It seems to me that over the last few years there has been a real revolution in the breaststroke. During the 90's nearly everybody was swimming (or trying to swim) the dolphin *** stoke with the upper body nearly perpendicular with the water surface and the swimmer trying to leap forward. During the last few years I have noticed a return to the more classical breaststroke, particularly in the 200m. in general there seems to be more of a mix of *** strokes. Has anybody else noticed this?
Which was faster? I have changed my stroke this year by recovering with palms out rather than in as suggested in a USMS Swimmer article. I have also concentrated on keeping my head down. This made me much faster in a 50, and a bit faster in 100 and 200. I have been swimming the Beautiful Stroke since 1955, when it was still underwater. I have used many different strokes in those years. My stroke is much flatter now than last year and the coach says all of my power is going forward. I was not undulating too much as it was. Definitely have a higher turnover.
well my lifetime best in the 200m swimming flat strokje was a 2:35 going into this summer. my average stroke count was about 18-20 strokes the first two 50s and jumped to probably 25-26 by the last lap when doing flat stroke. however, for the 50, it was amazing. i could keep a fast fast turnover (broke 30 on a 200m medley relay and had something like a 100 strokes/min turnover). I have always liked the distance *** more though, and at the start of last short course season i focused on that driving my head down and though my times started out bad, by july (started working back in september on it) it had finally clicked. i was 2:28 this year and my stroke count was 14 15 17 16. the driving my head cut my stroke count down and helped me drive my kick and take some of the emphasis (and fatigue) off my arms. definitly have gone to a more kick driven stroke and i like it a lot more. it has even finally trickled down to affect my 50 stroke too. i found a happy balance between the head drive/hip pop (which slowed my turnover) and the fast fast stroke turnover.
edit: i woul dlike to add that the changes to my breaststroke have also drastically affected my IM, especially the 400. the leg stroke with the driving forward and cutting down stroke count while maintaining speed has meant that my freestyle splits have come way down because my arms arent so tried after doing 100m of flat *** after already doing a 100 fly and back!
Which was faster? I have changed my stroke this year by recovering with palms out rather than in as suggested in a USMS Swimmer article. I have also concentrated on keeping my head down. This made me much faster in a 50, and a bit faster in 100 and 200. I have been swimming the Beautiful Stroke since 1955, when it was still underwater. I have used many different strokes in those years. My stroke is much flatter now than last year and the coach says all of my power is going forward. I was not undulating too much as it was. Definitely have a higher turnover.
well my lifetime best in the 200m swimming flat strokje was a 2:35 going into this summer. my average stroke count was about 18-20 strokes the first two 50s and jumped to probably 25-26 by the last lap when doing flat stroke. however, for the 50, it was amazing. i could keep a fast fast turnover (broke 30 on a 200m medley relay and had something like a 100 strokes/min turnover). I have always liked the distance *** more though, and at the start of last short course season i focused on that driving my head down and though my times started out bad, by july (started working back in september on it) it had finally clicked. i was 2:28 this year and my stroke count was 14 15 17 16. the driving my head cut my stroke count down and helped me drive my kick and take some of the emphasis (and fatigue) off my arms. definitly have gone to a more kick driven stroke and i like it a lot more. it has even finally trickled down to affect my 50 stroke too. i found a happy balance between the head drive/hip pop (which slowed my turnover) and the fast fast stroke turnover.
edit: i woul dlike to add that the changes to my breaststroke have also drastically affected my IM, especially the 400. the leg stroke with the driving forward and cutting down stroke count while maintaining speed has meant that my freestyle splits have come way down because my arms arent so tried after doing 100m of flat *** after already doing a 100 fly and back!
