Breaststroke facts for kids
Breaststroke is a popular swimming style where you swim on your chest. Your body stays mostly flat and doesn't twist much. It's a favorite for fun swimming because your head can stay out of the water a lot, and you can swim it slowly and comfortably. Many people learn breaststroke or front crawl first in swimming lessons.
Even though it's great for beginners, swimming breaststroke fast in competitions needs a lot of strength and stamina, just like other strokes. Some people call it the "frog stroke" because your arms and legs move a bit like a frog in the water. It's the slowest of the main competitive swimming styles, but it's also thought to be the oldest!
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How Fast Can You Swim Breaststroke?
Breaststroke is the slowest of the four official styles in competitive swimming. The fastest swimmers can go about 1.70 meters per second. It can be tricky to learn for new swimmers, even harder than butterfly, because it needs good timing and coordination, especially for the leg movements.
When you swim breaststroke, you are on your chest. Your arms break the water surface a little, but your legs always stay underwater. Your head goes underwater during the second half of the stroke. The leg kick is often called a "frog kick" because it looks like a frog's legs moving. But when done correctly, it's more like a "whip kick" because of the powerful, whip-like motion that starts from your core and goes through your legs.
Your body is often at a steep angle as you move forward. This slows you down more than in other swimming styles. Professional breaststrokers use their stomach muscles and hips to add power to their kick. This faster way of swimming breaststroke is called "wave-action" breaststroke. It uses the whip-kick fully.
A special part of competitive breaststroke is the underwater pullout. After pushing off the wall, you pull your arms all the way down past your hips. While your arms pull, you can do one downward dolphin kick. This is allowed since 2005, but it's not required. Doing more than one dolphin kick will get you disqualified. After the pull, you bring your arms back to a streamlined position with a breaststroke kick. This pullout is also called the "pull down." It's very important for fast swimming times at the start and after turns. Both hands must touch the wall during a turn.
How to Swim Breaststroke
Breaststroke starts with you lying face down in the water. Your arms are stretched straight forward, and your legs are stretched straight back.
Arm Movement Steps
The arm movement has three parts: outsweep, insweep, and recovery.
- Outsweep: From the streamlined position, turn your palms out. Move your hands apart slightly wider than your shoulders.
- Insweep: Your hands point down and push the water backward. Your elbows stay level with your shoulders. Your hands push back until they are about even with your shoulders. At the end of the insweep, your hands come together in front of your chest, and your elbows are at your sides.
- Recovery: Move your hands forward again, underwater, back to the starting position.
The arm stroke starts slowly, speeds up during the insweep, and then slows down during recovery. The goal is to push the water as hard as possible during the insweep and create as little drag as possible when recovering.
There's also an underwater pull-down, which is like the push part of a butterfly stroke. In this, you keep pushing your hands all the way back to your hips. This gives a big push from one stroke. However, FINA (the world swimming organization) only allows this stroke for the first stroke after the start and each turn.
Leg Movement (Frog Kick)
The leg movement, often called the "frog kick" or "whip kick," has two parts: getting your feet ready and then pushing.
- From the starting position with legs stretched back, bring your feet together towards your bottom. Keep your knees together. Don't let your knees drop too low, as this creates more drag.
- Then, point your feet outward to get ready to push.
- In the push phase, move your legs in an oval shape back to the starting position. Keep your knees together during this movement.
Your legs move slower when getting ready and very fast during the push. The goal is to push the water hard and create little drag when recovering. When recovering, your lower leg and feet are behind your upper leg, and your feet point backward. When pushing, your feet act like a hydrofoil, pushing water backward to move you forward.
Some swimmers move their knees apart during the preparation and keep them apart until almost the end of the push. This is more like a real frog's movement and avoids twisting the lower leg too much.
A "scissor kick" is another way some people kick, but it's against FINA rules because it's not even on both sides. In a scissor kick, one leg moves normally, but the other just moves up and down like a front crawl flutter kick. Swimming teachers try hard to stop students from using the scissor kick. Some teachers think that learning front crawl first might make it more likely to use a scissor kick when learning breaststroke later.
You can also do a dolphin kick (like in butterfly) with breaststroke, but this also breaks FINA rules. However, one dolphin kick is allowed at the start and after turns, as long as it feels like a natural part of your body's movement.
Breathing in Breaststroke
The easiest way to breathe in breaststroke is to let your head follow your spine. As your elbows rise, your head starts to lift. Use your high elbows to help pull your hands and forearms inward. This helps you use your stomach muscles to bring your hips forward. When your hips move forward, your chest, shoulders, and upper back will lift up naturally.
You usually breathe in through your mouth when your arms start the insweep phase. You breathe out through your mouth and nose during the recovery and gliding phase. You can swim breaststroke faster if you stay completely underwater, but FINA rules say your head must break the surface once per stroke cycle. The only exceptions are the first stroke after the start and after each turn. So, competitive swimmers usually do one underwater pull-out after the start and turns.
Many recreational swimmers keep their head above water the whole time when they swim breaststroke.
