Breaststroke is my and my daughter’s favorite!! I believe I have the same kick flaw (kicking down) and my hips isn’t high at water surface as it should be. What drill or correction do you suggest? Thank you!
It helps to practice kicking with an alignment board and snorkel. Using a traditional kickboard doesn't quite allow proper body position when kicking breaststroke. If you're unfamiliar with those pieces of equipment, you can learn more about them in our shop at www.theraceclub.com
With breast kick, besides the propulsion from the instep reached as the feet move backward and downward, there are also two propulsions possible from squeezing the feet together and lifting the legs and feet into the slipstream. I call those two the afterburners.
Good question! Work on all three sources of breaststroke kick propulsion (K1 main breast kick, K2 squeezing legs into the slipstream and K3 lifting legs and pointing toes)
The body line of Nikola is noticeably more vertical than Mike's. It causes his kick propulsion to be directed downward rather than rearward and causes more front drag. If he were to delay his kick by the time it takes for his chest to drive forward and pull his hips up, the body line would be flatter and the kick pulse would go rearward.
What you are describing is 'old school' breaststroke: drop and shoot forward, which works for some, like Lydia Jacoby. Most elite breaststrokers today use a 'power' breaststroke technique with a very fast kick cycle time. In doing so, when the upper body hits the water the legs are in strong propulsion. To retain the speed after the peak velocity from the kick, the swimmer needs to squeeze the legs together and lift the legs and feet, what we call K2 and K3. Nikola needs to get better at that.
Never could get my feet to do the old frog kick, or the newer whip kick. Interesting point about the feet at 90 degrees rather than pointed. Swimming my over arm side stroke, I see everything underwater, the good, the bad, and the ugly. ''Runner's Foot' where the foot is angled at about 30 degrees rather than 0 or straight, is a problem for 90% of the swimmers in the pool. A bit less with the swim team kids. Pools are closing again here, the life guards are coming down with the Omicron..... and they were short staffed to begin with.
Sorry to hear that robohippy... Hopefully at least they will be shorter closures than before. But yes, letting the foot hang at the end of the breaststroke kick is maybe the most common mistake we see among swimmers doing breaststroke.
Funny thing I noticed/observed, is that the runner's foot is very common on all strokes, but less so on back stroke. They seem to know to point their toes more on back stroke than they do for freestyle or the fly. Can't say I have noticed it on breast stroke though. This has made me wonder about the 'relaxed ankle' method of teaching. I guess it is fine if you have very loose ankles, but for many who don't, it may make more sense to put energy into pointing your toes and the ankle would not be relaxed. Always some thing to learn...
It looks like Nikola can and do overextend his knees, which contributes to the feet being low. Could overextension be useful in flutter and dolphin kicks? Maybe it's too hard on the knee joints.
Hyperextension of the knees is clearly beneficial for freestyle and dolphin kick. Probably not for breaststroke kick, as the swimmer needs to end the kick with the heels near the surface and legs straight back.
Great video! Thank you for making and sharing it. The only thing is, it would be better if you could turn the background music down a bit, so that people can hear you easier. It's a bit difficult and distracting to hear you in this video.😊
Nico has a consistent cavitation on his kick from the start. Mike is kicking clean water the whole way through. A contributing factor to velocity loss?
The cavitation is an interesting point. Occasionally I will start my pull too high in the water, with part of my hand out of the water. This creates the cavitation that you are describing. When this happens I experience a greatly reduced resistance in my pull (meaning lower energy transferred to my body?). I have been trying to find some literature on this effect but I have found nothing so far.
When we measure the loss in velocity, we measure it from the peak to the trough. So it might affect his peak velocity, but shouldn't matter when measuring the loss of speed. In this case is mostly attributed to letting the feet hang and not lifting the legs.
@@theraceclub I understand it better now. If Nico cavitated half-way through his kick, which would be an impressive accomplishment but not in a good way, then it would contribute to a greater peak to trough drop in velocity. Nice video.
