The breaststroke is one of the most fundamental strokes for a beginner to learn and master. One key mantra to reiterate to yourself as you practice this stroke is ‘pull, breathe, kick, glide’. This stroke is unique in the sense that, your recovery step occurs under the water – making it a bit more harder to master as it causes drag and makes you slow. This is why it is most important to master this stroke.
For part 1 where we discussed the first 2 steps on how to do the breast stroke click here. For the last 2 steps (part 2), click here. Today we will be discussing how to do breast stroke turns and common mistakes that are made when doing this move.
Breaststroke Turns:
Breaststroke turns are significantly easier to do as they do not require doing any underwater flips, as compared to freestyle and backstroke.
By the time you reach the wall, your arms should be fully extended. You can practice this by mentally timing yourself so your hands reach the wall in time. Your hands must reach at the same time and be the same distance from the ground and apart.
Swing your body and legs underneath you so that your feet com towards the wall and the turn your body sideways so you are facing back towards where you just swam.
Now, let go of the wall and use your feet to push off in a streamline position – this mean, your arms should be fully extended and your arms, ears and core is tight; legs straight; and ankles tight together.
Lastly, perform one full arm stroke and leg kick under the water and gently rise up towards the water surface and take your first stroke.
Common Mistakes Made:
One common mistake made is when learners pull their arms too far back. This results in greater resistance because the further back the arms are pulled, the greater the distance must be recovered underwater to return to the glide position, creating more drag.
When doing the sweep motion, your arms or hands mustn’t ever come back past your shoulders. Instead, they should stop when they form a ‘Y’ shape and then go back. To help you practice this, simply lay a noodle across your upper chest and under both armpits and then do the breaststroke. The noodle helps prevent your arms from going too far back and instead keep them out in front of you, where they should be.
And this was the last part of the breaststroke series! We hope you found this series helpful and insightful!
Our tutors at Ducks2Sharks are experienced in teaching all sorts of swim positions to our students, so if you would love to learn, join our classes today in Berkshire!