Common mistakes during the insweep of the armstroke in breaststroke

As you already know the armstroke of breaststroke is divided into four parts: the outsweep, the catch, the insweep, and the recovery. A few days ago I blogged on the common mistakes that swimmers tend to make during the outsweep of the armstroke (see here). Today’s post is about mistakes swimmers do and should avoid during the insweep.

The most common mistake that swimmers make during this phase of the stroke is to direct the hands forward. The forward speed of the body will drop off dramatically once swimmers begin to move the arms forward during the insweep. Consequently, they will either terminate the insweep early or they will waste time and effort performing a movement that is non propulsive. The forward and inward arm movement produces an outward and backward drag force and a forward and outward lift force. Swimmers are bound to decelerate when they sweep the hands forward during the insweep because any small forward component of force that may be produced by this direction of limb motion will be negated by the large backward component of the drag force they are also producing.

Two mistakes are responsible for this loss of propulsion during the insweep: concern with keeping the elbows from going back behind the shoulders and overemphasis on getting the hands out in front quickly during the arm recovery.

• We have been told for years that swimmers should not let the elbows come behind the shoulders during the insweep to avoid making the mistake of dropping the elbows. As a result, many swimmers sweep the hands forward during the insweep in order to keep the elbows from traveling back behind the shoulders during this phase of the armstroke. In fact, swimmers cannot make a propulsive insweep without having the elbows come behind the shoulders. This does not necessarily mean they are dropping the elbows, however. They only drop the elbows of they push down against the water with the arms during the insweep. They do not drop the elbows if they make the insweep with a shoulder adducting movement that keep the arms traveling back until the insweep is completed. The arms will, and should, travel behind the shoulders somewhat when they complete the insweep in this manner.
• Another mistake that causes swimmers to move the hands forward during the insweep is an attempt to get them out in front quickly during the recovery. Swimmers are often taught to accelerate the hands forward during the recovery to keep them from getting stuck under the chin. Unfortunately, this causes many breaststrokers to accelerate the hands forward during the insweep. While this gets the hands out in front quickly, it also causes a loss of propulsion during the insweep.

The method swimmers can use to adduct the arms back at the shoulders without getting them stuck is to squeeze the elbows down and forward quickly after the hands pass under the shoulders, which will change the direction from back to forward.

Image source: [1]