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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So I should focus on making my transition from my pull to my glide phase a hard and almost instantaneous motion? Also, I think the in-sweep alteration mentioned is similar to what a friend of mine (a college swimmer) told me, I need to suck in HARD in terms of my arms, going from the glide to the pull, once at my normal arm position, rather than sliding my arms to my side forcefully suck them in and throw out forward?
I'll be on tomorrow at around 12:00 am EST to read responses, Also, I have a meet on Monday in the afternoon, I don't know how much of a change I can make but I can drill it a bit during warm up and give it a trial run, if it fails I will simply continue stroking as I would normally.
I'm going to try gliding more tomorrow but at the same time pulling through faster and entering my glide harder, possibly waiting until I lock the glide to kick (though, I think that would cause my legs to create too much drag so I don't know about the waiting.), hopefully it works well.
Again, I'll be able to read any responses made before the meet, I'm looking forward to them. Thanks again guys, this is why I love USMS. :)
So I should focus on making my transition from my pull to my glide phase a hard and almost instantaneous motion? Also, I think the in-sweep alteration mentioned is similar to what a friend of mine (a college swimmer) told me, I need to suck in HARD in terms of my arms, going from the glide to the pull, once at my normal arm position, rather than sliding my arms to my side forcefully suck them in and throw out forward?
I'll be on tomorrow at around 12:00 am EST to read responses, Also, I have a meet on Monday in the afternoon, I don't know how much of a change I can make but I can drill it a bit during warm up and give it a trial run, if it fails I will simply continue stroking as I would normally.
I'm going to try gliding more tomorrow but at the same time pulling through faster and entering my glide harder, possibly waiting until I lock the glide to kick (though, I think that would cause my legs to create too much drag so I don't know about the waiting.), hopefully it works well.
Again, I'll be able to read any responses made before the meet, I'm looking forward to them. Thanks again guys, this is why I love USMS. :)
