New Breaststroke Rule Adopted by FINA
Some of you already might have heard that FINA has updated their breaststroke rule to accomodate an underwater dolphin kick during the pullout phase after the initial start or a turn. The rule marked as SW 7.4 clearly states "A single downward dolphin kick followed by a breaststroke kick is permitted while wholly submerged. 
Following which, all movements of the legs shall be simultaneous and in the same horizontal plane without alternating movement."
Not sure what to make of this, but I believe it was received with a positive feedback on many fronts. There is one country, however, that does not like this rule. As Swim News indicated in their recently published article, the Chinese swimming committee decided not to follow this rule during the China's 10th National Games.
I personally think this rule will reduce the number of disqualifications and will allow for faster swimming of skilled butterfly kickers. It potentially might even help those IMers that struggle on breaststroke. Finally, I predict we will see some breaststroke world records going down with adoption of this rule. If you have any thoughts, do not hesitate to leave a comment.
Update:
FINA has updated their dolphin kick rule since this article was published. It now states:
Rule 101.2.3 states: After the start and each turn, a single butterfly kick, which must be followed by a breaststroke kick, is permitted during or at the completion of the first arm pull.
For the purposes of Article 101.2.3, as it relates to what constitutes the initiation of the first arm pull and the allowed single downward butterfly kick, the following applies: After the start and after each turn, any lateral or downward movement of the hands or arms is considered to be the initiation of the first arm pull.
So in other words, there are now two places one can execute the dolphin kick:
1) during the initial underwater arm pull (this is the older way and could cause the swimmer to loose a nice streamlined position as the swimmer is moving up through the water column)
2) at the beginning of the pull with hands a bit separated from streamline (this is thought to be the more efficient way as the swimmer is in a more streamlined position to utilize the pull)
You can read a bit more about it here
Following which, all movements of the legs shall be simultaneous and in the same horizontal plane without alternating movement."Not sure what to make of this, but I believe it was received with a positive feedback on many fronts. There is one country, however, that does not like this rule. As Swim News indicated in their recently published article, the Chinese swimming committee decided not to follow this rule during the China's 10th National Games.
I personally think this rule will reduce the number of disqualifications and will allow for faster swimming of skilled butterfly kickers. It potentially might even help those IMers that struggle on breaststroke. Finally, I predict we will see some breaststroke world records going down with adoption of this rule. If you have any thoughts, do not hesitate to leave a comment.
Update:
FINA has updated their dolphin kick rule since this article was published. It now states:
Rule 101.2.3 states: After the start and each turn, a single butterfly kick, which must be followed by a breaststroke kick, is permitted during or at the completion of the first arm pull.
For the purposes of Article 101.2.3, as it relates to what constitutes the initiation of the first arm pull and the allowed single downward butterfly kick, the following applies: After the start and after each turn, any lateral or downward movement of the hands or arms is considered to be the initiation of the first arm pull.
So in other words, there are now two places one can execute the dolphin kick:
1) during the initial underwater arm pull (this is the older way and could cause the swimmer to loose a nice streamlined position as the swimmer is moving up through the water column)
2) at the beginning of the pull with hands a bit separated from streamline (this is thought to be the more efficient way as the swimmer is in a more streamlined position to utilize the pull)
You can read a bit more about it here
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