Friday, March 23, 2012

Breaststroker's Lament

This is the cover of my new book on breaststroke technique.  Or, well... it might as well be.


The breaststroke was my specialty in college.  I know how fickle it can be, and as a coach it can be horribly frustrating.  I have had swimmers who can't do the stroke correctly without rest.  I have had others who get the timing one day and then not the next.  I have even had some who have a lousy 100 and then ace the 200 the next day.  It can seem random, but I have enough of an eye for the stroke and for my swimmers that I know when it is "on" and when it is not and I can often help them get on target in the warm-up pool.


I once saw an interview with Haley Spencer from Minnesota where she acknowledged something I have always felt about breaststroke:  that some people practice a "different stroke" for their 100 than they do their 200.  I practiced that way myself, but it is something I had never before heard verbalized.  For me it was a "feel".  It is a frustrating concept because it is so easy to be stuck in-between where the timing can interfere with speed, and energy that should help you move forward dissipates in all directions. Plus, we also have different types of breaststroke for different body types and so on.  The kind of breaststroke you do sometimes just depends on who you are. 

Some coaches do mostly drills and avoid full stroke in practice.  I understand that... but I feel the opposite.  I never "found" the stroke until I started doing long breaststroke sets.  It forced me to get long and helped me to build a stroke where I got my head down and got my kick directly behind me.  The 200 breast became my best event when I became a 5-strokes-a-length guy, and I learned that by stretching out and maximizing my kick to survive sets of 15x 200 breast.  But do I coach everybody to swim breast like mine?  Hell no.  Like Rebecca Soni?  Nope.  Amanda Beard?  Nope.  Kitajima?  Nope.  Can we agree that they all are doing different strokes?  Yup.

Well today I had a swimmer at NCSA's who wasn't feeling it.  Even though he has been nailing it all week leading up to this and had a great meet last weekend after a week of hard work, he has felt "off" for a couple of days at juniors..  On the third day of the meet we played with the stroke in warm up to prepare for the 200 and I saw him finally get it.  We changed his head position and paced a 50.  It was a second and a half faster than the one he had done a few minutes before and it just looked right.  Long, relaxed and clean.  I was excited to see the race.  I just knew it was ready...

But when the race finally began I could immediately see that he had lost the feel again.  Rushed.  Mis-timed.  Not complete.  It is so difficult to describe, and a non-swimmer or even a coach who had never been a breaststroker, probably could not have seen what I saw.  His first 50 split was better than the corresponding split from his best race, but to me it looked like his first warm-up pace 50 and not the second.  It was just the wrong stroke.

He had it.  The feel was there... but at race time it just didn't happen.  And I could tell it wasn't gonna happen, right from the dive.  Nothing feels more helpless for a coach than not being able to talk them back into a good swim mid-race.

Ugh...  I swear sometimes that breaststroke is one of the great puzzles of the universe.  Sometimes it is more spiritual than scientific.  Sometimes it is the girl you had a crush on in school who is mean to you when you smile at her. Sometimes it is the beast you tamed and caged that decides to break out of the zoo or the puppy that runs away on your birthday.  Damn you breaststroke.  Why can't you just show up for your damn appointments on time!  We scheduled this appointment six months ago!  How rude!



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10 comments:

  1. Put some potatoes on that cover and you're all set.

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    1. can someone out there with some photoshop skills please do this? and maybe for the back cover make me a mime trying to teach juggling at the clown college... cause we all know from the movie Shakes the Clown that this could be a freakin' communication disaster of breaststroke coaching proportions.

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  2. The irony of this post is incredible. You may as well be describing me today.

    I raced in the final of the 100 Breast at the NCAA d3 National Champs in Indianapolis this evening. I have felt "off" all week but am a determined swimmer.

    Durning my warm up my first 50 pace was off, with some corrections my second 50 pace was a second and a half faster and just felt right, long, relaxed and clean. My third one was even faster than my second and felt even better.

    BUT, the moment I hit the water in my race I could feel I was in the wrong rhythm. I went out faster but just as you described - with the wrong stroke. Based on the speed of my good pace 50's in warm up I sincerely believe I should have been two full seconds faster than I was this evening.

    Damn you Breaststroke.

    Tomorrow is another day and the 200 will be better.

    Thanks for providing a outlet for this swimmer :-)

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    Replies
    1. good luck tomorrow. I will send you some good vibes. let us know how it goes!

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  3. describes me fifteen years ago. and now something i battle as an age group coach.

    thanks for your blog! i love it!

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    1. Ok there is no way for me to come on here and not sound like an arrogant jerk, but I love coaching breaststroke. I think the best part of it is the DOD (degree of difficulty). I feel pretty confident that I can get most people to improve in breaststroke. My swimmers don't always do great- that's the nature of the stroke. Maybe its a difference of being at the college level but I think that once you let go of the fact that the stroke can randomly and inexplicably leave you, you feel a lot better about coaching it.

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    2. Don't get me wrong, Chris... I love it too. I sometimes feel like House MD, addicted to the puzzle of it. I feel that I have a pretty good track record for getting improvements from breaststrokers as well... but I am not sure I will ever be able to just let go of that. It is heartbreaking and I will always strive for ways to help breaststrokers be consistent. I will probably also always be unreasonably pissed when it doesn't work out.

      For some reason I guess I take it a little more personally because it is my stroke. I haven't ever felt this way about that one that the kids do on their backs.

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    3. I would like to remind you that when coach takes away the kickboards, all you freaks elect to kick on your back... What up now, SV!? Don't be hating because I get to breath when ever I want.

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  4. The first stroke of each length is so, so important. If you start with all your gusto in the first stroke, the break stroke, -- then there is a better chance of the great strokes to flow for the rest of the length. It is nearly impossible to get into the groove after swimming a few strokes on that length.

    Put total concentration on the first stroke. Internal focus. Then the race can sustain itself in the middle of the pool.

    At the end of the race, I think, the tempo needs to increase with the legs. Improve the kicking power and really pull the heels up to start the cycle.

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  5. For me, full breaststoke in practice is essential. Some coaches seem to focus on parts instead of the whole. Theory is great but in reality, the parts do not come together as planned. It's the whole stroke and nothing but the stroke for me and swimmers I coach breaststroke privately. My experience shows that the full stroke practice is a not a guarantee of superior racing results, but it improves the odds greatly.

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