Questions and Answers - July 2005 edition
by Dan Thompson

Q. "I have big feet, so why can't I get anything out of my breaststroke kick? The other guys just seem to zoom down the pool."

A. I'm betting it's not your fault. Try this. Just sit frog-legged on the deck, heels in, toes pointing straight out to the sides, and knees at shoulder width. Can you can relax your buns onto the deck between your heels and sit like that comfortably? If so, you have a definite future in breaststroke! Now, what if (like me) you can somehow manage to wedge yourself into this vice-like position, but dammit, it hurts. You then, my friend, can be a good (but not a champion) breaststroker.

Does this reality seem too harsh? Maybe so, but now it gets even worse. Imagine that nature was especially unkind in your make-up, and that you are unable even to force your rebellious body, against pain, into that stupid, contorted, amphibian position. In this case, even with big feet I'm afraid, you will always struggle with breaststroke. But why? Because it's a weird stroke! The kick generates something like 40% of total propulsion. And all the stretching in the world (I tried it) cannot give you double-jointedness.

Do I bring you down with this kind of talk? Well, coaching is dirty work... Yet what I am really trying to convey is that you are not to blame! You are an innocent! It's not a situation of bad technique that you can just go out and correct.

Take the best there is, for example. Look at Phelps and Thorpe. What is the weak link in their IMs? Breaststroke! Why? (I mean, their arm strokes are world class. They could medal in the Olympic 100M pull.) It's because they too suffer nature's joke in the frog-legged flexibility department.

You see? It's really, really not your fault!

[Parenthetically, I observed that my most natural breaststrokers could actually kick breaststroke while wearing fins. This is impossible to do unless you are born to breaststroke. Technically speaking, they have the kind of ligament laxity and joint configuration that allows extreme ranges of motion in the planes of movement called "external rotation of the knee" and "eversion of the ankle." This almost freakish flexibility permits them to get the soles of their feet dramatically out and back against the water and to deflect water with great pressure as they execute the power phase of the kick.]

Send your swimming technique questions to Dan Thompson at thommed@bellsouth.net.