One thing I noticed with the more advanced breaststroke (a beard, e moses, etc) is the swimmer holding the streamline after the kick for 1-2 secs before starting the insweep on each stroke. When watching age groupers I don't see much of this. They tend to not hold their glide much at all and its a continuous reach to insweep.
Is this because the age groupers don't have a strong enough kick yet to get the most of the glide and streamline? I'd love to start having my daughters work on the right way to do the stroke at an early age.
I've noticed there is very little time the arms spend outstretched before starting the outsweep regardless of distance. The difference is in the 200 or 400 IM, it seems the outsweep is a bit more relaxed and takes slightly more time than the outsweep in the 50 or 100 where the arm pull must contribute more and increase the turnover.
Just my observations. I've never seen a breastroker in a race situation hold the streamline for two seconds before beginning the outsweep.
The Hillmen Swimming Start Comparison Chart is one of the most awesome evaluation tools a swimming coach can have. It's not complicated, you have a row and a column (time and distance) and you cross the two a score. Really simple and accurate. I can download it to you. My email is tomtompo@netzero.com or you can email me here. Good luck, Coach T.
2 sec is too long except in drills,1 sec max(drills up to 3 sec.).Kitajima holds it the longest.How long you should hold your glide is totally a function of how good your kick is.As one coach said"only a few kids,blessed by God,are allowed to glide.".As to the speed of the outsweep,it starts relatively slowly as your hands should accelerate throughout the pull and in to the recovery.I think the hands should move about the same speed regardless of the distance,the main difference between a 50 and a 200 is the glide(or lack of glide in the 50,but just because there is no glide in the 50 don't rush the pull and overlap the pull and kick.Finish each stroke in full streamline even in a 50 unless you have a very weak kick.)
Start the kick as the arms are going forward,but by the power phase of the kick the arms should be streamlined.
holding the streamline is called RIDE THE GLIDE
there's plenty of great under water breastroke footage on youtube
look for great breastrokers like
cameron Van der burgh, eric shanteau, brendan hansen, kosuke kitajima, jessica hardy, liesel jones
you can find plenty at: http://www.universalsports.com
here's the arm stroke pattern for breastroke
+ Streamline
+ Out Sweep (to pretty wide)
+ In Sweep (legs draw up)
+ Thrust to streamline (legs fire just as swimmer's upper body is streamlined)
+ Streamline
Breastrokers need to pushoff hard, streamline skinny, & RIDE the GLIDE
It takes breath control.
One thing I noticed with the more advanced breaststroke (a beard, e moses, etc) is the swimmer holding the streamline after the kick for 1-2 secs before starting the insweep on each stroke. When watching age groupers I don't see much of this. They tend to not hold their glide much at all and its a continuous reach to insweep.
Is this because the age groupers don't have a strong enough kick yet to get the most of the glide and streamline? I'd love to start having my daughters work on the right way to do the stroke at an early age.
The amount of time you hold your streamline position shouldn't be a subjective limit. You can objectively evaluate breakout times by having your coach use the Hillmen Chart. Coaches have a difficult time teaching this advanced skill to youngsters but it certainly should be taught. How quickly a swimmer picks up and how long they hold onto certain skills will vary like the weather in Michigan. Good luck!
P.S. If you're not a coach I hope you don't get into
the vicarious position some parents work their way into~ or
try to coach their own children :fish2:
Coach T,
Where can I find more info on the Hillmen? I did some googling and came up with very little. Is it just charting different sets, trying different variables of stroke, kicking, starts and timing them?
Thanks
