improvement. I could only do this fast arm movement for 20-25 meter though in the beginning, but now I can do a 100 with very explosive arm movements...my kick however is still terrible. That is my focus area at the moment :)
Look at this Youtube clip of the master himself. Notice how unbelievable fast he does the arm movements and how fast he shoots the arms forward in the recovery phase on the surface. This is what I am trying to achieve myself :)
www.youtube.com/watch
With this modified technique you will swim with higher speed. Allowing you to glide a little bit more (with head totally below surface). Leading to fewer strokes per length. Now you do 10-12 strokes per length. I guess this is a yard pool??...you should have like 6-8 strokes each lengt in that case. This will make you last longer in the 100 and still going way faster than you do today.
Good luck!
/Per
100 Breaststroke: Not a best time but still a 1:08. My turns were ALL terrible, and my pullouts were no better. :(
www.youtube.com/watch
Thx for the vid!
I have a hard time seeing your kick when watching this but I think you should focus heavily on your arm movements anyway in the coming 6 months. In my opinion you are doing four mistakes.
#1 You pull your arms too slow.
#2 The recovery of the arms is below the water surface...creating unnecessary resistance.
#3 Your head is popping up and down disturbing your position in the water (already mentioned in a post above).
#4 Your head is never totally below the surface at any time in each stroke cycle... creating unnecessary resistance
My stroke looked like this little bit over one year ago as well. I started to mentally focus on "exploding the arms forward" in the recovery phase...and to do it on the water surface instead of beneath. This also created the positive effect that I pulled a little bit faster in the later part of the pull. This made me go faster. Dramatically. I practically "shaved off" 0.5 seconds on my personal best every 6 months as i refined my stroke. Now I have "shaved off" 2,3 seconds since I changed my technique and I still think I have lots of room for improvement. I could only do this fast arm movement for 20-25 meter though in the beginning, but now I can do a 100 with very explosive arm movements...my kick however is still terrible. That is my focus area at the moment :)
Look at this Youtube clip of the master himself. Notice how unbelievable fast he does the arm movements and how fast he shoots the arms forward in the recovery phase on the surface. This is what I am trying to achieve myself :)
www.youtube.com/watch
With this modified technique you will swim with higher speed. Allowing you to glide a little bit more (with head totally below surface). Leading to fewer strokes per length. Now you do 10-12 strokes per length. I guess this is a yard pool??...you should have like 6-8 strokes each lengt in that case. This will make you last longer in the 100 and still going way faster than you do today.
Good luck!
/Per
