Breaststroke Recovery: Hand Position

Video Transcription: My opinion regarding the head position during the shoot is, in the early part of the shoot the palm should be slightly up in the turnover. The “I” allows you to scoop and catch longer. However, I heard some disagree because I feel like it leads to a pause before the shoot forward or back position of the “I” at the back out front. So when I do, or when I teach it, this is what I teach. If you look at the screen, so you can see me. So you have your hands out here, and then you pop the elbows, and you come in. So as you come in and want them to come in, palms towards their body, and then as they come forward, it’s not like a soup bowl, like we saw with someone, kind of like this, hands together like a teepee. So you have that option of still pushing water towards the chest at the very, very end, which if you decide not to do this full scoop, but if you’re not doing the full scoop, then you can still kind of come together. I tell my kids to create a teepee here, and then from there, shooting forward, and then when you scoop them forward, they’re already ready to go for that “Y” position. So, I don’t think you have to scoop up to get to that, that very last look at that very last of the scoop itself. You can scoop in towards the chest and keep the hands pretty darn close together like they’re clapping, but the palms are angled more down than they are up.