Grant House - Breaststroke Eval
We're going to take a look at Grant's breaststroke and some of the details that we see in it. The first thing that we're going to notice is that he does an excellent job getting into the line, eyes down, hands forward, bisecting the head. The hands are sliding outward prior to the head coming up. So you notice that the head stays down while the hands start to slide out the catch. Grant has a very wide catch, and this is pretty typical in very strong male breaststrokers. So really, really wide. And as the hands turn the corners to come in, we notice that he is now on his upward trajectory for the head, so stays down until the hands turn the corner, and then starts inward with the hands and upward with the body. Now this is going to draw the hips forward as well to then set up the kick. So let's just look very quickly at the timing. Here. We're going to look at where the feet turn out to start to engage. We're going to look at where the hands are. At this point, you notice the hands are extended fully, and we can just start to see his face, which means that his eyes are down, so he is set to accept the propulsion of the kick in a very streamlined way. Out front, he kicks into the line, closes his feet and is in a very good position to move forward with very little resistance as the body naturally starts to go back up. Because as he's come down, He's pressed the lungs down, and the lungs want to go back up. So as the body starts back up, the hands slide out again. Look at the eyes staying down toward the bottom. He also starts the exhale at this point because he wants to make sure that the lungs are completely empty as he goes up for the breath so that he can remain above water for the shortest period of time possible. So again, in and up to air. The head stays down until the hands start to come in, in and up to air. And then as the hands go forward, you'll notice that mostly they have a very direct transition forward. They are going to go down somewhat. But the great thing about what grant is doing, we'll look at the timing again, at just where the feet start to point out he is back in this line, ready to accept the propulsion of the kick. Look at where the head is. So the head falls down into the line, and we see the head is bisected by the arms. So very good job, right there again, head down during the X the outward sweep of the hands. And now we're going to have everything draw up so space. Pay particular attention to the hips at this point, as he draws the hips forward with the in sweep of the arms up to the breath, and then shooting the hands forward. There is a slight downward orientation here, and we can talk about that as far as the surface tension that could or could be created or avoided. And what grant is doing is actually getting under the surface tension, getting the head down. Now we can definitely see the nose and the face down as the kick just starts to initiate, driving him forward. Look at that line. So this is imagine that he's just standing straight up and down. The head is in a very neutral position right there. It's not looking up, it's not looking down. Everything is moving forward. So great efficiency here. Notice the elbows are not too far past the shoulders. Let's see if we can get a better look right here. So just a little bit beyond the shoulders. But watch the hips at this point. So the hips are drawn forward, the legs are drawn forward by the hips, the knees buckle and again, look at the feet set up, and then where the front of the body is from the timing perspective, as the kick engages, drives forward, closes the kick into the line. Just a beautiful job. I.
