Swim Drill Of The Week: One Up, One Down Breaststroke

Welcome to the “Swim Drill of the Week”. 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), Drill Of The Week excerpts are meant to be flexible for your needs and inclusive for all levels of swimming.

This week’s drill is one up, one down for breaststroke. To do the drill, swimmers will alternate between one cycle of normal breaststroke and one cycle of breaststroke under the surface of the water. Similar to 2 kicks, 1 pull, swimmers will dive underwater after each normal stroke to complete an underwater breaststroke cycle (i.e. – a complete pull and kick). This is a useful drill for working on several different aspects of breaststroke, including timing, body position, and stroke efficiency.

The important part of this drill is the seamless transition between the strokes. Obviously, doing a cycle of breaststroke completely underwater will come with it’s challenges. There will be more resistance in all parts of the stroke when swimming underwater, which will make any minor error in your swimmer’s stroke that much more apparent.

This drill is particularly effective for those who struggle with a consistent forward drive in breaststroke. If there is a lot of up and down motion in a swimmer’s breaststroke, they will struggle to feel smooth on their underwater stroke cycle. Find those swimmers and work with them to make their stroke feel as smooth as possible on the underwater stroke. Make sure there is no pause in the middle of their stroke phase, that they are keeping their head down, and that the kick is complete and following the pull.

For more experienced breaststrokers, this is a great drill to find their timing and work on getting into a smooth, efficient breaststroke. Like 2 kicks, 1 pull it is an easy way to warm up and the stroke and get it ready during warm-up or prior to a big stroke stroke. Happy swimming!

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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Nickey Burke

7 years ago

Afric.

Afric Creedon.

7 years ago

Bela Mukhopadhyay

7 years ago

Very tiring drill ?