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BREASTSTROKE

The breaststroke is swum with the body facing down. The arms perform semicircular
movements, and the legs perform a frog kick. It is the slowest swimming stroke.

 History
Breaststroke has been around for a long time with the origin tracing back to the
Stone Age. There was even an Egyptian cave found, affectionately known as “The
Cave of Swimmers”, which has paintings on the wall with people that are swimming
breaststroke. The first time the breaststroke was raced at the Olympics was in 1904.
Those Games, based in St. Louis, were remarkable for the fact it was the first time the
breaststroke was raced, but it was also the only Olympics that was held in yards. That
first breaststroke race was held over a distance of 440 yards for men. Four years later,
the men’s 200-meter breaststroke was contested. It wasn’t until 1924 at the Olympics
in Paris that the women were able to swim a breaststroke event. Since the 1968
Games in Mexico City, the 100-meter and 200-meter have been contested for men
and women.

By the 1930’s swimmers doing breaststroke found that it was possible to speed
up their recovery by bringing their arms out of the water. This was the beginning of the
fork of the road that would lead to two separate strokes, the breaststroke and
the butterfly stroke. During the 1950’s, foreshadowing problems that would emerge
for the backstroke and butterfly during the 1980’s and 1990’s, swimmers sneakily
figured they could swim faster under the surface of the water. Masaru Furukawa of
Japan, at the 1956 Olympics in Melbourne stayed under the water off the start, and
over the first 150m swam the first 45m of each length, on his way to winning the gold
medal in the 200m breaststroke in 2:34.7. Predictably, this new technique led to
problems, with swimmers passing out from oxygen deprivation.

 Proper Execution
Step 1: Body position
Keep your body flat and lie facing down in the water with your body kept in line
with the water surface.

Step 2: Arm movement

There are three steps in arm movement - the Catch, Pull and Recovery. A fun
way to learn this is to imagine scooping a gigantic bowl of ice-cream (Catch),
pushing towards your mouth to eat (Pull) and then doing it again (Recovery).

1. Catch - With arms out straight and palms facing downwards, press down and
out at the same time.
 2. Pull - With elbows elevated above hands, pull hard towards your chest. The
pull should have an accelerating hand movement pressing back and downward
by the palm and forearms.
3. Recover - Join both palms together in a prayer like fashion in front of your
chest and push out until your arms are straight again. This position helps reduce
drag when pushing against the water.

Step 3: Breathing Technique

Lift your head and neck above water at the end of the pulling movement for a
breath. In the recovery phase, exhale bubbles in the water whilst your hands are
pushed forward. Remember to use the praying position and the correct breathing
techniques.

Step 4: Leg Action

Starting with your legs straightened, bend your knees to bring your heel towards
your bottom and make a circular motion outwards with your feet until they return
to the starting position. When your knees are being bent, your feet should be
below the water surface and shoulder width apart.

Step 5: Learn to Glide

After executing the breaststroke kick, your body should be in a streamlined
position with your arms and legs straightened. Stay in this position for one to two
seconds as the forward propulsion by your legs should allow you to “glide”
forward.

 Benefits
a. Good for Beginners
Most swimming instructors teach the breaststroke first to students, since
during the stroke the swimmer's face remains above the surface of the water. As
a result, the swimmer always knows his location in the pool, making it less stressful
to learn how to swim. The recreational style of the breaststroke allows swimmers
to learn at a leisurely pace, without having to swim too quickly.
b. Boost Your Fitness
Of the four competitive strokes, breaststroke is generally the slowest of the
four, but it can be swum at any effort. You can use breaststroke to swim long, easy
workouts, or you can challenge yourself with a hard breaststroke swim. Swimming
will increase your overall fitness level, and breaststroke can be your primary means
of swimming or an alternate stroke to use when you need a change.
 c. Full-Body Workout
The breaststroke uses many different parts of your body, allowing you to
build strength, power and endurance. The arm motion builds your shoulders and
back, since it includes both an in-sweep and an out-sweep motion. The kicking
motion has similarities to that of a frog, which builds your gluteal muscles and
quads. After you propel yourself through the water, you begin the recovery phase,
which allows your body to stretch out in preparation for the next movement.
 Reflection

