Swimmers Snorkels are one of the most useful tools that swimmers of any ability level, from novice to advanced can include in their “swimming tool bag”.  At SwimLabs, we use Swimmers Snorkels for Freestyle, Breaststroke, and Butterfly to practice a variety of swimming techniques, from Balanced Swimming to Powerful Kicking Movements.

This video shows a Hinge and Anchor Drill first without, and then with a swimmers snorkel. By using the snorkel, the swimmer is able to easily keep their body properly balanced and aligned in the water, making it easier to accomplish a forward balanced position, which makes performing this drill easier.

Swimmers the world over make excuses for themselves when it comes to Breaststroke, such as, “Breaststrokers are just a different animal”, or “I only need to swim Freestyle”. This is unfortunate, because incorporating breaststroke into your swimming repertoire can not only give you a whole extra arrow in your swimming “quiver” but it can also give you valuable insight into how the human body balances and moves through the water, which can be beneficial for all of the other strokes.

If you want to swim Breaststroke better or faster, there is one good way to go about it: make sure that you understand each of the different phases of the stroke, and the timing that makes them all work together. With this knowledge, you will swim better and faster Breaststroke.

Breaststroke is generally broken into two phases: Propulsion and Glide. In the Propulsion phase, the swimmer is actively engaged in creating the forces that will propel their body through the water. In the Gliding phase, the swimmer is not actively propelling their body through the water, but rather riding the momentum created by the propulsion created earlier in the stroke.

I know, I know: that last paragraph didn’t really make for easy reading. Try this: In the Propulsion phase, you are running your motor (your arms and legs). In the Gliding phase, you turn that motor off for a moment, and you glide along using all of that momentum you created when it was turned on.

When thinking about the propulsive phase of the stroke, it’s helpful to break it into the following “stages”- The Outsweep/Breath stage, The Insweep/Head Recovery/Kick Recovery stage, and the Arm Recovery/Power stage of the kick.

During the Outsweep/Breath stage, you should begin pushing (or sweeping) the water outward, to a point somewhere outside of the line of your shoulders, keeping your hands as shallow as possible. Imagine your arms being in a “Big V” shape in front of you. How much “V” you should be is dependent on you and how big and strong you are, so you have to experiment a little. One way or another, the idea is that this should allow you to initiate your breath during this Outsweep of the arms, by creating the leverage that you need to begin moving your head forward and upward.

Once the Outsweep and the Initiation of Breath is completed, Breaststroke gets a little more complicated. The next step, the Insweep/Head and Kick Recovery stage, involves three separate actions that must be timed perfectly to be affective. Here’s the basic rundown of what should happen: As your hands come the apex of the Outsweep, you should quickly scull your hands around so as to make sure that your palms turn inward towards your body, and backwards towards your feet. It is important to remember that as you move your hands through the Insweep, they should never point towards the bottom of the swimming pool, and again, keep them shallow. Once your hands are properly positioned, drive them back towards your body, taking care to push the water behind you. This is the most powerful section of the arm stroke, so make sure that you really use the strength of your upper torso and your back to move the water.

While your hands are completing the Insweep, the two other actions of this stage- Recovering the head to a submerged position and the Recovery of the kick to an active, kicking position also take place. After the hands turn “the corner” between Outsweep and Insweep, you should be coming to your highest point above the water for your breath. As the hands complete the Insweep, you should be already starting to lower your head back into its submerged position. The final action of this stage is to recover the Legs to the active position- meaning basically to bend your knees and point your toes towards the walls of the pool, on a perpendicular line from your body. This should happen right after your hands complete the Insweep, and are beginning the recovery.

The final stage of propulsion in Breaststroke is the Arm Recovery/Kick. This is a transitional stage between the propulsive and gliding phases of the stroke. The most important point to remember is that there should be a seamless transition between the Insweep and the Arm Recovery phases. As your arms complete the Insweep, they should seamlessly move forward into the Arm Recovery. As you finish the Arm Recovery, the power phase of the kick begins. It can be helpful to think about “anchoring your feet” and then pushing your body forward from that position. As your kick is completed, the Gliding phase of the stroke begins.

The Gliding phase of the stroke is really one single stage. Basically, the idea is to use all of that momentum you built during the arm stroke and kicking stages before you begin the process again. As the Gliding phase of the stroke is entered, the arms should be extended forward in front of the body, and you should be in the Streamline position. Once you are, you will you will notice yourself moving forward as you ride out the momentum of the propulsive phase. It is ok to let your hands start to slowly drift apart as you glide through the water, however, If you do this, remember to keep your body in the same gliding position for the entirety of the Glide, and do not start your Outsweep until you have used all of the forward momentum from your last stroke.

Gliding in Breaststroke is not a particularly difficult point of technique to master; more often than not, executing a proper glide is more a matter of patience than of anything else. The most important thing to focus on when practicing the glide is to make sure you know exactly how far and how long you are able to glide before your momentum is exhausted.

Here’s an easy way to figure out how long you should be gliding: swim an easy set of repeats, like 8×25’s where following your arm stroke and kick you stay in the streamline position until you feel your forward momentum begin to deteriorate. Pay close attention to exactly how long you are able to glide forward before this happens, because this is exactly the length of Glide that you want in your stroke.

Breaststroke can be a great way to gain insight into how your body moves and balances in the water. Along with that, it can change up the monotony of an “All Freestyle” workout, as well as give you a useful way to train your “swimming muscles” in a different way. Experiment with Breaststroke, and you will be happy you did.

Our facility at SwimLabs is specially set up to practice fundamentals. With our endless pools, video analysis system, video library of expert swimmers, and expert coaches, we have created an environment that allows for swimmers to not only practice the fundamentals of the sport, but also make improvements to their technique as well. Typically, this results in drastic improvements to stroke technique, and therefore large drops in speed.

The following is a client testimonial. After only a few hours of coaching sessions, they were able to vastly improve their strokes and their times.

Hi Mike & Giff,

Wendy McCurdy

At SwimLabs, we are firm believers that technique is the single most important aspect of becoming a good swimmer. We’ve seen it over and over again how small technique changes can yield fantastic results, whether you are looking to cut time in a specific race or are just looking to make swimming easier on yourself.

The following is a letter from the Johnson family, who experienced first hand how changes to their daughters swimming technique yielded fantastic results just a short time later:

Hi Mike & Giff

Our 8 year old daughter, Cami Johnson, began her private lessons with you June 25, 2008 to improve her times in her Freestyle and Breaststrokes. She was swimming in a Summer League and when she began with you her times during the season had been deteriorating despite her goal of qualifying for the All Stars with at least one qualifying time.

I’d like to share with you the improvement of her times during the course of the past month:

25 Free: Before lessons, best time of 21:01
Championships, 19.43 (All Stars qualifying time is 20:80)

50 Free: Before lessons, best time 55:33
Championships, 44:47 (All Stars qualifying time is 48:10)

25 Breast: Before lessons, best time of 30:53
Championships, 25:89 (All Stars qualifying time is 28:10)

Cami is absolutely ecstatic about these results (and so are her parents)!! She not only achieved All Star status in one event, but she will be swimming in all three All Star events next saturday in Castle Rock.

We are big believers in SwimLabs and the Swim Technique theory. We were truly amazed with the dramatic change in results after just 4 private lessons!!! We will definitely be back next year before the summer season!!!

Thanks again Giff & Mike, we really appreciate everything you did for Cami. The results were phenomenal!

Diane Johnson

At SwimLabs, we can teach you to swim fast…faster.