Breaststroke Turns

Unlike freestyle and backstroke turns, where you hit the wall once during your turn, breaststroke turns require you to touch the wall twice in the act of turning. US and international swimming rules dictate that a breaststroker must touch the wall with both hands evenly at the start of each turn and at the end of the race. So if a freestyle turn is like throwing a ball at a wall, a breaststroke turn is like having to hit two walls with that ball before catching it. Physics is working against you. Competitive swimmers, however, have found a way to make this process as elegant and efficient as possible while obeying the rules to the letter. Here's how it's done.

Since you have to hit the wall with your hands, it's very important for you to hit the wall at the most opportune phase of the stroke. If you hit too late, you'll end up gliding your way to the wall with no momentum to drive into the wall for the turn. You end up having to almost climb out of the water in order to get your feet on the wall for your push-off. If you hit the wall too early, you'll have to take a half-stroke to get your arms into position on the wall. Such a stutter-stroke forces action on the water that it resists and steals your momentum as well. Optimally, you will want to hit the wall during your arm recovery just after your kick has started. If you recall when I spoke of breaststroke feeling like you're rolling over and under great logs of water, the point at which you want to hit the wall is just after rolling over the last log of water before the wall. You will feel like you're hitting the wall downhill enabling you to drive that momentum into the rest of your turn.

Once you've hit the wall with both hands evenly, you're ready to redirect the energy you brought to the wall into your breaststroke turn. Immediately upon hitting the wall, bring your left hand down to your hip and drop your left shoulder while tucking your knees under your body. Your momentum from your hands hitting the wall will carry your feet to the wall as you spin about your center of mass. As your feet near the wall, throw your head to your left shoulder and bring your right hand to your right ear. Now, while retaining as much momentum as possible from your original contact with the wall, drive your feet through the wall and explode into a full streamline. This is the fastest you will go while doing breaststroke and retaining this speed is key.

Hold your streamline until you feel the water moving along your body slow to somewhere near the speed of your surface breaststroke. A common error that many swimmers make is to start their stroke too early either because of being tired or out of breath. You're simply slowing yourself down. Once you feel your speed has reached that just below that of your normal breaststroke speed, start your underwater pull. Unlike all breaststroke done at the surface, your hands are allowed to go all the way down to your hips. Make the most of it. Starting from the streamlined position with your hands locked over your head and your head tucked against your chest, catch the water. While keeping your head tucked against your chest, separate your hands to shoulder-width apart and feel for a good catch of water.

Feel the balls of water in your hands, telling you you're using Bernuli's Principle well. Once you've got a good huge mass of water to work with, rotate both hands out from the midline of your body while keeping your elbows up. Continue to keep your elbows high while bringing those balls of water even with your head. As you bring those balls of water under your body, you will feel the need to roll your body over it. Go with it.

In the past, breaststrokers have been forbidden to use any dolphin kicks during the stroke at all. These rules probably stem from the fact that breaststroke and butterfly were once the same stroke and a distinction had to be made between the two to make them distinct again. The fact remains, though, that both strokes are quite similar in their approach and a certain amount of common actions are necessary to best flow with the water. This commonality has revealed itself in the most recent rule adjustment to breaststroke involving the performance of one butterfly kick during the underwater breaststroke pull. For a long time this kick was forbidden and breaststrokers had to keep their body straight during their underwater pull. This rigid style worked against the water and against the breaststroker's speed, so competitive swimmers began to work around it.

At first, the breaststrokers were merely rolling their bodies around the pull as they brought the water down past their chest and hips, being very careful to keep their legs still. However, as swimmers became more adept at rolling around the water they were pulling on, and the action became faster, it become harder and harder for officials to determine whether a butterfly kick was being done or whether the swimmer was merely working with the water to increase their underwater speed. So to make life easier on the officials, the rule was changed to allow for one butterfly kick during the underwater pull phase of the breaststroke event. Now a full butterfly kick is allowed, but many swimmers now try to over use it and reduce their momentum through the water accordingly. Don't make this mistake.

As you bring the balls of water under your head, untuck your head and tuck it again around the water as your hands come even with your shoulders. Now reverse the rotation of the water back towards the centerline of your body. If you start to lose the balls of water, feel free to rotate your wrists slightly to keep the flow of water constant. Rotate your hands back under your belly and bring your hips up as your roll around the balls of water that you have been working with. Once your elbows are at your sides and your hands are under your belly, you'll reverse the flow of your pull once again. Isolate your elbows at your sides and caress the water down past your thighs rotating your hands to your thighs. As the ball of water you were working with at the beginning of your underwater stroke passes your knees finish your butterfly kick upwards and glide again until you've reached a speed close to that of your normal breaststroke.

Recover your arms into the breaststroke catch position. This hand recovery is performed by bringing your hands together under your body and crossing them over each other with your elbows tight at your side. Once your hands are under your face, raise your head and dive your hands into your first breaststroke catch on the surface. Ideally you will be just at the surface at this point and your head will break the surface at just this time. Feel for the surface of the water with the back of your shoulders. It should feel a little less dense and more like ripples as you get close, but you shouldn't feel air. There really is no trick to timing your stroke to break the surface at the right time besides practice.

I know it seems like a lot to digest, but the breaststroke turn is really one of the easier turns to master if timed correctly. It's all about conservation of momentum. So when you're doing a breaststroke turn well, it feels a lot like a good jazz tune. You hit the wall with a good downbeat, your head and hands perform a syncopated upbeat and the underwater pull, recovery and first stroke flow from there.