Teaching breaststroke

Component swimming involves the breakdown of the stroke into its components and training at high rates of velocity. Components do not simply mean kick and pull, but rather all components that accelerate those characteristics of stroke mechanics. For example, elbow position during the stroke is very important. To enhance this through training, we have developed a drill called Scrunch Scull. In this drill, swimmers are poised in a vertical position, head and shoulders out of the water. Knees are bent and held in front of the chest, with the heels positioned below the hips. The swimmer then performs a breaststroke pull forward, with the elbows held in a high position, not pulling the elbows back. The blades sweep across the knees and extension forward is carried out with high velocity. This drill carries significant aerobic factors as well as specific training for the breaststroke pull.

Breaststroke swimmers in our program do about 80 percent of their training in breaststroke components, with only about 30 to 40 percent of this using the whole stroke. In this manner, they maintain a very high level of velocity through their training.

Throughout our season, very little changes in terms of specific yardage requirements. From day one of a given season, most of our work is performed at race velocity with an average practice session consisting of less than 6,000 yards. Except for morning workouts from June to August, training is conducted in a short course pool. I believe that it is advantageous to the breaststroke swimmer to train short course throughout the year as opposed to excessive long course training. This maintains the intensity of high speed training and cant be done as effectively, training long course. Prior to the 1996 Olympic Trials, Amanda Beard had only two workouts long course (for a total of two hours) while Steve West, who finished third in the 200 breaststroke and fourth in the 100 breaststroke at Olympic Trials, had a total of five long course workouts. Both swimmers performed significant lifetime bests at the Trials.

The taper phase, also known as the fine-tune phase of our season, occurs over the final ten days prior to major competition. During this period, the yardage drops almost immediately to 2,000 to 3,500 yards with more focus on long, stretched-out swimming with interspersed periods of fast, intense, short swims. I dont time pace 50s, etc., as this is a period we fine-tune the starts, turns and stroke timing. Also, a great deal of time is spent through the last month and a half on relaxation and visual imagery training.