Learned this new technique after swimming breaststroke the "old"way for 40 years. It was fun to adapt and I like the improved efficiency! The better glide phase is great, you really get to enjoy the feel of the water around you.
Being a competition breaststroker in the 1960s, I had started to add a discreet dolphin kick to my underwater section of the dive and wall push off. I was quickly taken aside by a referee and warned that the next time I did it I would be disqualified. An interesting side issue with all the stroke and rule changes is that it now means that all the old records based on the earlier stroke and rules can't really be compared to the modern stroke. The strokes are so different that the times recorded for each style really don't relate to each other because earlier rules prohibited the changes that allow a faster time.
Ive always hated breaststroke as it feels like im not moving through the water and hurts my back but now I'm thinking I didn't learn it correctly, even the under water camera seeing how the kick is correctly done is completely different to what i was taught. Ill give it another shot with the help from this!
As kids at swimming lessons, we was never given a demonstration of how to swim breaststroke. Any stroke to be honest. We got told to jump in the water and swim like a frog. I was the only person who'd ever seen a frog swimming having a pond in the garden. A few joker's were just treading water and said they was spawning, others were croaking and a couple just pissed in the pool and said that's what frogs do lol. Anyway it's my favourite stroke and the most easy, less effort and relaxing way to swim.
You were thought the "old" method, which is super hard and felt unnatural. The "new" method would get you immideately disqualified from "old" competitions, as both submerging your head and the dolphin kick used to be completely banned, because they make swimming immesurably less difficult. What I am trying to say is not that you didn't get what you were being thought, you were veing thought something completely different.
Just realized this new way of pull down when my boy went to a private coach, our team coach still using the old way. Very clear of explanation. Thank you
This was very interesting. I’m older, never swam competitively, but swim most days using breaststroke only due to shoulder issues. I’ve always wondered what a competitive breaststroke swimmer’s stroke looked like. This was an excellent analysis of exactly how they do it. Thanks
I swim regularly since I was a kid. In fact, I designed my own pool at home to be able to swim daily, if I want to, although I prefer to go to the gym (longer pool). I'm old school and I have been swimming the new technique for a few months now. It is more natural to me. I just add the "dolphin" kick and movements because it's fun and I am not in this for competition, but to keep myself fit. Thank you very much for this video explaining everything so well.
@@USMastersSwimming I never swam breaststroke. Always 50 free and 500 free and back then it was yards. I like the idea that they can dolphin kick underwater after they dive in and after the flip turn. We always had to immediately surface and begin swimming.
This was easily my best stroke when I was much younger and I remember hearing all the strategies that you mentioned as being bad. I swam in to my teens and was a top 3 finisher anywhere I went. Glad they’ve gotten rid of some rules that seemed dumb to me even then. Second swim was free, not nearly as good, but ledicky has been interesting with how she uses her legs. Always thought that was a little bit of a waste of energy. If my feet aren’t in water, I’m not moving forward. Anyone who can do butterfly well is a magician in my mind. Backstroke is for the boring and serial killers.
I developed modified breaststroke after i was rehabbing from shoulder Labrum surgery. Same Breaststroke Kick but kind of like an underwater butterfly or a surfer paddling out, using mostly back muscles to propel. Now after i'm healed I still do it 50% of time to conserve energy.
Me too. Now head can go under water, hands leap out of the water, dolphin kick on start and turns. The stroke is nothing like it used to be. I think rules keep softening so stagnant records can get faster.
When I swam it was the old rules...no dolphin kick, head couldn't go below the water. I didn't mind doing the actual stroke, but hated swimming it in meets because you felt like you just didn't move. It was frustrating, at least for me.
@@USMastersSwimming LOL...my competitive swimming days are long gone. Now it's just for fun. And while I find backstroke relaxing, I'm done with the breaststroke and butterfly!
I never could swim breast stroke because my feet will not turn out for that old frog kick or newer whip kick. What amazes me is how varied the stroke rate was at the last Olympics. It didn't seem to make much difference in the length of the event, but stroke rates were highly variable. It did seem to even up as they got closer to the finish and most of them would up the tempo.
Mechanically impossible for me because my feet will not turn out, and at age 74, I doubt they will. I do prefer the over arm side stroke as a far faster and more efficient stroke.
This could be solved. With reflex integration. As a practioner and a swimmingteacher I can make a combination in my teaching aswell as in my practice. I will ne teaching Masterclasses on this subject soon..
Well, my body isn't going to change at this point in my life. It is more set in its ways than I am. I have had pigeon toes since I was a kid. Besides, the inefficiency of the breast stroke would drive me crazy. Each time you do the kick, just prior to it, any swimmer comes to an almost complete stop in the water. I have been swimming the old school over arm side stroke, the 3rd long axis stroke. I dropped the scissor kick in favor of the flutter kick and it took 3 seconds off of my 50 yard sprint time in 3 days. A much more constant speed stroke.
So strange, I modified my stroke to do this about a year ago, it just felt "right", especially the glide. Now I see it is how I should swim. I am a slow, open-water swimmer, so technique is not a disqualifier.