Body Movement and Glide
The movement starts with your body completely straight. Your body movements are timed so your legs are ready to push while your arms are halfway through the insweep. At this point, your head is out of the water for breathing. Your body is also at its steepest angle to the water. Your arms recover while your legs are pushing. After the stroke, you stay in the straight starting position for a moment to glide. The length of this glide depends on the distance you're swimming and how fit you are. Gliding is usually shorter in sprints and longer in long-distance swimming. The glide is also longer during the underwater stroke after the start and turns. Often, the gliding phase is the longest part of one full breaststroke cycle.
Starting the Race
Breaststroke uses the regular swimming start. Some swimmers use a "frog start," where they pull their legs forward quickly before extending them again while in the air during the start. After the start, you glide underwater. Then, you do one underwater pull-down and a dolphin kick, followed by one whip kick as your hands recover to a streamlined position. This is called the pull-out. Your head must break the surface before your arms reach their widest point on the first stroke after the pull-out. The downward butterfly kick was made legal by FINA and other organizations in 2005, and it's still optional.
Turns and Finish
In competitive swimming, you must touch the wall at the end of the lane with both hands at the same time. This is a FINA rule.
You start your turn by touching the wall during the glide or arm recovery, depending on what gets you there fastest. After touching, pull your legs under your body. Turn your body sideways while moving one hand forward along your side. As your body almost finishes turning, swing your other hand straight up through the air so both hands meet at the front at the same time. At this point, your body should be almost flat and partly or fully underwater. After you are completely underwater, push off the wall with both legs. Pushing off underwater helps reduce drag. After a glide, you do an underwater pull-out, then another glide, and then regular swimming. Your head must break the surface during the second stroke.
Some swimmers try a flip turn, similar to the front crawl flip turn.
The finish is like touching the wall during a turn.
Different Breaststroke Styles
Today, there are three main breaststroke styles: the conventional (flat), undulating, and wave-style. The undulating style is usually swum by very flexible swimmers, like Amanda Beard. Not many people are flexible enough to do it.
The wave-style breaststroke was developed by Hungarian coach Joseph Nagy. It became famous when Mike Barrowman set a world record using it. Now, many Olympic swimmers use it, though some Australian swimmers, like Leisel Jones, tend to avoid it. Olympian Ed Moses still uses a flatter style, even with the wave-style becoming very popular.
The wave-style breaststroke begins in a streamlined position, with shoulders shrugged to reduce drag. While the conventional style is strongest during the outsweep, the wave-style focuses a lot on the insweep. This means the head rises later than in the conventional style. The wave-style pull is a circular motion. Your hands speed up to their fastest and recover in front of your chin. Your elbows stay near the surface and in front of your shoulders. High elbows help your strong torso and stomach muscles assist in the stroke. During the insweep, you speed up your hands, arch your back, and lift yourself out of the water to breathe. Imagine your hands anchoring in the water while your hips thrust forward.
Your arched back and fast-moving hands lift your head out of the water. Your head stays in a natural position, looking down and forward, and you breathe in. Your feet pull back without moving your thighs, which reduces resistance. At this point, you are at your highest point in the water.
Then, you shrug your shoulders and throw your arms and shoulders forward, diving back into the water like a cat (but focusing on going forward, not just down). As you sink, you arch your back and kick. Timing is key for your kick to transfer all its power through your arched back. The best time is when your arms are about three-quarters extended. Then you kick, press on your chest, and move a little underwater, squeezing your gluteus maximus muscles to keep your legs and feet from rising out of the water. You are now back in the streamlined position, and the cycle starts again.
It's important not to overdo the wave motion. You should only rise until the water reaches your biceps, instead of pushing your whole upper body out of the water, which wastes a lot of energy.
Breaststroke Competitions
There are 8 common distances for competitive breaststroke swimming, 4 in yards and 4 in meters. Pools that are 25 yards long are common in the United States. They are used for younger age groups, high school, and college competitions in the winter.
- 25 yd Breaststroke (for children 8 and under)
- 50 yd Breaststroke (for children 12 and under)
- 100 yd Breaststroke
- 200 yd Breaststroke
For 25-meter or 50-meter pools, the distances are:
- 25 m Breaststroke (for children 8 and under, only in 25-meter pools)
- 50 m Breaststroke (for children 12 and under)
- 100 m Breaststroke
- 200 m Breaststroke
Breaststroke is also part of the medley races, which combine all four swimming styles:
- 100 yd Individual Medley
- 200 yd Individual Medley
- 400 yd Individual Medley
- 4 × 50 yd Medley Relay
- 4 × 100 yd Medley Relay
- 100 m Individual Medley (only in short 25-meter pools)
- 200 m Individual Medley
- 400 m Individual Medley
- 4 × 50 m Medley Relay
- 4 × 100 m Medley Relay
Sometimes, other distances are swum unofficially, like a 400 yd breaststroke in some college meets.
Images for kids
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Breaststroke by Katie Hoff at 2008 Missouri Grand Prix.
See also
In Spanish: Estilo braza para niños
