When I was growing up, the idea of a "wave-action breaststroke" was all the rage. Swimmers like Amanda Beard (the teenage version) and Mike Barrowman dominated breaststroke events at the world stage and their breaststrokes were mimicked quite a bit, where we were taught to come up and almost pull our shoulders back before firing forward. My coach used to equate it with "traveling like an inchworm".
Since then, things have changed quite a bit and my own personal breast philosophy has as well. I now am teaching my swimmers to always have the tops of their shoulders and head pointing to the wall they are going to throughout their entire stroke. It just made sense to me to teach breast where the body is moving forward at all times. Devil's advocate may say that this would only work for those with tremendous breast kicks behind them and I agree and disagree. By putting the emphasis on steady body and head position, it minimizes the amount of movement needed to move forward, allowing non-breast strokers a simplified stroke to improve while allowing breaststrokers the opportunity to maximize their kick strength.
One of my favorite sets that we do to get a GREAT VO2max workout in while really making head and body position the focus is 8x100 SPRINT with fins on 1:45/2:00. The swimmers are to alternate 25's of dolphin breast and flutter breast, where a constant kick throughout is stressed. Most swimmers will shut the legs down as their hands turn in at the beginning of the their breaths. I stress the importance of a steady kick throughout. My JO group (my fastest 10-12 yr olds) do these on the 1:45, getting anywhere from :30-:40 seconds rest. My GOLD group (my fastest 8-10 yr olds) will do 6x100 on the 2:00, getting :15-:30 seconds rest. Because of the amount of rest each swimmer gets, it gives me perfect opportunity to remind/correct bad or fading head/body position in between repeats. I have attributed this set to the transformation of my group's breast efficiency and consistency.
I know what you're talking about. I changed the way I am coaching breaststroke also to the style that you described. I like the idea of shooting your head forward in the direction you want to move rather than creating a breaststroke that created a stall on the top of some swimmers stroke.
ReplyDeleteHave you moticed that with that change of body position your swimmers utilize lift force more on their arm strokes than with the "inch worm" style? Right now I am trying to do more lift forces to get quicker hand movement to get the hands quicker through the cycle to prevent the shoulders from dropping as they shoot into their glide. Just wondering if you noticed that trend as you teach this different body position?
Actually, I don't stress "lift forces" at all. I constantly harp on the idea of constantly moving their bodies forward, every movement with the goal of moving forward. After the hands sweep out on the initial pull, I tell them to keep their elbows near the surface of the water as their hands should be sunk underneath their elbows headed towards their bodies, helping to propel their bodies forward. If I feel that my group's body position is too low and they are plowing through the water, then we start to adjust by doing dolphin breast with fins without mention of "lift force". This drill naturally has them getting on top of the water....if I feel that they are still too low, then I will mention that I want them shallow, not scuba-diving. I don't want them to associate "lift" with breaststroke although we as coaches know it is there.
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