Thats very interesting, nice to see more analysis being used for this stroke. When I swam this stroke, it was under appreciated, and the olympic times were not tough to reach. This has been my main stroke for all my life, and I have 2 suggestions. One I am surprised the swimmers raise their mouths and bodies so far out of the water. That takes a lot of energy and detracts from the forward momentum. The second is why don't they take one stroke without bringing their head up, and then stroke with their head up, in other words breathing every second stroke. If you like these suggestions contact me, and I have another really good one.
LUL, i haven't go swimming for over 7-8 years, last week, a friend ask me if i could teach her how to swim breaststoke. After watching her swim, i told her that her breaststroke technique is weird, then i show her the old way. Kids around come and ask me for instructions.I told them to follow their guide. I knew something was wrong but I couldn't explain it., thanks for your video
it's curious, I'm a very mediocre swimmer and I've always spontaneously swum the breaststroke this way, very modestly, because I like doing long slides.
How "outdated" is that, or am I not considered a Masters swimmer at 44 years of age? I learned that technique mid 90ies already, and competed until 2000 like this in Austria. Maybe our refs simply didn't care and I was outside of the rules all this time? The modern pullout has changed quite a bit though, very interesting video, thanks!
@@USMastersSwimminginteresting. I learned to swim in the 1960’s, at a local school, and then at Girl Scout camp, where I learned my water rescue skills. My mom always used a side stroke because she never wanted to get her hair wet. As a kid, I thought that was hilarious, but as an adult, I get it now! On the rare occasions I get in the pool these days, I often find myself doing a high breaststroke or a side stroke, though, exactly because I don’t want my hair wet! I’m also much less *ahem* streamlined than I used to be, so I don’t get anywhere fast in the water these days. LOL. Honestly, if I want to move through the water at all quickly, I find a backstroke works best. I think it’s because my legs were always the strongest part of me, and I retain a lot more strength in them just from walking around! Fascinating video. I had no idea they’d stopped teaching the side stroke except to lifeguards, and that the strokes in breaststroke had changed so much!
Sidestroke is considered a rescue stroke because you can do it for a long time and keep your face out of the water. It's good if you are capsized or if you need to tow someone (hence the lifeguard training).
Wow, I actually never knew it wasn't allowed to put your head under water in breaststroke... I think I've always done it this way and no coach ever told me not to do it. The perks of swimming for fun I guess ^^
I’m not much of a swimmer any more, but I have a question for folks. Watching this stroke once only in the Olympics, I felt the kick was actually pretty different. Am I crazy, or were both legs not entirely synced up? It looked really different to me. It could be me 😄
I wanna ask a question. When doing a breaststroke, is it better to take 1 kick followed by 1 breath or 3-4 kicks and 1 breath? I learned to swim back in elementary school and I always do 3-4 kicks and 1 breath, but I also see people do 1 kick and 1 breath. I want to apply the rhythm that won't make me out of breath quick and keep my stamina consistent
I thought the breast stroke was the butterfly in the current olympics when I walked into a room and it was on the TV. It does look like a mirror of butterfly.
Is it illegal to do a dolphin kick with only a small v to look like a breaststroke, but the kick is a dolphin with a little v legs? Also, I try to move my body high to push my arms outside water with a little contact on water like a reverse butterfly arms stroke.
@@USMastersSwimming Yes, thank you, I am a professional swim instructor with 20 years experience in UK where I run a free swimschool particularly aimed at parents who are unemployed and on welfare who would not normally be able to afford swim lessons for their children which is important as I am based on the coast in the south east of England near Dover. In the early stages of butterfly teaching I teach butterfrog before progressing to dolphin kicks. This is the only way butterfly can be used competitively in the UK as, I believe butterfrog was outlawed in the late 90's. Given all that I will be giving a link to your video to all parents of the kids I teach as it succinctly explains breaststroke easier for the kids to understand thanks to your excellent explanation and underwater visuals.
The new way is how most people swim intuitively- it's easy and fast. The old rules were in place to make the sport hard. I wonder if the new records will be in a different category, as it was way harder and slower to swim the old way.
I watched some underwater films of Chinese female swimmers during the ‘growth hormone’ years (when they were shattering records). Their leg kicks were farcical - much more dolphin than frog. Hardly any separation of the legs, but plenty of downward force in the kick phase. I was pleased to see in Paris 2024 that technology and refereeing - and a better culture in swimming generally - seems to have eliminated the most egregious examples of stretching of the rules. I’m not anti-China. I loved seeing them winning medals this year. I think swimming lost its way for a while, especially breast stroke and back stroke, but it seems to be right back to where it should be.
Not that new. Some help. Have good head/spine alignment the whole time. Don't lift the head allow the motion to carry you out of the water. Keep the same alignment and be looking down at the water. Your mouth can be only a couple inches above the surface of the water. Much more streamlined. Keep the kick within the circumferance of your body. Again more streamlined. It will allow longer stroke length. Make very quick circles with your hands as your elbows come to shoulder level. Rebecca Soni had the quickest hands and that one a major factor in her being the best.
