12/04/03 Taper Practice for Breaststroke Races

12/04/03 Taper Practice for Breaststroke RacesI'm swimming the 50, 100, and 200 breaststroke in a Masters Zones meet this weekend, so I wanted to practice a little speed this morning, and get a feel for the distances. I don't do very much breaststroke in practice -- but I do a TON of breaststroke drilling. So today I wanted to swim full stroke for the full distances with no drilling.WARMUP: 500With fins.Alternate 25 Short-Axis drill with 25 LA drill for 500 yards.MAIN SET: Two rounds of:50 breaststroke sculling with pull buoy50 Hand-Lead Breast Kick on Your Back3 X Dave Denniston's "Back Flip" drill (shown on our new DVD Go Swim Breaststroke Turns & Pullouts)1 X 200 breastOn the 200s, I wanted just to cruise through each one at an easy pace, but stay intense on each of the turns. I kept my stroke count at 7 strokes per length for the first 150, then 8 strokes per length on the last 50. Times were 3:16 1st round; 3:15 2nd round.Two rounds of:50 Front Sculling with pull buoy50 Hand-Lead Breast Kick on Your Back3 X Dave Denniston back flip drill1 X 100 BreastTried to put more effort into the SWIMMING on these, while still maintaining intensity on the turns. My stroke count on each 100 was 7 - 8 - 9 - 10 by 25. Times were 1:33 on 1st round; 1:31 on 2nd round.Two rounds of:50 Hand-Lead Breast Kick on Your Back1 X 50 BreastFocused on a high stroke RATE for each length, while still maintaining intensity on the turns. My stroke count on each 50 was 8 - 10. Times were :43 on 1st round; :41 on 2nd round.EZ 100 of free/back drills, then...4 X 25 breast on :30 sendoff. My goal was to swim each 25 in :20 or less. Tried to do everything right -- powerful pushoff and as high a stroke rate as possible while still maintaining a strong insweep. Tried to get back to streamline as quickly as possible and shoot just under the surface of the water. I didn't worry about stroke count, but I think I was taking 10 to 12 strokes per length. Times were :19 :19 :20 :10WARMDOWN: 200200 EZ, then did 5 starts from the blocksTotal Yardage: 2100You can see, and practice Dave's drill by watching the Turns and Pullouts DVD:https://ssl.macdock.com/goswim/shop/product_info.php?products_id=1