Breaststroke Turns - Feet

We've been fortunate to have produced one of the most widely used breaststroke turn videos.  It's beautiful!  Dave Denniston showing absolute perfection in his turns.  Yes... we're biased.

Problem is... is it right for you?

Why Experiment:
Do you really know what you do, and if so, are you sure it's right?  The key to great swimming is experimentation, and there is never one way to the end result.

This week, we're borrowing from a few of our videos, and comparing some great athletes.  We wanted to show a couple ways some great swimmers get their feet on the wall for a breaststroke turn.

Our hero and originator, Dave Denniston, beautifully tucks one foot over top of the other and slides his feet into the wall.  This is the quickest way to get your feet to the wall and you'll feel everything slide forward.

Next up is Mr. Breaststroke himself, Brendan Hansen.  Brendan crosses his feet coming in, appearing to create more resistance getting his feet to the wall, but they're placed ready for a great push.  Probably hydrodynamically slower coming in, but faster going out.

How about 2-Time 400-IM silver medalist Eric Vendt?  He's a crosser like Brendan.  So does that mean that's best?

Check out super swimmer Eric Shanteau, who swam for both David Marsh (ditto for Dave Denniston), and Eddie Resse (ditto Brendan Hansen).  He turns like Dave!  Sliding the feet in.

Which is better?  We can't really tell, but we decided to go to pure instinct as the tie breaker.  What would a great swimmer automatically do?  How many times have you seen Cullen Jones swim breaststroke?  How does he bring his feet in?  Like Dave and Eric... sliding them forward.

While this doesn't make this the absolute best way... it certainly gives you some options!  Now go practice and discover.

You can watch all of these full videos at the following links:

Dave Denniston Breaststroke Turns - DVD

Breaststroke with Brendan Hansen - Streaming - DVD

All-Strokes with Kaitlin Sandeno and Erik Vendt - Streaming - DVD

All-Strokes with Eric Shanteau - Streaming - DVD

Cullen Jones Turns video coming this fall.