Looking for particular swimming style

[Michael88]

Hi! I'm trying to find the name and description of a particular swimming style but cannot find either, its almost like it doesn't exist. I have seen pages describing every single swimming stroke known to man but not this one. I hope someone can help me out here.

Its one of my favorites swimming styles and I call it the ''kraken stroke''. You basically do the dead man, float on your back, extend your arms and legs and make a scissor movement to propel yourself forward, keep your arms and legs together and glide, then repeat. Its very energy efficient and its one of the fastest swimming styles, I can do 6-7 meters with one stroke without trying hard.
You can glide longer if you keep air in the lungs only breathe when pushing. You can also do it with arms and legs alternating.

Like I said, can't find anything about it.

 

[Gravitron]

Reverse/backward breaststroke?

 

[Michael88]

Thats what thought too, but then I watched a video of a guy doing the back breast stroke and it looked different. He was kicking instead of doing scissors, he didn't glide at all and he also bent his elbows when pushing which I don't when using this particular stroke.
Not to mention its even more different from the non-alternating version.

 

[Submerged]

What you are describing would be known as survival backstroke.

Basically, its a breaststroke kick on your back and underwater backstroke pull. There are slight variations to the stroke itself, most people will bend their arms to put more power and strength into the stroke which will allow them to glide further when they push down.

This stroke does allow you to keep going for quite a long time and to be relaxed. Its not particularly quick over a long distance in comparison to freestyle though.

I'm a little bit confused by your statement about "going faster by only breathing when pushing".... That's only really relevant when you are on your front, not on your back. Although considering you do quite a lot of weight training, I'm assuming you have a lot of muscle mass which makes floating quite difficult to achieve.

You can have another variation of the survival backstroke, which you have your arms going over the water after pushing down into the water, this is called Old English stroke.

 

[Michael88]

Aha, thank you, thats it!

"going faster by only breathing when pushing"...That's only really relevant when you are on your front, not on your back. Although considering you do quite a lot of weight training, I'm assuming you have a lot of muscle mass which makes floating quite difficult to achieve.

If I keep breathing normally when swimming I can't glide very well and have to go faster to stay afloat, wasting energy. Like you said I'm a heavy weight lifter with little body fat so I'm incredibly non-buoyant, like a stone. I have to flail like a butterfly and tread like a cyclist to stay above water when not swimming.

Its not particularly quick over a long distance in comparison to freestyle though.

Maybe its my bad form when doing freestyle, but I'm at least as fast when doing the survival backstroke with lots of gliding and really powerful strokes. I can keep up with someone who is walking very fast next to the swimming pool.

You can have another variation of the survival backstroke, which you have your arms going over the water after pushing down into the water, this is called Old English stroke.

Sounds a bit like a reverse-butterfly with kicks. I'll give that a try next time. 👍

 

[Omnis]

Isn't this just a regular backstroke?

 

[Michael88]

No, the only thing those two strokes have in common is that they're performed while swimming on your back.

 

[Omnis]

Why did you say a scissor movement then? Because that's what backstroke is.

 

[W3H5]

I was going to suggest asking @Submerged but it seems he was quick of the mark with this one.

 

[Michael88]

Why did you say a scissor movement then? Because that's what backstroke is.

What I'm talking about is a horizontal scissor movement with arms and legs.

 

[DG_Silva]

A bit like a reverse breast stroke.

 

[Submerged]

Why did you say a scissor movement then? Because that's what backstroke is.

Scissor movement isn't a standard flutter kick (which is what frontcrawl and backstroke kick is) or the up and down kicking action.

Scissors kick means that one leg goes behind the body and the other leg goes in front of the body. Both legs then comes together but never goes past the other leg. It is different from breaststroke because of the angle/position, the different muscles used and the fact that the foot isn't actually turned out as much as a breaststroke kick.

A bit like a reverse breast stroke.

Actually, the horizontal scissors movement isn't actually a breaststroke kicking action. Imagine a scissors lying flat on the table and you move the blade. The blades move away and then together in a straight line.

Breaststroke kicking action in this way would be insanely inefficient and lose so much power. Plus, it would just look a little bit odd, almost like making snowangels on some snow.

Breaststroke kicking action requires the knees to bend to bring the feet close to the hips, before it then kicks out and round before squeezing together forcefully with the other leg. The foot should almost make a half semi-circle action to get the desired propulsion forward.

When you first see the breaststroke kicking action, it does look like a scissors action. But when you analyse it in depth, you quickly realise that it isn't. At all.

@W3HS I happened to see it, cheers for the shout though!

@Michael88 its possible to be as buff and slim as you are and still float pretty well. In the suit years where all the swimmers were wearing those full suits, the men were seriously packing more muscles as much as they could and they were able to still keep afloat relatively well.

I will say that the breathing pattern in swimming is pretty tricky to master at first, as it requires almost a steady mediation breathing style, which doesn't come naturally to most people, to be relaxed and keep swimming in any stroke for any length of time. Keep at it and eventually it should work. Don't be afraid to ask around for advice either, at the swimming pool or by PM.

 

[Omnis]

What are you, some kind of mermaid?

You should swim like me. I call it the bludgeon trudgen. You basically flail like a maniac and use your arms to push across the pool until you're flat out exhausted 20 feet later and sink like a rock because your legs are too heavy to do anything productive.

 

[Submerged]

@Omnis I am actually a swimming teacher and have swam competitively for 15 years. So yeah.... part time merman I guess!

 

[Omnis]

Yes, I figured. Was just joshing.

 

[Leggy1]

Now i've been swimming competitively for 9ish years, I didn't think there was much more to learn. Been doing the weird stroke, as mentioned in the first post, occasionally in training. I thought it was just a random thing my coach made us do. Thanks for sharing your knowledge @Submerged