TEACHING BREASTSTROKE Guy Edson American Swimming Coaches Association
Teaching
Those Who Can, Do. Those Who Can t
BREASTSTROKE!
Breaststroke What to look for Establish Alignment And Balance At The Beginning Of Every Swim/Drill Timing: pull, kick, stretch Swimming up AND downhill 3 dimensional kick at first, then narrowing Building to a Wider arm stroke Slow-quick
Brendan Hanson -- Breaststroker Note that he pulls a streamlined lower body through the water. THEN he kicks a streamlined upper body through the water. 2 engines, alternately working.
Alic Not a Breaststroker 7 What is the biggest issue here? NO TIMING (among about a hundred other things. ) Fix the timing FIRST.
Alas.. There is hope 8 This is same swimmer, after about 2 weeks.
Modern Breaststroke and Coaching the Novice No clear answers but some good things to think about. What does modern elite 50 meter breaststroke have to do with coaching novice breaststroke? Elite 100 meter breast? Elite 200 meter breast? What is too narrow, what is too wide?
Breaststroke Progression 10 Overview Teach the timing first Teach kicking all the time Don t wait for a legal kick before teaching arms or timing. Be patient on errant kicks. Teach the arms Teach advanced lunge breaststroke later
Learning to Turn Feet Out
Learning to Kick in Water
Kick on Side to Kick in Water
Brush the Wall Brush the Wall with the toe will turn the hips, allow the foot to be out and change a sidestroke kick to a legal breaststroke kick. 14
Breast Kick With Board Timing Drill UP, KICK, GLIDE 15
Up, Kick, Down Up, Kick, Down becomes Up, Kick, Glide becomes Up, Kick, Stretch becomes Out, Up, Kick, Stretch (when the arms are added.) 16
Breast: up, kick, glide 17
Breast Kick, no board She is cheating a little here by using her arms a bit. Not a big issue and good to see them figuring out how to use their hands. (Head is a little high though.) 18
19 Breaststroke: kick with hands down Touch you heels with your hands. Chest down, Hips Up Up, Kick, Dive. Purpose of this drill is to make the kick more 3 dimensional and to add dolphin action to the body. 3 Dimensional Kick means out, around, and DOWN. Width, length, and depth.
On Deck Arms 20 Key words: Out, up and forward. Here, we are asking them to pause after the out just as a temporary overcorrection to emphasize the width. We do not want swimmers to pause at this point during the normal stroke.
Breaststroke Shadow Arms 21 We are asking her to watch her shadow to see if she is pulling back too far. We want the pull out in front of the shoulders. (She doesn t turn her head until the second stroke after her sister steps in to remind her!)
22 Breaststroke Pull: Standing on Bottom Out, Up AND Forward.
Y Breaststroke Arms 23 Float, hands out, wait for the words, Up and forward. Purpose of this drill is to work on the quick insweep.
Sweep the Bucket
One Arm Breaststroke with 25 Board Here we are isolating one arm at a time, working on the outsweep. Head is too high and there isn t enough stretch between each stroke.
26 Little Circles
27 Breaststroke Handcuffs w/free Kick Purpose is to isolate the arms not to worry about the timing. Handcuffs is a mind picture image to remind the swimmer to keep the arm stroke out in front. Overcorrection.
28 Breaststroke w/handcuffs
Breaststroke Timing Faults and Drills Timing Faults 1. pulling and kicking at same time 2. not finishing kick 3. breathing early Timing Drills 1. drill on deck, arms extended, up, kick, down, what two things come up on the word up? 2. kicking with board, arms extended holding board out front, face in water; listening for coach, up, kick, glide, doing same with coach. 3. kicking without board, hands out front, same drill. 4. kicking with hands at side, up, kick, dive touching heels with hands 5. full stroke, out, up, kick, stretch 29
30 Breaststroke Pulling Faults and Drills Pulling Faults 1. pumpkin pulls, big wide circles finished under belly 2. flat, dropped elbows 3. climbers, pulling too hard too soon, then dropping the water Pulling Drills 1. Kinesthetic drill on deck: out, in-and-forward 2. noodles in the armpits to keep the stroke out front 3. standing on bottom, practicing arm patterns in unison with the coach. 4. sitting on board, sculling across pool. 5. using the washtub sweep on the deck then into the water 6. crescendo
Breaststroke Kicking Faults and Drills Kicking faults 1. knee and foot turned in 2. Not finishing kick 3. dropping knees 4. not getting toes out Kicking drills 1. deck manipulation 2. swimmer holding board, coach holding feet moving in correct pattern 3. sitting on the edge of the pool, bring feet to wall, turn toes out, kick out around and together 4. kicking on back with kick board 5. stretching exercises 31
Questions
TEACHING Butterfly This Presentation is about teaching butterfly to developmental swimmers We will look at some world class examples, then We re going to watch Sal, Lucky, Arianna, and Carlos. Guy Edson American Swimming Coaches Association
34 Benny Neilson Olympic Bronze Medalist and classic butterfly
Misty Hyman
Trickett and Magnuson, 2008 Level 2 Stroke School - 2010 36
37 Good Age Group Butterfly
Questions, Comments, or observations?
