FINIS Tip Of The Week: 3 Up/3 Under Breaststroke

Welcome to the “FINIS Tip of the Week.” Swimming World will be bringing you a topic that we’ll explore with drills and concepts for you to implement with your team on a regular basis. While certain weeks may be more appropriate for specific levels of swimming (club, high school, college, or masters), each tip is meant to be flexible for your needs and inclusive for all levels of swimming.

This week’s tip is 3 up/3 under for breaststroke, a combination of above-water and underwater swimming for breaststroke that helps develop proper timing, body position, and distance per stroke. To perform the drill, swimmers will take three normal breaststroke cycles alternating with three full breaststroke cycles under the water.

Obviously, it is the cycles under the water that make this drill challenging. The idea is to increase the resistance on each stroke while also playing around with your athletes’ sense of buoyancy and body position. Under the water, swimmers will have a heightened awareness of where they may be creating resistance in their stroke, whether it is pulling too far back, slowing down or pausing on their recovery, or not coming to a strong close at the end of their kick.

They will also need to use their core more than usual to keep their body in a straight line and keep proper timing of their pull and kick under the water. Once they return to their strokes on the surface, your athletes will be more aware of where they may be holding onto resistance in their strokes and will be able to adjust to find a smoother and more efficient stroke.

This is a difficult drill for some, so don’t be surprised to see many of your swimmers struggle to make three full strokes under the surface. Encourage them to figure out a way to make the drill work, whether that means focusing on better body position, a stronger kick, or a quicker pull (or all three) when they are under the water. This is a good drill to include at the beginning of a progression of other timing drills, such as separation drill or 2 kicks/1 pull.

All swimming and dryland training and instruction should be performed under the supervision of a qualified coach or instructor, and in circumstances that ensure the safety of participants.

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Coach Wayne McCauley

5 years ago

Actually it’s the above water three strokes that are challenging. Much easier to swim breaststroke correctly under water, that is with head in line with spine and without the huge upwards motion of getting the breath. The scull/pull is just better under water.

Where swimmers go wrong is coming up too high during the in-sweep and breath. When the head goes too high the hips must sink more.

Take a look at the best breaststrokers, their head stays lower and gets underwater during each and every stroke cycle.

Superfan

5 years ago

This drill also helps on their pullouts. A lot of breastroke is dealing without air and this helps not to rush pullouts.