Stroking breasts

Adda

So I have recently started swimming after not being in a pool for 10 years. I'm in pretty good physical shape but my aerobic fitness is lacking and after many failed starts with running, I have turned to swimming. I'm going 4-5 times a week (only two weeks in so far) for about 45 minutes to 1 hour from 6:30 in the morning before I go to work.

Good news is that I like it but bad news is that I am not so good at it and I don't like being 'not good' at stuff so would really appreciate any advice on technique/form. Any swimmers out there can give me some pointers? specifically on breast stroke.

Cheers

Edilith

Regular swimmer here, but self-taught due to an awful swim tutor as a child, so take my post with a pinch of salt.

The main factor to swimming decently is to ensure your body is horizontal and parallel to the water (--- not \) as this will make sure you are streamlined and minimising drag.

For breaststroke, it's a particularly good idea to start off by getting the hang of the arm and leg motions separately. So hold onto the edge of the pool, or put a float under your knees and practice practice practice!

Your legs should be kicking in a circular motion - don't forget to bend your knees, and to squeeze your thighs together at the end of the 'push'. For the arm motion, try to make sure you bend your elbows at 90 degrees when doing the stroke, as this will give you more thrust than keeping your elbows locked.

You might differ, but I also found that my confidence in the water grew substantially after investing in a pair of decent goggles and a noseclip. I'm one of those people who panics if water gets in my eyes/nose..

A good site for diagrams and such is Swim-Teach.com.

Video of proper swimming form which I found helpful, too:

Proper Swimming Techniques

Mr_Grinch

Can you hire someone at your local pool to give you a lesson? One single 1 to 1 lesson should help you out considerably.

I used to swim regularly/competitively but haven't done much in a while, I go the odd weekend but that's about it (would love to go more but the stupid pool opens at stupid times).

I'd personally recommend practicing both frontcrawl and breaststroke, especially if you're after increasing aerobic fitness.

Adda

Cheers guys, I just today got to try out my new prescription goggles and they already made a world of difference. Swimming with head always above water is not fun.

I have been alternating lengths between front crawl and breaststroke, and I find front crawl to be fine other than unfortunately having to take a breath on every right movement. Hopefully will be at a point where I can alternate on every third pretty soon.

Mr_Grinch

Adda wrote: »

Cheers guys, I just today got to try out my new prescription goggles and they already made a world of difference. Swimming with head always above water is not fun.

I have been alternating lengths between front crawl and breaststroke, and I find front crawl to be fine other than unfortunately having to take a breath on every right movement. Hopefully will be at a point where I can alternate on every third pretty soon.

Yeah, it makes it much more pleasant (if only because your neck doesn't feel like it's about to fall off). One other thing (that Edilith mentioned) is a float. If you're doing this to build up your aerobic fitness then a float would help with that AND technique. I'm not too big on the ones that go between your legs, I find them awkward, but a float for your hands, like this



is brilliant for technique and knackering yourself out! They also cost next to nothing and most pools let you leave them on the side when you're not using them.

Good luck!

::edit:: I love how this thread has dragged in over 100 views. I wonder how many are let down by the question?

Adda

Mr_Grinch wrote: »

::edit:: I love how this thread has dragged in over 100 views. I wonder how many are let down by the question?

My (not strictly)false advertising skills far outweigh my swimming ability.

Solvent

I would not suggest sticking anything between your legs. It will totally change your centre of buoyancy in such a way that it will be difficult to do the arm motion correctly. Using a kickboard (the floaty bit you hold on to with your hands) may well be beneficial to learn the kick though.

For the arms in breastroke, do not try to push the water back. There is some element of pushing back, but to learn the stroke I would not advise thinking of it this way. Push out with your hands at the start of the strokewith your arms mostly straight (this kind of movement is called sculling, and even more specifically this part of the stroke is the 'catch') before bending your elbows, sweeping your hands down in a little circle and then scull inwards so you're bringing your palms and elbows together. At this point you kick and straighten your body, reaching your arms out.

The reason I advise not to push back is a lot of people, when learning, push their hands right down under their hips and this is tremendously inefficient. If you imagine your body stretched out horizontally, with the direction you are swimming the 'front' and your feet at the 'back', your hands should not be going behind your shoulders.

Unfortunately I don't really think I'll be able to give a good account of the kick via text. Some people pick it up instinctively, some people have a really hard time (people with floppy ankles or a screw kick).

For the breathing, you need to lift your head when you do the catch with your hands, and after you 'clap' your hands together and start to push them forward you dip your head back in to the gap left by your hands. In order to get the timing correct, you should 'glide' between each stroke. That is, after you stretch your arms forward and duck your head down, leave your arms outstretched for a brief 1-2-3 count. This is important for beginners because if your arms continue straight into the next stroke, your head will not be in a position to come back up again so soon. Make sure you glide to practice the timing, and then you can speed it all up like the olympians.

Here's a 200m breastroke, which will give you a better idea of the glide than a 50m event:
Kitajima

HyperAquaBlast

I used to be a club swimmer a long time ago and I used to teach kids how to swim. I just thought about how to describe breast stroke without me making visual examples and it is rather hard.

I can't view the videos but it sounds like solvent is giving a good text to imagine visual. If anything breast stroke is the best one where you can do all the movements very slowly and methodically as long as you have some glide going. So don't bob and move too fast.

LearnedHand

This thread reminds me of the swimming class I had in high school. We were taught by a priest and he used to say "breast stroke" in a really exaggerated manner and as two distinct words. We were like 14, by the way. He also used to watch us take showers.

I looked this guy up on Google maybe a month ago and he now lives in California (the school was in the Midwest). He's still a priest, though.

I also looked on our school website. They no longer have any priest teachers. When I was there, there were a few. Wonder why the change.

Anyway, my advice is not to take lessons from a priest.

Adda

That's some great stuff Solvent, I'll be sure to check out those videos when I get back but can already identify some stuff I'm doing wrong.

Unearthly Stew

I'd like to suggest this: http://swimplan.com/. It creates a plan based around your skill level, the strokes you'd like to use, and divides things into three sections: warm up, work out, and cool down. I've found (at least with the front crawl,) that the warm up usually are exercises to improve your technique. Plus it's free.

Eat it You Nasty Pig.

If you're not using them for specific training/conditioning purpose, using kickboards and leg floats is more likely to teach you bad habits than anything.

I really suggest you look into adult lessons at whatever pool you swim at. If you're already swimming somewhat competently for an hour, you probably don't need a ton of instruction, and you can smooth out a lot of technique things and get help putting a workout together.