How To Swim Breaststroke: Easy Steps For Beginners

Breaststroke is one of four competitive strokes with 4 phases: pull, breathe, kick, and glide. It's the only stroke that breaks the horizontal position, making it the slowest stroke.

With hands pulling the water back, breaststroke pull is initiated from overhead, slightly wider shoulder width. When arms move closer to a shoulder line, the swimmers initiate an in-sweeping motion, pushing them out of the water. That propulsive arm action is followed by arm recovery when hands are extended forward to initiate the next stroke cycle.

The key to the breaststroke breathing technique lies in the timing of your stroke. In this swimming stroke, breathing happens when you sweep your arms inwards. That upward momentum pushes the upper chest out of the water, allowing you to take a breath in. After that, the head follows the forward momentum and returns to a neutral position underwater.

As we breathe and extend our arms forward, our legs simultaneously perform a wide kick to give us an extra push before the glide phase. Leg movements are done in an out-sweep-like style and look like a whip kick. Leg kick ends when legs meet behind your body on the level of your hip line. Breaststroke kick is extremely powerful, and it's the most propulsive phase of the stroke that propels our body forward for a long glide.

The glide phase is critical to swim breaststroke the right way. The glide phase starts right after the kick phase, with arms forward and legs straight behind, forming a firm, streamlined position. Here, body position is vital in carrying maximum speed into your next arm stroke.

Let me show you why breaststroke is the perfect starting point. My proven and effective approach has successfully shaped hundreds of students since 2008.

Let's start with a solid foundation for our breaststroke first. Let's make it easier by matching the breaststroke pulls with the flutter kicking.

Initiate the float with your arms extended In front. Tuck your chin and start kicking. Turn your palms out and pull the water away. Push the water aside using your palms and forearms, keeping them submerged.

Bend your elbows and bring your hands together under your torso to recover your arms by slicing the water with your hands. Extend your arms in front of you and hold them steady while executing flutter kicks for 2-3 seconds before starting the next stroke with your hands and forearms. Pull, slice, kick, kick, kick. Pull, slice, kick, kick, kick.

It's crucial to pause with your arms extended in front for several reasons. Firstly, you need to differentiate the beginning of the stroke from the end of a stroke cycle. You'll find out why it is essential for us later in the video. Secondly, before you can come out of the water and breathe, you must spend some time exhaling before you can come up and inhale.

Now that we figured out the mechanics of the breaststroke, let's find out how to come out of the water to breathe.

Remember how I asked you to turn your palms out in the previous step, which made you move the water past you and helped your body to propel forward? If you were to push the water on your right side, it would shift your body to the opposite, the left side, and vice versa; pressing on your left side would move your body to the right.

Now that we know this, let me ask you this. Where should you move your arms to come up?

That's right, to rise to the surface, you should move your arms down.

Push the water downward as you separate your arms, using this motion to leverage your head above the water.

Remember when I talked about how it's important to tell when a stroke starts and stops? Well, here's why it matters!

You should lift your chin as you initiate the downward and outward movement with your palms and forearms, ensuring your head emerges above the water. It would give you the most time with your head above the surface.

You may have noticed you don't have much time with your heads out of the water. Make sure you use this time to inhale before going back inside the water.

Remember about the pause with your arms extended in front? We need to pause to exhale inside the water before reaching the surface.

Let's repeat it one more time. Blow bubbles with your face in the water. Start your stroke and lift your chin to breathe, then put your face back in and recover your arms. Repeat.

If there's hardly enough time to catch your breath, don't worry; you're not alone. I have a helpful tip that can simplify things for you. I've developed a mantra to help you remember the correct breaststroke pattern once and for all. Please repeat after me. Bubbles, goggles, arms.

Bubbles- Let the air out of your lungs while in the water.

Googles- lift your chin to get your goggles out of the water.

Arms- make a stroke and get your face out of the water.

Bubbles, goggles, arms. Bubbles, goggles, arms.

Now, let's put it together with a flutter kick first.

Let's make it a little harder and combine it with the breaststroke kicking. If you still don't know how to make the breaststroke kick, watch my video explaining this kicking technique. Let's learn with the face staying inside first.

The key here is to keep the kick separate from the stroke and allow yourself to glide each time you produce propulsion with your legs.


Begin the first stroke with an arm pull

Make a stroke with your arms and return them to the initial position. Kick and allow yourself to glide for a little while. Let's make it rhythmical. Count 1 when making a stroke, and count 2 when kicking. Count 3,4,5 while gliding with your arms and legs extended and the face staying inside the water. Pull - one, kick- two, glide - three, four, five. One. Two. Three, four, five.

Let's get the face out of the water and breathe now.

Pull and breathe. Go back inside the water and recover your arms. Kick. Glide and blow the bubbles. Pull and breathe- one. Kick- two. Glide and blow the bubble- three, four, five.