Breaststroke Swimming :: The 5 most important things

The five most important things in breaststroke are, in this order, timing. This is the most important thing in breaststroke. So we asked on social media which one of these two is the best way to swim. A lot of people got it right but also a lot of people got it wrong. And the main difference between these two is the timing. So the correct timing was the gold one. If you kick and pull at the same time you will not move fast or efficiently. Look at this example. All of the propulsion from the arms is being stopped by the kick. And then all of the propulsion from the kick is being stopped by the arms and chest. So remember, the correct timing is pull, kick and glide. Pull, kick and then glide. Ankle circles. The second most important thing in breaststroke are the ankles. When you swim breaststroke you will be doing circles with your ankles. Let's stop the motion of the knees and you will see it more clearly. See how the ankles move in circles really quickly? You need to practice that. You can do it on land first and then move the knees as well. Remember, move the ankles in circles quickly. Third, narrow knees. One very common mistake in breaststroke is to open the knees too much or even opening the knees too soon. Both of these things are wrong. The best way to swim breaststroke is to open the knees very little and quickly. What makes the ankles open wide is actually at the hip joint. Practice this on the floor. Lay face down, bend the knee to 90 degrees and then open the ankles. Repeat that exercise 10 times slowly and then 10 times fast. Be careful not to bump your ankles. Then, after you open them, stretch the knees and bring them back at 90 degrees. Do circles like this 10 times to improve your muscle memory. Remember, bend the knees but don't open them too much. Fourth, the fast breath. The slowest part of breaststroke is right here, when the upper body is out of the water. So, in order to spend the least amount of time possible in the slowest part of breaststroke, you need to take very quick breaths and move your arms quickly from this point to this point. There is no time to exhale when your head is out. You need to start exhaling underwater. So you can just inhale above quickly. They don't need to be full breaths. You can do shallow breaths as long as you do them quickly. Don't worry about running out of breath. In breaststroke you breathe every stroke. It's not like in butterfly where you can keep your head down. Remember, don't spend too much time with your head above the water. Fifth, high hips. The last point is very important if you want to swim fast breaststroke but it is also the most difficult one to do it correctly. Keeping the hips high should be easy when you are gliding. You just push your chest down a little and that will lift your hips. The challenge is to keep it high when you are taking a breath. You need four things. Core strength, lower spine flexibility, loose hip flexors and explosive hamstrings. First, core strength. Because these muscles are the ones that will bring your torso up above the water. The arms also help with this. But the core needs to be tight to maintain those hips up. Second, the lower spine needs to be flexible. If you cannot do this on land, with the help of the floor and gravity, what makes you think you can go to this position in the water? The hips will sink instead if you don't bend the lower back. Loose hip flexors If your hip flexor muscles are tight then the knees will come down. To know if you have tight hip flexors do the Thomas test. Lay on the floor face up and pull one knee close to your chest. If you feel a tight stretch and if your other knee is being lifted up from the floor or if it's leaning to the middle, you might have tight hip flexors. Do this exercise 10 times with each leg to start loosening those hip flexors and then hold this stretch for a minute with each leg. Don't forget to tighten your glutes, your core and do a posterior tilt of the pelvis. You can lean forward 10 seconds and back for another 10 seconds for a total of 1 minute each. Fourth, you need explosive hamstrings. Meaning you need to bend the knees quickly. Every millisecond you waste bringing your ankles up is going to cost you in drag and will likely make you sink a little. An excellent exercise for this is the hamstring slides. Do this 8 times and rest for a total of 3 rounds. This video is just the start if you truly want to understand what a good breaststroke technique looks like. If you want to dive deeper into breaststroke knowledge click on this playlist here. And if you want to visit our webpage where you'll find merchandise, swimming camps, programs and more click here. See you there! Swim fast!