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Learn Breaststroke Easily

How can I learn breaststroke easily and which swimming stroke is best to learn first?

Breaststroke is usually the best stroke to learn first especially if you are an adult beginner to swimming. There are several reasons why breaststroke is the most adult beginner friendly.

Firstly it can be performed with the body position at an angle so that there is no need for the face or head to be submerged. Secondly, stopping and standing up mid-swim is easier from this stroke due to the simple arm movements.

If you are a complete beginner then it is important that you learn to hold your breath and partially submerge your face in the water. Although it is not necessary for breaststroke, it is an essential swimming basic that you need to get used to.

Some find this uncomfortable and even stressful, but if you can persevere, you will become a more comfortable and confident swimmer quicker.

It is a good idea to begin with a swim noodle placed under your arms for support until you become confident with how your body moves through the water. It will also give you good support for practising standing up without holding onto the poolside.

My eBook ‘How To Swim Breaststroke’ contains over 20 exercises for beginners to learn the stroke. They are fully illustrated and very easy to follow. Click the link below for more information.

Swim Too Slow

I swim too slow but I try so hard. I am able to do the breaststroke but I know my technique is not good so am having lessons but I now seem to be worse, because it’s all so different from what I have been doing. I am so slow and yet I put so much effort in. How long does it take for improvement? I practise three times a week I have had 5 lessons. Thank you

If you have swum breaststroke for a long time having never been taught the correct technique, you may have developed some bad habits and those habits will be difficult to break.

The most common mistake people make with breaststroke is swimming along using the arms for propulsion and not the legs. Some people even swim without using legs at all!

Propulsion for breaststroke must come from the whip action of the leg kick and then the momentum from this propulsion is maintained in a glide with the arms stretched out in front.

This brings me to the second most common mistake: timing. The correct sequence for a breaststroke swimming stroke cycle is ‘pull, breathe, kick, glide’. As breaststroke is a very inefficient swimming stroke (because the arm and leg actions are very wide, causing resistance through the water), it is essential that the correct sequence is followed so that the body can continue to move through the water.

It is quite common for people to pull and kick at the same time (as you would for front crawl and backstroke) but the nature of the arm and leg action in breaststroke is such that if they occur at the same time you will go nowhere!

Next time you swim think to yourself ‘pull THEN kick’, and if you can hold your hands and legs together for a brief glide then you will be well on your way.

The key to easy breaststroke technique is to feel your way through the water and not fight it. Quite often if you try to get somewhere fast you end up getting nowhere. Relax and approach the stroke in stages thinking about the technique and the sequence and think less about how far or how fast you are swimming. Correct technique will allow you to swim further with less effort.

My ebook How To Swim Breaststroke contains over 20 separate swimming exercises to help all parts of breaststroke, including breathing and timing. You can download it, print out the parts you need and take them to your pool to try out. Click the link below for more information.