I swim 25m breaststroke with 11 stroke cycle and my timing is 13.88 second, how do I improve my time my stroke is not efficient with that many stroke I'm only 5.8 ft tall and 25 years old.
At your height, you need a fast Stroke Rate, especially for the 50 sprint. The limiting factor in your ability to take your SR higher is your Kick Cycle Time. the faster it is, the faster you can turn over effectively.
I have only just learnt breaststroke at aged 50 from youtube clips and practise with tethered swimming in above ground bestway 'pool' in garage. I have so longed to do breaststroke as an alternative to freestyle (frontcrawl); however, I am fed-up of being overtaken by breaststroke swimmers who never get the their hair wet i.e. they are using the wrong technique but are faster than me (in the slow lane)! Having watched this clip tonight, I think I know the areas I have been going wrong. I can't wait to see if I can improve my pathetic pace next week. I guess at least I can swim frontcrawl speedily; but this does leave me in a dilema as to which swimming lane to book i.e. I am too fast in frontcrawl to be in the slow lane, yet way too slow in breatstroke to be in medium lane!! I hope the errors of my way I have learnt from your clip will prove successful next week:-) I shall report back in due course;-)
Four things matter in breaststroke: Kick propulsion (by far most important), Kick Cycle Time, Loss of speed after the kick and pulling propulsion. With our VM technology we can measure all four accurately.
If you want to learn and understand the science behind effective and fast swimming, sign up to this channel, Amazing analysis!!!
Thanks for that!
Breaststroke is my and my daughter’s favorite!! I believe I have the same kick flaw (kicking down) and my hips isn’t high at water surface as it should be. What drill or correction do you suggest? Thank you!
It helps to practice kicking with an alignment board and snorkel. Using a traditional kickboard doesn't quite allow proper body position when kicking breaststroke. If you're unfamiliar with those pieces of equipment, you can learn more about them in our shop at www.theraceclub.com
Lily King is good at finishing the kick as you said, I think the motion is that lifting the heels to the surface after kicking knees straight
With breast kick, besides the propulsion from the instep reached as the feet move backward and downward, there are also two propulsions possible from squeezing the feet together and lifting the legs and feet into the slipstream. I call those two the afterburners.
The question is how can I keep my legs up? What kind of exercises can I do to work on this particular? Thanks
Good question! Work on all three sources of breaststroke kick propulsion (K1 main breast kick, K2 squeezing legs into the slipstream and K3 lifting legs and pointing toes)
The body line of Nikola is noticeably more vertical than Mike's. It causes his kick propulsion to be directed downward rather than rearward and causes more front drag. If he were to delay his kick by the time it takes for his chest to drive forward and pull his hips up, the body line would be flatter and the kick pulse would go rearward.
What you are describing is 'old school' breaststroke: drop and shoot forward, which works for some, like Lydia Jacoby. Most elite breaststrokers today use a 'power' breaststroke technique with a very fast kick cycle time. In doing so, when the upper body hits the water the legs are in strong propulsion. To retain the speed after the peak velocity from the kick, the swimmer needs to squeeze the legs together and lift the legs and feet, what we call K2 and K3. Nikola needs to get better at that.
great one
Thanks.
Never could get my feet to do the old frog kick, or the newer whip kick. Interesting point about the feet at 90 degrees rather than pointed. Swimming my over arm side stroke, I see everything underwater, the good, the bad, and the ugly. ''Runner's Foot' where the foot is angled at about 30 degrees rather than 0 or straight, is a problem for 90% of the swimmers in the pool. A bit less with the swim team kids. Pools are closing again here, the life guards are coming down with the Omicron..... and they were short staffed to begin with.
Sorry to hear that robohippy... Hopefully at least they will be shorter closures than before. But yes, letting the foot hang at the end of the breaststroke kick is maybe the most common mistake we see among swimmers doing breaststroke.
