Improve your breaststroke pull

Two days ago I wrote about the key points that swimmers and their coaches should have in mind during the breaststroke kick. Today's post will be about breaststroke pull.

Of all the competitive strokes, breaststroke is the slowest, and there is a reason for this. The double arm pull, though truncated, is strong, but the recovery of the arms creates resistance that slows the swimmer. The kick is powerful, but again the recovery of the legs creates tremendous resistance that slows the swimmer. The puzzle for the coach and athlete is to find ways to lessen the resistance and maintain the momentum created by the powerful pull and kick. Because of the dramatic decelerations, streamlining is key to the stroke, especially at critical moments such as the transition from pull to kick.

The pull is divided into three parts: the outsweep, which is preparatory and sets up the propulsive part of the pull; the insweeping scull toward the breast, which is the power source of the pull and provides the forward momentum; and the shoot or lunge forward, which is the recovery of the arms to the starting position. Body position, head attitude, and path and speed of the hands and forearms are all crucial factors determining the strength of the pull.

Key points during the pull

1. Start and finish long and straight. Everything begins from a streamlined position near the surface, with the body stretched long, skinny, and taut. Swimmers should squeeze the ears with the arms and look down at the bottom of the pool. This is also the position to revisit at the end of every stroke. How long the swimmer holds this base glide position is determined by the length of the race and the quality of the kick. The longer the race or stronger the kick, the longer a swimmer may glide between strokes.
2. Stay flat on the outsweep. Swimmers should keep the head down and the body horizontal on the water's surface as they stretch forward and press outward with their hands and forearms. Hands should be slightly below the surface and should sweep to about 15-20 cm outside the shoulders.
3. Reach, grab on, and pop the hips. Swimmers should feel a stretch through the lat muscles of the upper back as they reach and press outward. As the hands round the corner, transitioning from the outsweep to the insweep, swimmers grab onto the water with their hands and forearms and press their hips forward, thus engaging the body core. The pull is done with the whole body, not just the arms or the hands.
4. Power-squeeze the arms. Swimmers should sweep and squeeze inward with the whole arm, feeling pressure along the length of the arm; the angle of the elbow is almost constant throughout the sweep. The large muscles of the upper back and chest should be fully engaged during the sweep. As the arms sweep inward, the head and shoulders rise somewhat and the breath is taken.
5. Scrunch the shoulders, shoot the hands, and keep the back dry. The finish of the insweep flows into the recovery of the arms forward. As swimmers finish the insweep and begin moving the hands forward, they should scrunch the shoulders against their necks and get skinny  and streamlined, as if they are trying to squeeze through a key hole. The hands do not slow down or stop at the chest; rather, they pick up speed as they shoot straight forward into a streamline. I fthe shoot is indeed straight forward, then the back should be dry or nearly so when the legs kick and the body stretches out to its greatest extent. The torso, head, and arms should be streamlined. The hips should ride high throughout the entire stroke without rising or falling much.
6. Quiet head. The head should work and move with the shoulders. Violent head movements serve no purpose. As swimmers sweep inward with the hands, they should tilt the head slightly, focusing on a point slightly in front of them. Then the head slowly returns to the neutral position as the hands shoot straight forward on the recovery.
7. Hands moderate, fast, and superfast. The hand accelerate from start to finish. The hand speed is moderate and building on the outsweep, fast and getting faster on the squeeze inward, and superfast on the recovery shooting forward.

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