Breaststroke - Front Scull

When National Team Member Brendan McHugh thinks about going FAST… he makes sure he focuses on the initial connection with the hands.

Why do it:
Front scull for breaststroke helps you find the angle that’s just right between the upper and lower arm to make that early catch.

How to do it:
1 – Brendan uses a snorkel to make sure he can spend more time working on the feel of the connection without having to lift up for air.
2 – With the elbows in front of the shoulders, and the eyes down, sweep your forearms and hands back and forth.
3 – Adjust the pitch of your hands on the outsweep and insweep, so the palms are always pitched in the direction of the movement.  Pitched out on the outsweep, and pitched in on the insweep.

How to do it really well (the fine points):
Keep the elbows stable, making sweeping movements ONLY from the forearms and hands.  The arms should look like windshield wipers with little or no backward movement.

Use your eyes to check to make sure you can see the stable elbows and the sweeping of the hands, make a visual connection between the two… then put the head back in position and continue.

If you have a tough time keeping your hips and legs up, use a small dolphin, or you can use a pull buoy to further isolate the arms.