Funny thing I noticed/observed, is that the runner's foot is very common on all strokes, but less so on back stroke. They seem to know to point their toes more on back stroke than they do for freestyle or the fly. Can't say I have noticed it on breast stroke though. This has made me wonder about the 'relaxed ankle' method of teaching. I guess it is fine if you have very loose ankles, but for many who don't, it may make more sense to put energy into pointing your toes and the ankle would not be relaxed. Always some thing to learn...
It looks like Nikola can and do overextend his knees, which contributes to the feet being low. Could overextension be useful in flutter and dolphin kicks? Maybe it's too hard on the knee joints.
Hyperextension of the knees is clearly beneficial for freestyle and dolphin kick. Probably not for breaststroke kick, as the swimmer needs to end the kick with the heels near the surface and legs straight back.
Thanks 🙏 for sharing
My pleasure
Great video! Thank you for making and sharing it. The only thing is, it would be better if you could turn the background music down a bit, so that people can hear you easier. It's a bit difficult and distracting to hear you in this video.😊
We'll keep that in mind, thanks!
Nico has a consistent cavitation on his kick from the start. Mike is kicking clean water the whole way through. A contributing factor to velocity loss?
The cavitation is an interesting point. Occasionally I will start my pull too high in the water, with part of my hand out of the water. This creates the cavitation that you are describing. When this happens I experience a greatly reduced resistance in my pull (meaning lower energy transferred to my body?). I have been trying to find some literature on this effect but I have found nothing so far.
When we measure the loss in velocity, we measure it from the peak to the trough. So it might affect his peak velocity, but shouldn't matter when measuring the loss of speed. In this case is mostly attributed to letting the feet hang and not lifting the legs.
@@theraceclub I understand it better now. If Nico cavitated half-way through his kick, which would be an impressive accomplishment but not in a good way, then it would contribute to a greater peak to trough drop in velocity. Nice video.
I swim 25m breaststroke with 11 stroke cycle and my timing is 13.88 second, how do I improve my time my stroke is not efficient with that many stroke I'm only 5.8 ft tall and 25 years old.
At your height, you need a fast Stroke Rate, especially for the 50 sprint. The limiting factor in your ability to take your SR higher is your Kick Cycle Time. the faster it is, the faster you can turn over effectively.
Cheers...very useful
Glad it helped
So the big question is, did Nikola correct this and if so, how did it affect his times?
We haven't retested him on it but hopefully we'll get a chance to!
It's my dream to work at race club
We are not currently hiring but will make an announcement when we are!
Hi Maria!
I have only just learnt breaststroke at aged 50 from youtube clips and practise with tethered swimming in above ground bestway 'pool' in garage. I have so longed to do breaststroke as an alternative to freestyle (frontcrawl); however, I am fed-up of being overtaken by breaststroke swimmers who never get the their hair wet i.e. they are using the wrong technique but are faster than me (in the slow lane)! Having watched this clip tonight, I think I know the areas I have been going wrong. I can't wait to see if I can improve my pathetic pace next week. I guess at least I can swim frontcrawl speedily; but this does leave me in a dilema as to which swimming lane to book i.e. I am too fast in frontcrawl to be in the slow lane, yet way too slow in breatstroke to be in medium lane!! I hope the errors of my way I have learnt from your clip will prove successful next week:-) I shall report back in due course;-)
Four things matter in breaststroke: Kick propulsion (by far most important), Kick Cycle Time, Loss of speed after the kick and pulling propulsion. With our VM technology we can measure all four accurately.
Why we playing the Halloween Theme sing in the back?!? I’m just waiting for Michael Meyers to jump in the pool.
To make you swim faster trying to outswim Michael Meyers!
breaststroke ...the race club
Thanks for watching!
YOU ALL ARE NOTHING TO ME .......I CAN DEFEAT YOU ALL WITH ONLY MY RELAX SWIM
Come to a Race Club camp and let's see it! :)