I am new to masters swimming, and had not trained since 1988 until a couple of months ago. I am not exactly killing it yet, but I am finally getting a feel for the water, and I cranked out a 1200 workout today and it felt like I was just getting started. Anyway, to the point ...
I was a breaststroker in the old days, and I never learned to swim with my head going under in my glide. About a month ago, I decided to try it (with help from some old posts here).
I finally got the rhythm down last week, taking my strokes per 25 down from 12 to 8/9, but it feels like I am putting way too much strain on my inner thighs during my kick, resulting in some mild groin strains (both sides)from trying to go to fast (kicking too hard, if there is such a thing).
Is this just a matter of getting used to a new angle? I can breaststroke kick only for as long as I want without trouble, but as soon as I put in the big glide, ouch. I swam plenty of breaststroke today without pain, but I went easy on the kick.
I appreciate any advice.
-Jim L
Former Member
2 drills that I think would help you:
Swim breaststroke with dolphin kick. You can alternate this with swimming regular breaststroke. You'll notice more of a wavelike feeling when you transition to regular stroke after swimming it with dolphin kick.
Breaststroke pull with a buoy... keeping your head above water and as motionless as possible. In order to do that you will need to pull very quickly and smoothly. This gives you a feel for the type of explosive acceleration and "shooting forward" motion that you need to apply to your regular pull.
First focus on accelerating into the recovery as a continuous motion.
Some drills-1)swim breaststroke underwater,this makes it easier to feel dead spots.
2) take a paddle and either take off the straps or turn it over so that as you do the pull the only thing holding the paddle in place is water pressure.Then if you have dead spots the paddles fall off.
3) Slugs head out of water BR pulls(I do it without the pull buoy so that it is sink or swim.)
Cool. I'm on it. Thanks!
You are kicking way too wide.That not only increases the risk of groin strain,but it robs you of power.You want to kick back ,not out(keep your knees no more than 2 fists apart,get your toes pointing at the outside walls and kick straight back.It won't be actually straight back as your feet start outside your knees so they do follow a curve,but there is no kick out.)The other big problem is that you do not accelerate through the insweep into the recovery,but are getting stuck a little and the end of the insweep in the dreaded "prayer position." This causes a great deal of drag bringing you nearly to a stop.This is interfering with your glide and decreasing you DPS.
Thanks. Now that you say that, I see it. It feels like my knees are in close. I guess I'll have to gve that pull buoy between the knees another shot.
On the insweep, how do I fix that? Hand position? Timing?
Thanks, Slug, for the drills.
You are kicking way too wide.That not only increases the risk of groin strain,but it robs you of power.You want to kick back ,not out(keep your knees no more than 2 fists apart,get your toes pointing at the outside walls and kick straight back.It won't be actually straight back as your feet start outside your knees so they do follow a curve,but there is no kick out.)The other big problem is that you do not accelerate through the insweep into the recovery,but are getting stuck a little and the end of the insweep in the dreaded "prayer position." This causes a great deal of drag bringing you nearly to a stop.This is interfering with your glide and decreasing you DPS.
After about 10 minutes of working on it, I can now kick with my knees together. I also figured out that they way I learned breaststroke, I incorporate a pause into my pull naturally because I am saying "pull/kick/glide" in my head and attention shifts to my legs. I worked on thrusting my hands forward and did some underwater breaststroke, which was a pretty cool sensation.
I did some 25s for time, and even though I felt like I wasn't kicking right, I repeated 19s, where I was over 20 all the time my old way.
I really appreciate all the help.
I just wanna bump this to say that the underwater breaststroke drill is awesome.
It's really helping me get a feel for the water. I've been doing it on the back half of a 50 (actually 2x25 on the :30) to work on my lung capacity. My underwater DPS has come down each week. On the front half, I am doing the breaststroke pull/fly kick to work on my rhythm.
Broke 18 on a 25 today for the first time, too. :)
:bump: for an update. I hope to have a video by the 1-year mark to compare. Thanks for all of you who helped me out.
I am now going about 6 strokes per length, maybe 9 if sprinting. Underwater, I can do the drill in 3 or 4 strokes. 4 is very easy, and sometimes I just miss 3. I kick, no board in 5 or 6 kicks, and pull with a buoy in 8 strokes.
I am not a lot faster for a 25, but I can now swim a 200 from a push in under 7 strokes per length. At the time of the video, I never would have thought that possible. I could hardly finish a 50.
Kicking is still my weakness, and I am working on keeping my head neutral on each stroke. It wants to pop up like a whack-a-mole.
Torso flexibility seems to have been the key.
I am still not fast, but I think this year's work has turned me back into a swimmer. Thanks again to everyone who helped.
