PEAK Performance Camps Refresher

Important Note to the Viewer

LESSONS: 10 VIDEOS

Kick - Sit on the side

The breaststroke kick is one of the trickiest kicks to learn, so we'll start in the simplest position. Sit on the side of the pool with your knees slightly away from the wall. Raise both feet to the surface and point your toes. Next, lower your feet toward the wall. When your heels get close to the wall, pitch the big toes out, then sweep the feet out in the direction of the toes and take the feedback to the pointed extended position. Breaststroke is the only kick that uses the inside of the feet for propulsion. It’s important to learn and understand what this feels like before you move forward to trying to kick breaststroke. When you sweep your feet from the wall back to the pointed toe position, try to feel the water pressure on the inside of the feet not on the top of the feet.

Wall Kick.

Just like the previous drill, we're only going to be using the legs from the knees down. Hold your body flat against the wall with your head above the water and your legs hanging directly down beneath you. Bring the heels up behind you until your legs are about at a 90-degree angle. When you get your legs to the bent position, point your toes to the side, then push the insides of your feet down until your legs are in the pointed position again. Just like in the previous drill, you're trying to feel the pressure of the water on the insides of your feet. This particular drill also teaches you that the breaststroke kick happens behind your body, not by tucking your knees up. Think of drawing the heels up in order to set up the kick, then kick down with the insides of your feet and finish with the toes in a pointed position.

Kick on your back

If you look at the previous drill, you'll see that this is pretty much the exact same action. Instead of having your body flat against the wall from your torso down to your knees, your body will be flat on the surface of the water. With your hands held down by your side and floating on your back, start in the toes pointed position. Now, without allowing your knees to break the surface of the water, dry your heels up behind you. When the legs reach approximately 90°, pointed toes out to the side and push the water back with the insides of your feet. Finish the kick in a toe pointed position. To feel a little more propulsion, you can use a little skull with your hands to help you move forward. Keep the push of the hands subtle but end with the toes pointed and the hands-down by your side. Remember that the knees don't pop out of the water, and the recovery of the kick is done with the heels. The push of the kit comes from the inside of the foot, and the kick always ends in the toes pointed position.

Hand lead kick on your back

Building on the exact same body position that she was in in the last few drills, you'll notice that from the shoulders to the hips to the knees, they're all flat on the surface of the water. The only difference now is that the hands are held above the head. Marilyn was in a position eleven position, whereas Pat is doing a streamline position. Either is fine. So whatever makes you feel the best works. The important thing here is making sure, again, that the knees don't break the surface. We want to keep the hips close in that line. And the heels are drawn up behind the body, or behind the thighs, the toes are pointed to the side. Everything ends in the extended position with the toes pointed with an excellent balanced body line.

Kick on stomach

We're going to try to do the exact same kick that we've done before, only now it's face down. You'll notice a few variations here. Merle starts with face down in the head lead position, so she'll have to breathe. By lifting her head. Pat does face down in the hand lead position, where he has his hands in position eleven. He gives a slight skull as it's time to breathe. Sometimes we feel the best way to learn this is to spend time using the snorkel. You can focus on the body line, how the feet connect to the water, and especially the recovery of the kick. We spent so much time in the last few drills trying to make sure that that line, from the shoulders to the hips to the knees, is straight in this position because the front of the body does not lift for breath, especially with the snorkel. There will be some bend from the thigh to the knee. Your goal is to minimize this and to make sure that the kick is small. So the heels are recovered up behind the thighs, and we don't have too much resistance that is created by the front of the thighs as we get into more breathing or more natural breaststroke. The front of the body will lift up, and the line will be straighter from the shoulder to the hips to the knees. But right now, in the flatten position, we're trying to isolate the feeling of the kick and the propulsion of the feet. So the body position may not be perfect, but that's okay.

