Breaststroke - Dave Denniston & Staciana Stitts Drills

Important Note to the Viewer

LESSONS: 31 VIDEOS

Drills for Body Alignment, Balance, and Flow

The key to swimming fast breaststroke is to kick, pull, and swim with as little resistance as possible. With the right body position, eye position, and timing, you can learn to flow through the water, letting your effort carry you forward rather than up and down. The eight drills in this section will help get you started -- by working on the basics of streamlining and flow.

Streamline Pushoff

Every length of breaststroke -- and every stroke of breaststroke – starts with a good foundation -- with good balance and a body that’s streamlined from fingertips to toes. Start your breaststroke practice with a long, strong pushoff, holding a tight streamline until you rise to the surface. See how far you can go…how straight you can stay. See how well you can maintain your balance. See if you can have arms, head, shoulders, and suit all break the surface at the same time. Great breaststroke is built around this position. Perfect alignment. Perfect streamline. This is where you want to start and finish each stroke of breaststroke. Practicing this kind of streamlined pushoff is a great way to begin every breaststroke session.

Head-Lead Flow

Power comes not from the arms and legs but from the body. Head-Lead Flow teaches this key skill. Start with hands at your sides and simply press in on your chest…then release. Repeat this several times before you take a breath. Try to initiate the press with your chest, and allow the rest of your body to flow along. As you press in on the chest, your chin will go forward just a bit. As you release the chest, the chin tucks back in and the eyes look down. As you press in on the chest, the hips will rise and the feet will follow in a dolphin-like movement. Try not to kick too hard. Use body motion to move you forward. Allow everything to flow through one hole in the water. Lead with the chest, then allow the shoulders…lower back…hips…the backs of the legs…and finally your feet to follow through the same hole. You want to flow just above and just under the surface of the water. Try to maintain a steady rhythm with your body. When you need to breathe, try not to interrupt the rhythm of your body. Stay near the surface, stay low when you breathe, and fit the breath into your body rhythm.

Hand-Lead Flow

Once you feel comfortable with Head-Lead Flow, move on to Hand-Lead Flow. Start with hands extended and shoulder-width apart. Try to “float” the hands just under the surface as you press and release the chest. As with Head-Lead Body Dolphin, skim your head just above and just below the surface of the water. It’s OK for your hands to move up and down a little bit, but try not to scull with your hands. Think about directing the fingertips forward each time you press in with your chest. Keep the hands in front of the shoulders rather than in a tight streamline position. This allows your chest and torso to move more freely. Stay shallow, and send your fingertips and energy forward rather than up and down. Maintain a steady rhythm with your body. When you need to breathe, fit the breath into the rhythm of your body. Simply press in on your chest, and release your head up to air, with little or no downward or inward motion of the hands. Staciana moves her hands slightly to get up to air, but she maintains her rhythm. Keep the breath low and right at the surface.

Underwater Flow

Underwater Flow gives you a heightened awareness of balance and alignment. It allows you to focus more completely on initiating power from your chest and body rather than from you legs. You kick should be big…but it should start from the chest and not from the knees. Notice how Dave drives himself forward from the front of his body – with his hands and chest. This is the most important body motion for breaststroke. The idea is to flow through the water and to feel little or no resistance. Stay completely submerged as you practice this drill. Allow yourself to feel the flow and the rhythm as you slip through one hole in the water. Try to imagine a sine wave, a dolphin, a sea serpent, or even a mermaid, flowing effortlessly through the water. The rhythm moves seamlessly from fingertips to toes. Separating the hands like this makes it easier to move your body in a dolphin-like wave. If you swim in an outdoor pool, watch your shadow on the bottom to see if your hand position is correct and if you’re maintaining a steady rhythm. Focus on your chest and hips rather than on your legs. Feel how the chest rises…and falls…and see how much height or vertical movement you can get in your hips. Notice how Staciana leads with her hands and chest, and how that “wave” travels all the way through her back …is transferred to her hips…and finally snaps out through the feet. It’s as if she’s snapping a whip…from the front…to the back. Dave also uses this snapping motion to move forward. His hands initiate the direction. His head and chest press in. His hips go up…and the feet crack down.

Underwater Flow with Breaststroke Pull

Now you add a small breaststroke pull to the Underwater Flow that you learned in the previous drill. Notice the snake-like…or slinky-like motion of Dave’s body. He keeps his rhythm steady…and changes the width of his pull so that it fits into the rhythm of his body. Use a mini pull. The hands need to circle quickly in order to fit the pull into the rhythm of the body. The hands circle and pierce back into streamline. As in all breaststroke drills, keep the head in line with the spine, and keep the eyes directed down. As the chest presses IN, the hands press out. The chest goes in, the hands press out. Feel the connection between the chest and the hands. Allow your body to flow, and simply fit the arms into the rhythm of the body.