Basic Butterfly: What to Look For 39 Establish Alignment And Balance And A Stabilizing Kick At The Beginning Of Every Swim/Drill Set up hands enter outside the shoulders Stroke width and pattern matches athlete s swimming strength Stroke pattern is drag oriented with a slight taper inward fingers forward, fingers back Chest down, hips up Head out before the hands, in before the entry End of stroke rounded out for novice kick hands in, Kick hands out (kick in, kick out) Little finger first on recovery Minimal splash Chin plowing the water
Butterfly 40 Key words Kick in, kick out Out before, in before The chest goes down, the hips go up Chest before the hands Fingers forward, fingers back
Questions, Comments, or observations?
Einstein and Butterfly 42 Einstein said, Make everything as simple as possible, but not any simpler. Therefore (next slide)
Do not overcomplicate the stroke 43 Do not overload the swimmer Do not ask the novice swimmer to swim with an advanced stroke pattern DON T BE LIKE MIKE
Butterfly is 44 SIMPLE
The Result of Information Overload Fonzi Butterfly
Teaching Butterfly: the fine print 46 This progression violates all known swimming principles This progression gives Terry Laughlin heartburn. This progression leaves Bill Boomer speechless. But Bill Sweetenham likes it. And for me it works. So I humbly present this as a suggestion.
Questions, Comments, or observations?
Teaching Strategies 48 Teach kicking all the time Teach all kinds of dolphin kicking Starting with wigglers, building to holding the line We kick: Upside down, on the side, underwater, on top, with board, without board, hands up, hands down, with fins, without fins Teach the timing first Teach the arms later
49 Butterfly Kick wigglers
Fish on Vacation 50 Similar to wigglers except under water. Try to go 4 or 5 kicks on one breath.
51 Fish on Vacation with Fins
Kick, Holding on to END of the Board, head down 52
Kicking on middle of board 53 We also kick with head up. It changes body position but: it moves emphasis away from head movement to chest and hip movement AND I can talk to them!
54 Kicking on top of the board
Questions, Comments, or observations?
56 Timing Progression Step 1 Keep it Simple! "pull up, stop" no kick, maybe use pull buoy for the sinkers, one stroke at a time, breathe every stroke. Helps keep from stopping at the end of the stroke Goal is timing only. Maximum of 3 strokes Do not worry about length of stroke. Do not worry about body position Because it is really ugly! --- continued
57 Fly: Pull up, stop
58 Pull Up - Stop
59 Pull up, stop three times
60 Pull Up, Stop 3 Times
Questions, Comments, or observations?
Interspersed with Water Time 62 Do Lots of On Deck Drills with Arm Strokes, Recovery (especially little finger forward), and Timing.
63 Deck Practice
64 Swatting Flies
Timing Progression Step 2 65 "pull up, dive" the dive or chest down brings the hips up, which creates the kick But don t talk about the kick yet. Maximum 3 strokes --- continued
66 Pull up -- Dive
67 Pull up -- Dive
68 Pull Up, Duck (under the lane line)
Questions, Comments, or observations?
Progression Step 3 70 One arm fly - chest before the hands, Key words Kick hands in, kick hands out, Kick in, kick out head comes out before the hands, in before Out before, in before
71 Fly: Chest before the hands
72 Fly One Arm
73 Fly One Arm
Questions, Comments, or observations?
Progression Step 4 75 4. Slowly add length to the arm stroke. Too much length too early leads to recovery of head and arms at same time.
Progression Step 5 76 Get them off the blocks and half way down the pool in 3-4 strokes
Fly from Dive 77 Having novice swimmers do butterfly from a dive gives them some speed which helps the stroke. If we can get half way down the pool on 3 or 4 strokes, that s a good butterfly start for a young butterflyer. This young swimmer doesn t quite make the middle on 4 strokes.
Fly from Dive 78 This 10 year old novice makes the middle of the pool on 3 butterfly strokes!
Teaching and Doing Butterfly is A PIECE OF CAKE (Thanks) Guy Edson American Swimming Coaches Association gedson@swimmingcoach.org