Breaststroke - Narrow Kick with Roque Santos

If you're going to learn a great breaststroke kick, why not go to the best.  Roque Santos, 200 breaststroke U.S. Olympian and multiple masters world record holder, shows us a couple tricks to an effective kick.

Why Do It:
Narrowing your kick limits the resistance during the recovery of your kick.  Less resistance means you'll hang on to more momentum during the typical dead spots in breaststroke.

How to Do It:
While Roque shows many drills on his upcoming DVD, we're going to abbreviate.  To get the whole story, stay tuned and look for our announcement of the release date.
1.  Start with head-lead breaststroke kick, holding the fingers behind your thighs.  Each time you recover your feet, touch your heels with your fingertips.
2.  Pay attention to the detail Roque shows during this drill.  He recovers his HEELS behind him rather than drawing his knees up.  Look at the line from his head, through the torso, down to the knees, and see how little bend there is at any point.  Also notice how he gets his head down, and in-line after each kick.
3.  Next, put on a pull-buoy and swim breaststroke using a full breaststroke kick.
4.  Now drop the pull-buoy and swim breaststroke using the SAME kick you had with the pull-buoy.

How to Do It Really Well (the Fine Points):
You'll find it's easier to accomplish this narrow kick when everything in the stroke seems a bit smaller, even the pull.  Try the drill with a tiny pull up front, and remember to close your feet at the end of each kick.  Starting the recovery of the kick from a very narrow position will help keep it narrow through the whole kick.