3 Myths About Breaststroke

Breaststroke is a complicated stroke to learn. Here are three common myths about the stroke and the truths behind them.

Myth #1: You should have a high turnover in breaststroke 

Although there are times to ramp up your stroke rate in breaststroke—such as in a 50 sprint—a high turnover can lead to a breakdown in technique. Breaststroke requires precise timing and a coordinated movement pattern, including a strong pull, an effective kick, and a phase in which you’re fully streamlined. Increasing your stroke rate can disrupt your timing and coordination.

High turnover can increase drag, reduce propulsion, and lead to quicker fatigue, all of which detract from your overall performance. Focusing on a strong, efficient stroke with proper timing and glide phases generally leads to better outcomes in breaststroke.

On the flip side, you can glide too long. While gliding is beneficial, over-gliding can disrupt the rhythm and rapidly reduce your speed. The key is to find a balance that ensures continuous momentum while maintaining stroke efficiency.

Good timing is essential to good breaststroke. If your turnover is too fast, you can end up pulling against your kick and swimming uphill. If your glide is too long, you can end up running out of breath and slowing your momentum so much that the next strokes get harder and harder to execute.

Keeping your focus on getting to the line, whether you’re sprinting breaststroke or swimming a 200, can be helpful. The line is when you have finished both the arms and the legs, and your body is streamlined just under the surface. (Note: You don’t finish your hands in streamline, they should have a slight separation, but the rest of your body should be in streamline.)

In sprint breaststroke, you do race to the line with quick stroke mechanics, but you also want to fully extend your body into that line after each stroke sequence. This helps you find great horizontal body position, which can optimize your next stroke and kick. 

In distance breaststroke, you can still get to the line quickly, but here you allow yourself a brief pause at the end of each stroke. That pause can involve a checklist for you to quickly run through. Is my head down? Are my eyes looking straight down? Are my legs finished close together or feet touching? Am I driving my fingertips forward vs. down, and am I keeping my biceps behind my ears? 

Practice swimming breaststroke at different speeds to refine your timing and position at the end of each stroke. When you want to go fast, pick up your tempo but always strive for that fully extended position. Just don’t hold there long, get down and right back up into the next stroke. When swimming a more moderate paced breaststroke, refine the line that you reach at the end of each stroke, pausing briefly to extend the line just a little longer. 

Myth #2: To go fast you need to pull hard 

The myth that to go fast in breaststroke you need to pull hard stems from a misunderstanding of the stroke's mechanics and the principles of hydrodynamics. Here are the reasons why this is a myth and why pulling hard is not the key to swimming fast in breaststroke.

In breaststroke, efficiency is more critical than raw power. The stroke is characterized by its cyclical nature of propulsion and glide. The key elements for speed are:

• Streamlined body position: Minimizing drag through a streamlined position is essential. A hard pull often disrupts this position, creating more resistance.
• Effective glide: Breaststroke includes a glide phase in which the swimmer takes advantage of the momentum generated by the pull and kick. A hard pull can shorten or disrupt this glide, reducing overall efficiency. 

Propulsion in breaststroke comes from both the pull and the kick, but maintaining a streamlined shape is important. This involves employing hydrodynamic principles to reduce drag.

• Increased drag: Pulling too hard can lead to increased frontal drag. The harder the pull, the more the body might break out of the streamline, causing greater resistance.
• Proper timing: The timing and coordination between the pull, kick, and glide phases are crucial. A hard pull often disrupts the delicate balance needed for efficient propulsion.

Myth #3: The arms and legs move simultaneously

• Arm-pull. It all begins with your legs in streamline. Your hands sweep outward with palms flat and wrists firm. This is known as the outsweep of the pull. The next step is to turn the corner on your pull, going from outsweep to insweep. The final action is to speed your hands forward into the shoot-through, in which they return to their original starting position. 
  
  If your outsweep extends beyond your shoulders, it’s challenging to work the insweep properly. Turn the corner before your hands are adjacent to your shoulders and keep your elbows high as you execute the insweep by bringing those flat palms up near your mouth and nose before quickly driving them forward. 
  
  
• Breath. Catch your breath at the insweep phase. As you turn the corner, shrug your shoulders and feel your hips slide forward. Your breath takes place as your hands sweep up near your mouth. Immediately return your head to the water, eyes looking straight down. Your head should be back under as your arms extend out front.
  
  
• Kick. The optimum timing for your kick depends on your body type, strength of your pull, speed of your heel-draw, etc. It will take place after the outsweep and somewhere between turning the corner into the insweep or the beginning of the shoot-through. If you have a fast heel-draw (the first action of the kick), your timing can be a little later. If you have a slower draw, then you need to start on the earlier side. This simply takes experimentation to find the right timing for you. 
  
  
• The line. Following the kick, enter a fully extended position with your body just under the surface and all but your hands in streamline position. This is known as the glide phase but don’t hang out there; use the momentum generated by the completion of your kick and then judge when to move into the next stroke before too much momentum loss occurs. 

Here is an effective drill to fine-tune the timing of your pull and kick:

Pull-stop-kick-stop, aka breaststroke separation drill. In this drill, you’ll separate your pull from your kick.

• When you pull, keep your legs in a streamlined position. When you kick, keep your arms in a streamlined position.
• Use the mantra, “pull, stop, kick, stop” to guide you.
• Initially, this might feel challenging, so holding the stop position for a count can be helpful. You might try repeating, “pull, stop, 1-2, kick, stop, 1-2,” and so on. A common progression is to start with one length holding the stop for a three-count, then one length with a two-count, one length with a one-count, and finally, swim a length of regular breaststroke, focusing on the timing of your stroke.

The arm-pull and the kick do not occur simultaneously but rather in a coordinated cycle. This separation allows for continuous movement and helps maintain a rhythm that maximizes efficiency and speed in the water.