Underwater Breaststroke

Now move on to Underwater Breaststroke. By surrounding your body with water, you can tell instantly when something is slowing you down. If your pull is too big, you’ll feel the resistance. If your kick is too big, you’ll feel the resistance. If your head and neck are not in line, you’ll feel the resistance. On a sunny day, you can use your shadow to see the resistance. See if you can keep your shadow moving at all times. Make adjustments until you and your shadow flow smoothly down the pool. Your senses are heightened under water, so use this drill to feel where the water is stopping you or slowing you down. The more narrow and streamlined your body, the less resistance you’ll feel. Try to keep the hips involved as much as possible. There’s a tendency to let the hips go a little flat under water. The goal is to adjust your stroke so that everything keeps moving forward. Use this drill to work on economy of motion. From fingertips to toes, you want to end in a perfect, pointed, streamlined position at the end of each stroke. Use your shadow to check your position.

No-Breath Breaststroke

When you watch most elite breaststrokers, one thing you’ll notice is that they hold the head rock steady. They keep the head aligned with the neck and spine, and simply lift the entire body up to air. By not bobbing the head up and down, they save energy, and make sure that all their momentum is directed forward. Another thing you’ll notice with elite breaststrokers, is that their eyes are looking down during the glide. Here are two drills to help you with Eyes Down Under and with keeping a rock-steady head. No-Breath Breaststroke is simply breaststroke…with no breath. Notice how Dave keeps his face in the water, with eyes down, and keeps his head in line with his spine. Notice from under water that Staciana is swimming normal breaststroke, and that her head never moves. She keeps it in line with her spine, and her eyes are always looking directly down at the water. This front view shows that the top of Dave’s head comes out of the water on each stroke, but his face remains IN the water. Focus on Dave’s face here, and notice how it stays in the water. Notice how his head doesn’t bob up and down, but remains rock steady, with the eyes looking down.

Breaststroke Breathing Every Other Stroke

From No-Breath Breaststroke, we progress to Breathing Every Other Stroke. Start with a stroke of No-Breath Breaststroke, then take a normal stroke of breaststroke, lifting your body just high enough to get your air. Continue to alternate a stroke of No-Breath Breaststroke, with a normal stroke of Breaststroke. As you continue to breathe every other stroke, focus on keeping your head and neck in line and rock steady. See how similar you can keep the two strokes. On the breathing stroke, lift the body just a bit higher to get your air, but keep everything else the same. Here you’ll see the subtle difference between the breathing stroke…and the non-breathing stroke. Dave keeps everything in line, but lifts his body a little higher for the breath. In this clip, watch Dave’s eyes and head, and notice how stable they are. Here we see how Staciana uses her hips to lift her body up to air. She draws the hips forward, and this lifts everything up toward air. But notice that the head and neck remain steady.

Kicking Drills

In breaststroke, most of your propulsion comes from the kick. To get maximum power, you need to finish each kick, and you need to hide the feet behind the thighs as you draw them up. Here are five drills to help you build a more powerful kick.

Wall Kick - Davo Stacianna

Wall Kick helps you develop a narrow, efficient recovery. Start by holding your body flat against the wall. Then simply kick breaststroke, but keep your body flat against the wall. If your knees hit the wall, or if your belly pulls away from the wall, you’re bringing the knees up too high. Try not to lift up too much with your hands, as Dave is doing here. By holding your body close to the wall, your knees automatically stay in line with your shoulders, chest, and hips – and the kick happens behind your body. Let’s slow that down. Start with your body flat against the wall. Keep the feet together as you bring the heels up behind the body. Then, turn the ankles out and sweep the feet out, around, and down to finish the kick. Keep your body as close to the wall as you can. Delete this clip of Dave kicking into the wall. His knees come up too high. You can also practice this drill by kicking directly IN to the wall. Keep your hands, head, and body below the surface and kick straight into the wall. Notice that Staciana keeps her knees in line with her thighs…and that her kick happens behind the body. Dave’s body is too far out of the water here, and he’s not learning to kick straight. By correcting his position – hands under water and head down -- he’s learning to kick himself forward, just as he would if he were swimming.

Piston

Here’s another drill -- called “Piston” --that teaches you to keep the knees in line, and to let the kick happen behind your body. Piston is also a good drill for teaching correct timing between the arms and the legs. Start on your back in streamline. As you draw the heels back to get ready for the kick, draw the hands in toward the top of your head. Then…shoot your hands back into streamline before the finish of the kick. Watch the timing from under water. As the heels draw back, the hands come toward the head. Notice that Staciana’s knees barely break the surface of the water. The kick happens behind her body. As she delivers the kick, Staciana’s hands shoot back into streamline. Pistons encourage you to get your hands out front as quickly as possible, so that you can take full advantage of the kick Pistons also encourage you to finish each kick. Bring the feet completely together, and glide in streamline at the end of each kick.