Fitter And Faster Swim Drill Of The Week: 2 Kicks, 1 Pull Breaststroke

Swim Drill Of Week - 2 Kick 1 Pull Breaststroke

Welcome to the “Swim Drill of the Week” sponsored by The Fitter and Faster Swim Tour presented by Swimoutlet.com. Swimming World will be bringing you a drill, concept, or tip that you can 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), Swim Drill Of The Week excerpts are meant to be flexible for your needs and inclusive for all levels of swimming.

This week features one of the most popular breaststroke drills: 2 kicks, 1 pull. This is a great timing drill for swimmers of all levels. Take a look at the drill in the video below and read the description to see how best to apply it with your athletes:

Again, this is one of the most commonly seen breaststroke drills. From beginning swimmers to elite swimmers to master swimmers, this is a tried and true drill that breaststrokers use to find their strokes. The drill itself is simple: taking a full pull, you then submerge underwater and take two kicks before your next pull.

While it is simple, this is also an easy drill to get lazy with. When you are submerged, you want to make sure you are long, stretching through your fingertips while completing your kicks and keeping your head in a neutral position. This helps practice length in your stroke and engages the muscles across your body, reinforcing the connection between the pull and the kick that is so essential for timing and a good distance per stroke. You also want to maintain that length across your body between the two kicks while you are underwater. Rushing the two kicks to get the next pull (and the next breath) won’t help improve your stroke. Have patience in the drill and work on developing power and length in each part of the stroke.

More experienced swimmers can make a variation of this drill, combining it with another breaststroke drill called separation drill. Instead of taking a single pull and single kick in separation drill, have your athletes take two kicks between the separation of their pull and kick. This slows down their stroke even further, making them more aware of the timing of their pull and kick when they go back to full stroke swimming.

Swimmers often struggle with breaststroke because their arms and legs are not working together. Breaststroke is all about minimizing resistance, so the more you can practice thoughtful application of the pull and kick the better sense you will have for your timing and, consequently, the more efficient your stroke will become. Happy swimming!

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