2 Kicks 1 Pull

Most breaststroker’s favorite drill is two kicks and one pull. We're going to make some adaptations here, making sure that you understand that the most important thing is a small pull, not a big pull. We're just working on incorporating the timing of the kick that you've just learned into full stroke breaststroke. So the focus will be on the kick and then adding a little bit of a pull in just so that you can get some air. Pat does a great job of keeping the pull very, very small. You'll notice that Merle’s pull is very narrow, and the kick is also very narrow. You notice how the knees are barely wider than the hips. This minimizes her resistance on the water. Pats kick is just a little bit wider, but this drill can be better understood if you simply imagine that this is breaststroke with an extra kick. You put the regular kick in where it's supposed to go, and once you're in the extended position, you add a single kick. This helps you work on your body line. It helps you focus on the recovery of the kick and identify the propulsion of the kick. And again, the pull is very small and only helps you to get up to air.

Lane line pull

When we start thinking about full stroke breaststroke, we want to start with the pull. And in order to build to a proper pull, we're going to start understanding how deep the pull is or how far back the elbows go. A great place to start understanding that elbows should be in front of you or the pull should be smaller is to lay over the lane line and sweep your hands out and back into extension through regular breaststroke pull. The lane line will inhibit your elbows from going past the shoulders. This is what a great breaststroke pull is going to feel like, especially when you get started. You don't want the elbows coming back too far, because we also have to be very aware of the recovery and the resistance that the recovery can brain. By limiting how far back the elbows go, we can spend more time producing force rather than creating resistance that will come with a big recovery. If you don't have a lane line. Another way is just to lay on the side of the pool on the deck and lay the underarm right at the edge of the pool. You'll be able to pull the same way that our swimmer did on the lane line. The wall will stop the elbows from coming too far back. You simply can't go through the wall. So this is another way that you can practice a small pull and start to develop a great front end for your breaststroke.

Breaststroke with flutter kick

Another way to encourage a small quick pull is to use flutter kick rather than breaststroke kick. Our swimmers are using fins as this gives a little bit more push and makes it a little easier. The idea is that because the body isn't working as naturally as it would or in the same up and down fashion as it would with full stroke breaststroke, the arms need to get back out front a little bit sooner and a little bit quicker with the flutter kick. The flutter kick encourages a quick small pull because the body will fall quicker onto the water. As you get a little bit better with it, you can start to increase the size of the pull. But we do encourage you to start with a very small pull, initially.

Separation Drill

Understanding the proper timing and breaststroke is one of the trickiest things about breaststroke. One of my favorite all time drills in order to teach people is separation drill. This is where you completely separate the pull from the kick. The path of this drill is pretty simple. You take a pull with no kick at all. Keep the legs as rigid and straight as possible. And once you get back down into the line underwater, glide for just a bit and then you add the breaststroke kick. So it's the pull with no kick. Pause. Get back into line and then kick breaststroke. You'll then come up for a stroke and a breath and repeat this process. The idea that we're trying to get across here is that the pull and the kick are not as closely integrated as people think. You don't kick your hands forward. We want to get rid of the feeling of the kick driving the hands forward. When we look at timing, we want the hands completely out front before the kick comes in so that the resistance that the recovery creates is done before the propulsion of the kick comes in. You notice our swimmer right here is using a dolphin kick to send his hands forward. This is what you will instinctively feel and want to do, but something that you need to avoid. This still supports the process that the kick is driving the hands forward. So go back to making sure that the legs do nothing during the pull and then do the kick independently of everything else.

Progress to regular breaststroke

Working toward building proper breaststroke time starts with separation drill and then slowly reducing the amount of time spent in separation. The goal is that the hands are extended, the eyes are down prior to the kick coming in and giving propulsion. We want to make sure that the front of the body is ready to accept the propulsion the legs are about to give. When you're practicing the separation drill, you may make a mistake. Every once in a while, like right there, it's not really separated. Ultimately, that is the stroke we want. So by learning to separate the two out and then slowly bringing them back together, we build the breaststroke again. The hands are extended. The head is down prior to the kick, giving its force. Start with a separation drill and slowly bring the two together again. And you're going to build a great breaststroke.