Frankly speaking, I don’t like breaststroke because I don’t know how to do

it and it’s hard to perform and the fact that I cannot coordinate properly both my
arms and legs, it burdens my capability to learn the stroke. So, aside from the
butterfly, I find breaststroke tough and difficult to learn. However, during our
session, thanks to the pull buoy, I was able to execute the frog kick even though it
wasn’t that much of an okay but ‘twas an experience. Thus, I believe that
breaststroke is all about timing and if you exert effort and give time to practice,
you’ll be able to master and perform it properly.

DOLPHIN KICK

A type of kick that is usually used in butterfly stroke that both legs are doing a
simultaneous whipping movement, with the feet pointed.

 History
Underwater dolphin kicking transformed swimming sport of swimming. For
a long time, dolphin kick was predominantly only used in butterfly. The first
swimmer to utilize underwater dolphin kicks off of their turns was American Jesse
Vassallo, who began to do two or three underwater dolphin kicks off of his starts
and turns in the 1970s. According to Vassallo, the purpose of these dolphin kicks
was “to avoid waves from bigger swimmers” and to help stabilize his body before
starting his arm strokes. However, his utilization of the underwater dolphin was
relatively limited, as kicks never extended past the first few meters.
Although it was effective, the impact that it had on swimming was minor. In
the 1980s, Japanese backstroker Daichi Suzuki began to explore Vassallo’s idea
of utilizing underwater dolphin kicks in his races. However, he pushed for
underwater dolphin kick for far longer distances. By the 1984 Olympics, Suzuki
was going roughly 25m of underwater dolphin kick off of his start in the 100m
backstroke. Despite this feat, Suzuki was unable to qualify for the backstroke finals
so that it would be a few more years more years before the rest of the swimming
world would catch on. Meanwhile, in 1987, Stanford swimmers Jay
 Mortenson and Sean Murphy got the idea to use underwater dolphin kicks for the
majority of their races. In April of that year, they became the first swimmers to
implement extended underwater dolphin kicking in their races at the NCAA level.
Because there was no 15-meter mark restricting the amount of underwater dolphin
kick that they could do at that time, they were able to swim more of their race
underwater than swimmers can now.

 Proper Execution
Undulation Technique

1. You lie flat on your stomach in the water, the head in line with the body and
the face looking down.

2. The legs and feet are kept together, and the feet are pointed.

3. You press the chest down in the water, then release it.

4. As you release the chest, you press the hips down synchronously, then
release them.

5. As you release the hips, you start again to push the chest down, and so on.

6. When the hips go down, the legs should merely follow along, with the knees
slightly bent.

7. When the hips go up, the legs follow along again, the knees extend, and at this
moment you can add some force and execute the kick.

 Benefits

a. It’ll help improve your overall leg fitness.

Most swimmers drag their legs behind them like a tugboat tows a barge. Every
once in a while you might get a kick here and there, but for the most part, they dangle
back there doing little more than perform a one-beat kick that acts more for stability
and balance than propulsion.

b. It can make up as much as 60% of your race

When you consider that in a short course race up to 60% of your race can be done
performing underwater dolphin kick it becomes apparent many races are being won
off the walls and under the water.
c. It can help make up for a less than awesome swim speed
Having a powerful UDK can help close the gap with a weak or slower above-
water swimming speed, whether you are a freestyle specialist or a master of
the butterfly stroke.

 Reflection
If breaststroke was difficult to perform, so is, dolphin kick. It is simple in theory
but challenging to perform. For us, we weren’t really able to learn how it was done and
execute it properly during our class however, we managed to try it in our leisure time
for only a short period. Amidst it’s difficultness, I like watching swimmers doing the
kick because of their wave-like form when executing the drill. I was amazed and I
really admire and commend those persons whose mastery in dolphin kick is superb.