Tuesday Technique: Breaststroke

Drills to improve your breaststroke

Happy Tuesday,

I have been getting questions about Breaststroke, which I love. It means you are not just interested in swimming Freestyle during your time at the pool.

Not that I think swimming only Freestyle isn’t good enough, however, I do think that variety makes swimming more fun, decreases injury risks, and trains better your body.

I am going to share with you today my best drill progression to improve your breaststroke.

I do this set regularly to keep my breaststroke swimmers always sharp with their technique, which is critical to swimming this stroke.

Before sharing the progression, I want to share with you a MUST DO when it comes to swimming breaststroke. No matter what, never swim breaststroke again without applying this simple rule:

Stroke and kick must never happen at the same time.

1. Push off the wall and get into a streamline. Avoid any drag extending your body, as a torpedo glides through the water.

2. Complete a full stroke while still keeping your legs fully extended. The stroke ends with your arms extended in the direction of the swim and your eyes locked towards the bottom of the pool.
   Notice that the stroke has to be performed without pauses, in a single, continuous motion. The faster you extend your arms after the pull, the better.

3. Immediately when you are back to a full extended streamline, kick. Once the kick completes and you are gliding, start a new stroke again.

Here is a video for you from our friends at SwimGym (just friends, we don’t have any collaboration, agreements, what-so-ever):