Breaststroke is the most useful swimming stroke. It is possible to swim long distances using this stroke, it works well under water, learning when to breathe is relatively simple and it is easy to see where you are going.
In recent years, it has evolved into a highly specialized racing stroke, requiring great strength and massive upper-body development. In international competition, swimmers appear to pull their bodies half out of the water with each stroke. But they never swim more than 200 metres in this way, there are no Breaststroke races at longer distances.
In 1875, Captain Matthew Webb was the first person to swim the English Channel. He swam Breaststroke with big, wide circular strokes, head out of the water, relying on his physical strength and stamina to keep going. It took him almost 22 hours.
For the present-day recreational swimmer, neither of these styles is a very good example. We need to find something easier.
In order to swim, we have to find a solution to three basic problems.
1./ Water is a very dense medium. We need to shape our bodies to reduce drag to a minimum.
2./ Forward movement is simple physics. We must move water backwards in order to move forwards.
3./ We must breathe. For most of us, running low on oxygen sets the limit on how fast or far we can go.
Finding a streamlined shape is relatively easy. We need to make our bodies as long and straight as possible, arms straight out in front, legs together, toes pointed, head down so that the ears are between the arms. We should be able to adopt this position without straining, we don't want to waste energy doing nothing. If we can manage to kick off from the side of the pool and adopt this position, it is surprising how far we can go without doing anything. If we had a little outboard motor fixed to our feet, we could go along quite happily like this. But we need to create our own propulsion and find a way to breathe. As soon as we move away from our ideal shape, it is like putting the brakes on. If you have ever tried rowing an inflatable boat with insufficient air in it, you will have some idea of what I mean. So we need to get some forward propulsion quickly and return to our streamlined shape as soon as possible.
The arm stroke performs two functions, keeping us moving while the legs prepare for the next kick and getting the mouth out of the water to take a breath. Because water is transparent, it is difficult to visualize what is happening as we perform the stroke. So imagine that you have a pile of feathers in front of you. Reach forward and try to catch as many feathers as possible and pull them towards you with your hands and forearms. Instead of making a wide circle with your arms, try to keep your hands within the width of your shoulders. Your elbows are going to go a bit wider, but keeping the stroke narrow reduces drag. The propulsive part of the stroke finishes when your hands are directly under your shoulders and your head will be high enough to be able to take a breath. Now the hands come together and the arms go forward to the fully stretched position. (Head down, arms touching the ears, remember?)
Older books will tell you to cup your hands, so that water doesn't "escape" between your fingers. Modern swimmers don't do this. With the hands open, the palm is larger and like the wingtip feathers of an eagle, the spread fingers are thought to reduce turbulence that creates drag.
Most of the power of this stroke comes from the leg kick. As the arms are pulling backwards, the knees are coming forwards until the upper leg is pointing straight downwards. If your body is properly balanced in the water, your feet should still be only just below the surface. As with the arm stroke, it is important to keep the kick narrow in order to reduce drag. Visualize your paddles as all of the inner side of your lower leg, from knee to toe. Keeping your knees close together and letting you feet go outwards (as far as your joint mobility comfortably allows) push backward against the water. (Imagine you are being followed by a shark and give him a good slap in the gills with the inside of your ankles!) Your leg kick should reach full extension at the same moment as your hands arrive at full stretch. But the leg action isn't quite finished. Your feet have to come back together, ankles touching and toes pointed, before you start the next stroke. This is where a lot of people go wrong. Needing to get a breath, they shorten the stroke, putting on the brakes, so they have to work harder, resulting in more breathlessness and so it goes on.
Breathing well is the key to comfortable swimming. In everyday life, we are hardly aware that we are breathing. Sitting around, we take a shallow breath every few seconds. As we start to move around we begin to breathe more deeply and if we are working hard our breathing rate increases until finally, under maximum effort, we are panting and gasping. In face-down swimming stroke, we have only limited opportunities to breathe, so it is important to think about it and get it right.
