Breaststroke

It has been experimentally proven that breaststroke requires much more effort and energy (calories) than other styles of swimming, even more than butterfly! This means breaststroke is a true cardio monster! You'll get in great shape and burn tons of extra calories! And even gain muscle mass! As a rule, swimmers for whom the breaststroke is the main style are better developed physically than their counterparts in the shop who prefer other techniques. So for bodybuilders breaststroke will be a real find. There are several types of breaststroke, one of them is a “wave”, it is much better than a planning option with a small angle of attack. In this type of breaststroke, after each pull-up, the upper body is thrown forward and returned to its original position above the water. Both in the gliding technique and in the modified "wave" the arms go through a recovery phase under water. But the resistance to movement is higher if you cut through the surface of the reservoir at the time of the kick, and lower when your body is under water. Therefore, in both versions of the breaststroke, before kicking the legs, both the head and shoulders should be immersed in water. First you have to learn how to shrug your shoulders: we raise and bring our shoulders together, we put our elbows out, and our palms also look there. Thus, we put the shoulders and arms in a position similar to the position of the arms in the return phase when swimming with a butterfly. This is the ideal position to start the flare, as by squeezing the shoulders we reduce their width and resistance to movement, in addition, we reduce the likelihood of elbow drop, which is a major problem for swimmers. At the same time, the reduction of the shoulders allows us to more effectively use the latissimus dorsi and pectoralis major muscles, and this promises us additional benefits. Dilution does not lead to significant acceleration; to begin the forward movement, you must bend your palms at an angle of 30-45 degrees in relation to the line of the forearm. At the beginning of the breeding, the hands are about 15 cm below the surface of the water, then they move outward and slightly upward, and at the point of capture, the hands are almost on the surface, at a distance slightly greater than the width of the shoulders. How wide the capture will be depends on your physical data. At the moment of capture, the palms that previously looked back and out turn and now look back and down. Turning the hands down marks the beginning of a powerful reduction of the hands. Bringing the hands together is the active (accelerating) part of the stroke with the hands. The shoulders are raised, and the hands rush first back - down, and then also inward, until the palms close under the chin. The reduction ends with the return of the pressed hands forward and up. During vigorous mixing, you should take a breath, while looking down or slightly forward. The next stage is called the return of the hands, it begins with bringing the elbows to the chest and closing the palms. If the elbows are not pressed in, they, along with the arms and chest, will become a source of strong resistance to forward movement. Pressed elbows accelerate the transition from the reduction phase to the return phase; this is where many swimmers have difficulty because they pause inappropriately at this stage of the stroke. At the end of the cycle, when the arms are almost straightened, tighten your shoulders again and begin breeding. The easiest way to master the spread and close of the arms is to swim the distance breaststroke, starting each stroke with the arms fully extended. Spread your hands about 20-25 cm and reconnect with cotton. Then walk a distance, spreading your arms 30 cm, and pay more attention to their mixing. And finally, once again overcome the distance, spreading your arms to a convenient distance for you, and pay special attention to the power of information. Exercise 1: Swim breaststroke, but instead of doing a standard breaststroke kick, do a dolphin kick or alternate stroke like freestyle. Speed up your hands and reduce your sliding time. Increasing the rowing movements is the shortest way to increase the muscle strength of the hands. Second exercise: a special board for the legs helps to accentuate the muscles of the upper body. Swim with such a board 200-300 meters, and you will feel how the muscles of the forearm hurt. Breaststroke swimmers should use this drill more often. When swimming in freestyle, it is not pulling up with the hands that is more important, but hitting the feet, because the hands become a weak link, and when mastering the breaststroke, you have to make additional efforts to eliminate this shortcoming. Kicking can also be learned on the beach. Pull one leg toward your buttocks, twist outward and away from your body. It remains to straighten the leg! Turn your foot inward so that when the foot touches the floor, it looks inward and parallel to the floor. The most important thing is to learn how to perform a blow so that in its final stage the feet are pressed against each other. The push with the legs is performed not only backwards, but also down. If you hit it right and add a "thrust" to your chest, your hips will lift up like you would in a butterfly stroke. This is important because in the return phase, when the legs are brought to the gluteal region, with a high position of the hips, the movement of the knees encounters significantly less water resistance. Straighten your legs completely until your ankles and feet come together. #Exercise #1: Do kicks without a board. Perform the first blow with the body and head immersed in water, during the second you take a breath. Second exercise: similar to the first, but the body and head are under water during two strokes, and only during the third stroke the swimmer takes a breath. Third exercise. Whisk for beating eggs: during the swim, it is not the muscles responsible for the blow that get tired the most, but the muscles that pull the legs to the buttocks. You can strengthen them with the help of the water polo exercise - "beating eggs", in which first a back kick is made with one foot, and immediately after that - a kick with the second leg. It is necessary to make blows as quickly as possible. This will not only allow you to strengthen your muscles, but also increase the speed of your footwork. If you want to swim faster, you must be more energetic in your basic strokes. Since energy is also dependent on speed, it is easier to increase the frequency of movement than to increase the strength of the legs. Fourth exercise: push with your legs on your back and make sure that your knees do not rise above the surface. Try to pull your legs gently so as not to disturb the water surface. The key to proper breaststroke technique is to complete all the elements of the rowing cycle in a timely manner. There are three motion matching options: glide, continuous loop, and cross loop. Gliding involves a short pause before the start of the stroke, at the moment when the arms are fully extended. The continuous cycle excludes any pauses; such coordination of movements is not very recommended, since in the phase of spreading the arms we do not tell the body the proper acceleration, but quite inopportunely create additional resistance at the moment (after the kick) when the speed is maximum. The cross cycle is used by skilled and fast swimmers to shorten the deceleration period after kicking and bringing arms together. With such an agreement, the stretching of the arms for breeding coincides with the end of the kick of the legs and their reduction.