You may have noticed, but I've become obsessed with Bing Chat and ChatGPT AI text generators. I find them incredibly useful for supplementing existing knowledge, but they don't quite match the nuance and details of a true experienced journeyman or master of a subject.
I asked the AI to use this website as a source and describe the progression for breaststroke. It is surprisingly effective and detailed, but there is one crucial mistake that you should not do when teaching breaststroke. I'll paste the text here and see if you can find it. There is a spoiler underneath the text, so if you want to skip ahead to the line that separates the AI-generated text, you can see what I'm referring to.
The AI-Generated Article
Here is a short article on the breaststroke swimming progression with pictures and detailed descriptions of the arm motion and kick:
Breaststroke is a unique and challenging stroke that requires proper timing, coordination, and technique. It is often considered to be the most relaxing stroke of the four competitive swim strokes, but this is only true if you can master the timing of it.
Here are some tips and drills to help you learn how to swim breaststroke with perfect technique.
The most fundamental aspect of breaststroke is to understand and learn the timing of its basic elements. If you can remember one key mantra — pull, breathe, kick, glide — then you'll be off to a great start. The breaststroke is unique in that it is the only one of the four competitive swim strokes where the recovery (that is, the non-propulsive setup part of the stroke) takes place underwater. As a result of this, it creates more drag than any of the other strokes and is the slowest of them — and can be the most unforgiving in terms of technique. This is why it's so important to learn how to swim the breaststroke and understand how to do the stroke with proper form.
At a basic level, there are 3 phases to breaststroke:
The following pictures and descriptions will explain each phase in more detail.
Pull
The breaststroke arm pull has four parts: glide, outsweep, insweep, recovery.
Kick
Unlike freestyle and backstroke, the breaststroke doesn't use a flutter kick. Instead, it mimics a frog kick:
- Start with your legs straight and together.
- Bend your knees so they point out to the sides while keeping your feet together.
- Snap your feet outward and backward as you squeeze your legs together in a whipping motion. Your feet should be pointed at the end of the kick.
- Return to the starting position with your legs straight and together.
Glide
The glide is the beginning and ending position of the stroke cycle and is the foundation of breaststroke swimming: your body is in a straight line with your legs and arms extended, your face is in the water, and your body is prone. The glide helps you reduce drag and maintain speed between each stroke. The length of your glide depends on how fast you are swimming and how much momentum you have. Generally, faster swimmers will have shorter glides than slower swimmers.
Drills
To improve your breaststroke technique, you can practice some drills that focus on different aspects of the stroke. Here are some examples:
Source: Conversation with Bing, 4/4/2023 (1) Swimming Ideas: Fun and Effective Instruction. https://www.swimminglessonsideas.com/ Accessed 4/4/2023. (2) Swimming Ideas Fun and effective instruction Swimming Games. https://www.swimminglessonsideas.com/games/ Accessed 4/4/2023. (3) Swimming Ideas Fun and effective instruction Free Swimming Lesson Plans. https://www.swimminglessonsideas.com/free-swimming-lesson-plans/ Accessed 4/4/2023. (4) Swimming Ideas Fun and effective instruction Resources. https://www.swimminglessonsideas.com/resources/ Accessed 4/4/2023. (5) How To Swim Breaststroke With Perfect Technique. https://bing.com/search?q=breaststroke+swimming+progression Accessed 4/4/2023. (6) How to Master the Breaststroke Technique – The Beachbody Blog. https://www.beachbodyondemand.com/blog/how-to-do-breaststroke Accessed 4/4/2023. (7) Breaststroke Timing Progression Drill in 5 Easy Steps!.figure class="wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube">div class="wp-block-embed__wrapper">
/figure> Accessed 4/4/2023. (8) Swim Drill Of The Week: Breaststroke Timing Progression. https://www.swimmingworldmagazine.com/news/swim-drill-of-the-week-breaststroke-timing-progression/ Accessed 4/4/2023. (9) Swim Drill Of The Week: Breaststroke Tempo Progression. https://www.swimmingworldmagazine.com/news/swim-drill-of-the-week-breaststroke-tempo-progression/ Accessed 4/4/2023. (10) How To Swim Breaststroke With Perfect Technique. https://blog.myswimpro.com/2020/09/25/how-to-swim-breaststroke-with-perfect-technique/ Accessed 4/4/2023.
The Critical Error
Spoiler alert! The error is in the breaststroke kick where it describes it like doing a frog kick. You donotwant to bend your knees and aim them outwards while keeping the feet together. This is incorrect. Instead, you should keep your knees together while bending your knees to raise your heels behind your thighs and flaring them outwards in a whip-like motion, circular, so that they push the water with the insides of your feet.
Final Thoughts
It's still a strong article that brings up some interesting questions. Will you be using AI in your text generation? Will you use AI to produce practice plans? How will you write your swim practices now? Will you use a tool like generative AI?
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