What triggers the breathing reflex is not lack of oxygen, but build-up of carbon dioxide. The lungs are constantly removing CO2 from the blood and replacing it with oxygen. When the percentage of CO2 in our lungs increases we feel a need to breathe. The more air we have in our lungs, the longer it takes for the percentage of CO2 to reach that critical level. Some experts advise exhaling under water, but I can't see any advantage in that. I prefer to wait until my head is starting to come out of the water. We can make a complete air exchange very quickly, so there is plenty of time, and if you miss out on getting a breath (for example if you get hit by a wave) you will still have a "full tank" to take you through another stroke. There are a few other things. People with low personal buoyancy will float better with their lungs fully inflated. The rib cage becomes more rigid when the lungs are full of air, making a strong framework from which the arms can work more efficiently. (Ask any weightlifter.) And finally and probably most important, you cannot inhale water if your lungs are full of air! When you become a truly relaxed swimmer you will one day notice that you aren't bothering to close your mouth under water.
So there are three important things to think about and they all work together. You won't get everything right straight away, but I think it helps to keep in mind what you are trying to achieve and work on one of those things each time you swim. Most important is to complete every stroke and get back to that streamlined shape every time. If you find that you are getting short of breath, resist the temptation to pull your head out quickly, but take a moment's rest while fully stretched before taking a breath. Reducing your stroke rate is more relaxing than trying to go faster. Once you get it right, you should be able to travel a couple of metres to a stroke, that's about 13 strokes to a length. Doesn't sound like a lot of hard work, does it?
Yes Mike, I have tried this and find it the easiest, but not very elegant. Perhaps I am stuck with it.
:-D
Hey you guys! "Without working too hard." This was for those of us who are not athletes and just want to go for a nice relaxing swim....... ;-)
Oh yes, the misery of the final 100 metres at the end of a training session. & once you've got the wrester-arms & shoulders you never get rid of them, particularly fetching in evening dress along with the nice ridge of muscle either side of one's spine, too...My children call me Pops (it's short for Popeye as in the Sailor Man)
that's just the way it is, Mike! :-(
Véro - great for blokes, not so good for girls - my Mum still had large shoulders and a V shaped back for years! Butterfly - love that shoulder burn, not! great when you're full of beans, horrible when you're cream crackered and trail your arms in the water :-O
I was just about 5'6" in my prime. Spent my whole life wondering why they didn't have height categories in competitive swimming!
Ha ha Andrew, I am a cube (I would just have been short had it not been for swimming) - but I did mainly butterfly & IM, & the last leg of the relays - not out of choice but because I was already happiest in the water so least trouble to train when the coach got his mitts on us at 7 or 8. Speaking as a midget compared to my school & club friends what made the difference in races (swimming or sprinting) was sheer bloody-mindedness.
yes, my mate "Polaris" was short and stocky like me : we're both around the 5'10" mark, way shorter than the average modern day swimmer :-O
Thanks Andrew, good to have a male contributor!
There are clear advantages in being tall in freestyle swimming, if only because of having longer stroke length. I think breaststroke is easier for people with a more compact physique.
nice piece, Mike. I used to train with the, at the time, 200m breast stroke commonwealth record holder, nicknamed Polaris. We were all pretty much the same swimming crawl but had no chance when it came to breast stroke - a great stroke but you need to get it just right, the faster you swim the better it is as it's easier to keep the body level and streamline, as soon as you slow down your feet drop, up comes the head, not so efficient...!
Quite a powerful stroke, Véronique, but liable to make you unpopular in a crowded pool!
You can do Old English Backstroke - breaststroke legs plus both arms out of the water at once over your head & down & round. Not tiring. The deeper your head is in the water the better you float (try it doing a star float) but obviously if you don't like getting your hair wet it isn't really for you.
Janet,
You may find this useful - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HWIFdTMaiPc
..... or at least rather nice to look at - though I guess I'm not supposed to notice that!
Jane,
Backstroke breathing is less easy than it looks and competitive swimmers have to try not to swallow too much water. Have you tried swimming on your back, using the breaststroke leg kick only? This will allow you to swim with your hips lower in the water and therefore your head will be higher. You can get a bit more speed by flapping your hands by your sides like fins. Not very elegant, but serviceable.
I cannot do the breaststroke as my back was damaged in hospital, I swim on my side, but that gives me a problem with my neck.
The only really comfortable stroke is backstroke, but then I get my air totally wet!
Any ideas?
Really hard to visualise this. Can you put a video up. I find breast stroke arms ok but the leg bit is very hard. AND I am rubbish at the breathing and so I end up with my head up all the time. Wish I had had lessons at some point!