After the last few posts only vaguely relating to swimming, it's time to dive back in. I know, I know. Chris that was a lame pun. Well, I'm a very punny guy.
In this post we're going to be specifically focusing on breaststroke. When I started swimming in 6th grade, I couldn't do breaststroke to save my life. My coach Judd would have referred to it as "not the breaststroke, but the stroke you would use to save your drowning grandma." He definitely had a unique way of putting things. Could be the fact that he's been coaching high school swimming for 47 years... Every race I entered - whether it be breaststroke or an IM - I would get DQ'd. I would hope to be seeded in the middle of the pool so that the officials couldn't see my illegal kick, but it rarely helped. I quickly learned in YMCA swimming that everyone and their dog swims the 50 free so I decided to stay away from the sprints if I ever wanted to place very well at state. Now, there is nothing wrong with the 50. It is probably the most exciting race in swimming. BUT if you're not a very fast sprinter, why not try and find your niche right!? So my second year swimming I switched to the "tough" events. 500 free, 100 fly, and 200 IM. These were the events that not as many people swam so statistically I had the best chance of placing well at the state meet. Only one thing.....swimming the IM meant I had to work for countless hours on my breaststroke. It just didn't seem natural to me to point both feet out at the same time. But finally, after a couple solid months of drills, dryland practicing (I would lay on my stomach with my toes pointed out while watching TV), and practicing some more I achieved a legal kick. And now that I didn't have to worry about getting DQ'd, I could focus on my speed. All of this work with breaststroke meant a couple of things that I wouldn't find out until late in my high school career. 1) Breaststroke had gone from my worst stroke, to my #2 strongest stroke (behind fly). 2) My IM's were seeing drastic improvements due to my willingness to work on my weakest stroke. And 3) With all this emphasis on breaststroke, I had all but forgotten about backstroke. Not a good thing for a state IM swimmer. My senior year at state my 200 IM split ranks (out of 24) were: Fly-5th, Back-22nd, Breast-9th, Free-10th. I finished 16th. But enough about my breaststroke story. Let's get to it!!!
Breaststroke may be the most complicated of the four strokes when it comes to mechanics. There are so many things to remember. Through the years, it has change drastically. Below are some videos over the years.
1980
This is a video of the 1980 Olympic Games in Moscow. Here you will see Duncan Goodhew of Great Britain win the 100m breaststroke. Take careful notice of his stroke:
- His head is pointed forward the entire time.
- The underwater pullouts of the entire field seem rather short.
- The timing of the stroke is a lot different than you would see today.
- He has more of a glide after the kick than everyone in the field, but it is still abbreviated.
- HIS HEAD IS SHAVED! Who shaves their head for the Olympics anymore? Are today's swimmers too cool?
- He doesn't have a specialized $750 technical suit.
- His time of 1:03.34 would convert to 55.26 for 100 yards. This would just barely be an Iowa High School record.
This is a video of the 1992 Olympic Games in Barcelona. It shows Mike Barrowman claiming gold in the 200m breaststroke. Here the stroke has definitely changed since 1980. Mike Barrowman was one of the pioneers of the "wave-style" breaststroke that we see today. He set 6 world records, won 3 consecutive NCAA titles, and had an NCAA record that lasted from 1990 all the way until 2001 when current Olympic standout and American favorite Brendan Hansen broke it.
- The wave breaststroke institutes more of an up-and-down movement in the water while moving forward.
- He keeps his hips up nice and high so as not to drag them through the water.
- The underwater pullouts are longer and more "glide-oriented".
- Notice the "donkey kick" style starts. Swimmers would jump up in the air in a ball and kick their legs and arms out before hitting the water. They would also start with both feet at the front of the block instead of a track start like you would see today.
- He is constantly moving forward. This is something that up until this point was pretty rare to see. If you compare Moses to the Australian swimmer (yellow cap), the Australian swimmer has a kind of stop-and-go motion.
- More of a wave motion in Moses' stroke leads to the constant forward movement.
- He has a pretty quick turnover and doesn't waste a ton of time gliding.
