Breaststroke - Head Position

This is an old fine point for breaststroke, but it still needs to be reinforced frequently when teaching swimmers of all ages.

Why do it:
Your head position during the glide phase in breaststroke can produce more resistance than recoverying the arms or legs. Breaststroke has enough resistance points, why introduce another... that's so easy to fix.

How to do it:
1) If you swim breaststroke like this, with your eyes looking forward, you're throwing out a parachute that will create incredible resistance.
2) This idea is childs play, so let's look at a young swimmer who has been working on this. Could this young swimmer travel this far between stroke with the head and eyes looking forward? Simple... no.
3) Lower your eyes below your arms on each stroke to make sure you're in a better line. If you can see your arms when you're reaching forward in breaststroke, your head isn't low enough.

How to do it really well (the fine points):
It's MUCH easier to get your eyes below your arms if your arms are close to the surface, or shallow during the extension. Make sure you're not diving your hands down, and then following them with your head. Send your hands forward, get the head in a nice line between them, eyes below the arms, and start the pull before you lift your head for your breath.

Category:

Sports

Tags:

• swim
• swimmer
• swimming
• goswim
• goswim.tv
• goswimtv.com
• breaststroke
• head position
• technique

[ordude123]

Funny because i did the opposite, and my time dropped by four seconds...

[goswim098]

@ordude123 - Congrats. Not every drill is right for every person. If that was the case, we'd only have 20 drills on here... not 400. Pick the ones that work for you. Keep up the good work.

[MacXballer]

DO a video on all different types of starts

[goswim098]

@MacXballer - We've got a great video coming out featuring Olympian Cullen Jones, but it's only going to be available on our new site. Click the banner at the top of our channel for more information, and to get all the latest updates on new material. Thanks.

[FruitarianSwimster]

I notice she takes the breath too soon, on the beginning of the outsweep.

[goswim098]

@FruitarianSwimster - She's learning... cut her some slack. ;)

[ordude123]

@goswim098 Thanks... my coach told me to keep my head in one position after he saw moving it was messing up my time. i started off the season with 39 seconds on my 50 breast and now its 31 seconds thanks to your drills...

[OceanWaterNine]

This made me drop a lot of time! Simple things really helped me improve! Thanks!

[MacXballer]

@goswim098 thanks just wanted to see something different like improving small things

[Papiprah]

The boy has a fantastic technique! Well done.

[liyuan356]

very helpful!! thanks.. im working on this recently to reduce substantial resistance...