What are the key points of breaststroke leg movements?

Nowadays, many people have the habit of swimming. Swimming has many benefits to physical health, such as weight loss. In addition, regular swimming is good for the heart and lungs, and is also good for people's emotions, etc. People who swim regularly know that there are four most popular swimming postures, namely butterfly stroke, breaststroke, freestyle and backstroke. In comparison, breaststroke and butterfly stroke are more difficult swimming movements. The following will teach you the correct leg movements of breaststroke.

Breaststroke leg movement essentials:

1. The distance between the two knees during the leg retraction phase.

Regardless of whether the distance between the knees should be narrow or wide when pulling in the legs, here's a principle for pulling in the legs: When pulling in the legs, you should minimize head-on resistance and bring the legs to the position that is most conducive to kicking the water. After turning over the palms, the inner sides of the calves and the inner sides of the soles of the feet should face the water. This will maximize the area facing the water, thereby maximizing the efficiency of kicking the water (kicking the legs). In order to achieve this technical state, the distance between the two knees cannot be too large during the leg-retracting process, and the distance between the two knees must be smaller than the distance between the two ankles when the palms are turned over at the end of the leg-retracting process). It is difficult to position the inner side of the calf and the inner side of the foot in a favorable position for water if your knees are wide open.

When you pull your legs in and finish turning your palms, the distance between your knees must be smaller than the distance between your ankles.

Athletes have this feeling: when the distance between their knees is narrow, they can align with the water and the kicking effect is very good; if the distance between their knees is wide, they can't align with the water, the kicking effect is obviously poor, and they can feel that their movements are distorted.

2. The leg retraction movement should be quick.

The leg-pulling action creates resistance, so it should be done at a faster speed, but slightly slower than the kicking speed. The idea that you have to retract your legs slowly is wrong. Going deeper, the speed of leg retraction is completely determined by the timing relationship of the coordination between hands and legs, that is, at what position the arm reaches when the leg starts to retract. Generally speaking, you start to retract your legs when your hands are no longer in contact, and complete the entire leg-retracting and kicking action within the remaining short time period of extending your hands. It can be seen that you cannot slow down in retracting your legs.

3. The phase at the end of leg retraction.

At the end of leg retraction, the ankles are spread outwards, and the distance between the knees must be smaller than that between the ankles. At this time, the palms have begun to turn over (Figure 1). The angle between the thigh and the abdomen is about 120 degrees. The calves are tightened towards the thighs as much as possible, and the feet are close to the buttocks to accumulate strength.

4. A compromise solution to the knee pain problem of breaststroke athletes.

In a foreign article translated by Shi Weiming, a compromise solution was proposed on how to solve the knee pain problem of breaststroke athletes: the distance between the two knees can be slightly wider than the body width:

"Another technique can reduce the incidence of knee pain without unduly reducing the effectiveness of the kick. When the athlete uses this technique, the knees can be slightly wider apart when the leg is pulled back. When the leg is turned over with this width, the knees do not need to be turned out too much because the feet are moderately turned out. This technique should maintain the propeller-like kicking characteristics without causing excessive tension in the soft tissue of the knee. However, since the knees are slightly wider than the body width when the leg is turned over, the body's form drag will be increased, but the pain of the knees will be avoided."