- Watch his underwater pullout off of the turn. In 2000, it was illegal to take a dolphin kick. The legs were to remain motionless during the full pull. Moses' legs almost look like they make a dolphin-like motion....
- When Hansen comes up to breathe (the part of the stroke that creates the most drag during the stroke cycle) his legs are also coming up to start the kick.
- He waits to kick until after his arms "shoot" out to the front. This makes it so that when he kicks forward his body is already in a streamline position. This is one of the newest breaststroke techniques.
- Listen to the interview after the race. Brendan Hansen sets his personal best at age 30 swimming in Lane 8. Most times people in outside lanes are hardly even looked at during a race. But Hansen says, "When you have a lane, you have an opportunity." Great quote. All you need is a lane.
Breaststroke is all about timing. To be a top breaststroker you have to have impeccable timing. And I'm not just talking about getting to the meet in time. When all of the little techniques are added together during this very complex stroke, it can look extremely elegant and efficient. Here are some things to take away from this post:
- When your head is in the water, keep it down between your arms. Head pointing forward leads to more drag. You don't want that!
- Keep your hips up. This creates that "wave motion" that leads to constant forward motion instead of up and down or stop-and-go. Why waste your energy going up and down in the water when you can go forward and closer to the finish?
- Distance off the wall. Further pullouts lead to less swimming and more efficient racing. But don't waste time underwater. Do your pullout fast and powerful! A little grunt underwater never hurt anyone...
- Wait to kick until a split second after your arms are extended on the "shoot" phase. This will let you get the most distance out of your kick by being streamlined.
Head down. Hips up. Power pullouts. Timing.
Breaststroke workout:
Warmup: 100swim, 100kick, 100pull, 100IM
Drill set: 4x50 breaststroke w/ dolphin kick (works on keeping hips up)
Main set: 4x[75breast, 50 easy free, 25breast sprint] (works on breaststroke stamina - make sure to keep your hips up)
Drill set: 10x25 (on the odd ones try and make the whole length of the pool with as few underwater pullouts as possible, on the even ones do normal breaststroke w/ a long underwater pullout)
Main set: 4x50 breast w/ longer breaks (focus on 100% technique and making the stroke "look pretty")
Cooldown: 200 easy free
1850 yds total.
Hi, Chris,
ReplyDeleteYour high school coach, Judd, who was my high school teammate, sent me a link to this site. I like what you are doing. Like Judd, I'm still coaching when I should be scouting nursing homes. I haven't had the success he's had, though, winning his last two boys' state meets.
Breaststroke fascinates me, perhaps because I was so terrible at it. I had to learn a legal breaststroke kick my senior year because they added the breaststroke to the IM in high school that year (this was 1960)! Luckily I had pretty good pullouts, because I just spun my wheels on the surface.
In the mid 70s I coached a pretty good breaststroker who had a natural wave action stroke and we worked hard at flattening him out because we knew no one was supposed to bob up and down while swimming that stroke. He looked like a lot of the breaststrokers in that 1980 video. I'm sure I kept him from getting as good as he could have been.
A few years later, I saw the picture of Tracy Caulkins on the cover of Swimming World with her head and shoulders up out of the water and, like lots of other coaches, thought "if only she had some coaching." Then shortly afterward I heard Paul Bergen explain that he wanted her to swim that way. What a revelation. Incidentally, you can still find that Swimming World cover on their website, and her stroke doesn't look as extreme as Amanda Beard's or even Rebecca Soni's, but it sure seemed extreme at the time.
Right now in coaching breaststroke my main concern is swimmers getting their hands forward and their head down in between their arms before they turn the toes out to begin the propulsive phase of the kick. I think how long you keep the arms extended depends on the distance you are racing. As a high school coach, I am looking at the 50 on the relay and the 100. I still think Amanda Beard's technique is as good as anyone, but she holds the extension for a split second, which is probably better suited to the 200. For the 100, I think as soon as the legs finish their kick, the swimmer needs to begin the next outsweep and for the 50, there can be just a little overlap, where the outsweep begins just before the kick is completed.