Breaststroke recovery

So this has been a thing that has bothered me for awhile in coaching. It is the perceived idea that the hands come out of the water for breaststroke recovery. This is not an indicator of a fast breaststroker.

The pull of breaststroke is mainly dependent on the out press portion of the pull. The in press is not that significant in propulsion. As the hands sweep in the body continues to rise. Concentration is on the shoulder rising, not the hands. In rising the shoulders though the swimmer should try to keep their hips near the surface of the water. Drag from the lower part of the torso is going to slow a swimmer down more than their fingers slicing through water.

Young kids do not normally have the core muscles to lift their bodies enough to get their hands out of the water without dropping the hips, or excessively rising the hands. To rise the hands too much delays the kick which is the largest part of propulsion in breaststroke. Lift the hands does not propel the body forward, so the swimmer actually loses speed, and thus the need to reduce drag diminishes (as the faster a swimmer is moving the more reducing drag is beneficial. Reducing drag does create propulsion.)

Lifting the hands also has swimmers bring the hands closer to the chest, and many times allowing the shoulders to roll back; creating a body position so uphill, it takes a long time for the swimmer to get to a downhill position. Younger kids normally will just stay uphill and not take the time to get downhill after getting such a steep body angle. You may see this as they begin ok, but after one or two times lifting their hands too high, they positioned their body so uphill they aren't able to get downhill without a super long glide. They instead swim uphill the rest of the way.

Older, stronger, and more experienced swimmers get their hands up, but not everyone can get up high like Amanda Beard. Most males hands stay low, and if you'd like to see a really fast female not get her hands up really high, check out a video of Liesel Jones.

Get rid of the idea that the kids need to get their hands out of the water for breaststroke recovery. Yes, it makes sense it reduces drag, but what speed are they giving up to do that. Or how much drag are you adding with their body position (which is a bigger aspect to total drag). Remember that little kids can't swim like older kids, and not everyone's stroke is the same.