Breaststroke

The breaststroke is a swimming style in which the swimmer mainly swims on the breast. It is the one most swimmers learn as beginners. In recreational swimming, using this style helps you keep your head out of the water for most of the time. Of the three official swimming strokes, the breaststroke is the slowest. Professional swimmers regard it as the most difficult stroke to perform correctly because of the timing and the coordination they need to have to move their legs properly.

When using the breaststroke, you swim on your chest with your legs underwater at all times and your arms just breaking the surface of the water. For the second half of the stroke, your head is underwater. The manner in which you have to kick your legs is sometimes called the “frog kick” because it is something like a whipping motion that starts at the core and moves down through the legs.

In the forward movement of the breaststroke, your body is often at a very steep angle. Professional swimmers add extra power to their kick by using the muscles of the abdomen and the hips. When you use these muscles, you can swim faster because of the type of wave action that you create.

There are three main arm movements in the breaststroke- outsweep, insweep and recovery. In the outsweep movement your hands sink down in the water with the palms facing outward. Then you move them apart away from you. They stay almost straight and are parallel to the surface. In the insweep, you point your hands down and push the water away from you. Then you bring your hands together in front of your chest and your elbows are at your sides. In the recovery phase, you bring your arms to the initial position needed for the outsweep.

There are two phases to the frog kick: thrust and insweep. In the thrust phase your have your legs stretched out straight from your body. Then you move your feet toward the body, but keep your knees together. If you let your knees sick too far down in the water, this will increase the drag. Have your feet pointed outward and then move them back to the beginning position.