The breaststroke is one of four competitive swimming strokes, characterized by a simultaneous arm pull and a wide, frog-like kick performed while the swimmer’s chest faces the pool floor. It’s the slowest of the competitive strokes, roughly 20% slower than freestyle at the elite level, but it’s also one of the oldest and most widely taught because the head stays above or near the water surface, making it natural for beginners. A single stroke cycle consists of one arm pull, one kick, one breath, and a short glide in a streamlined position.
How the Stroke Works
Breaststroke looks deceptively simple, but the timing between the arms, legs, and breathing is more demanding than any other stroke. The basic sequence is: pull, breathe, kick, glide. Each phase happens one after the other rather than overlapping, which creates the distinctive stop-start rhythm that separates breaststroke from the continuous motion of freestyle or backstroke.
Unlike every other stroke, both the arms and legs recover underwater. That means you’re pushing water forward with each recovery, which acts like a brake. This is the main reason breaststroke is slower: you spend part of every stroke cycle creating drag rather than propulsion.
The Arm Pull
The pull starts from a streamlined position with your arms extended in front of you. Your hands slide outward to about shoulder width, then you press down so your fingertips point toward the bottom and your elbows angle upward. This “catch” position is what allows you to push backward against the water rather than just sweeping sideways.
From the catch, you squeeze your elbows toward your sides, bringing your hands and forearms inward together. A common teaching tool describes the shapes your arms trace as the letters Y, M, C, and A: the outsweep forms a Y, the fingers pitch down into an M shape, the elbows draw together for the C, and the arms shoot forward into streamline for the A. Once the pull finishes, your arms recover forward underwater, staying below the surface, and extend back to the starting position for the next stroke.
One key detail: your hands and forearms should move inward at the same speed. If your hands rush ahead of your elbows, you lose the backward push that actually moves you forward.
The Kick
The kick generates more propulsion than the arms in breaststroke, which is the opposite of every other competitive stroke. It’s sometimes called a “whip kick” because of the circular snapping motion of the feet.
What makes the kick unique is foot position. Both feet turn outward so the soles face backward, then your legs drive out and around in a sweeping motion before snapping together. Think of how a frog’s legs push through water. The rotation of the feet and the backward thrust are where the power comes from. Three common mistakes to watch for: turning only one foot out while the other stays pointed (called a scissors kick), keeping both feet pointed like a ballet dancer, or separating the feet into a flutter kick. Any of these will kill your propulsion.
Timing and the Glide
Getting the timing right is what separates a smooth breaststroke from an exhausting one. The core principle is simple: when your arms pull, your legs should be streamlined behind you. When your legs kick, your arms should be extended in front of you. You never want both moving at the same time, because overlapping them creates maximum drag with minimal forward motion.
Here’s the full sequence. Start in a streamlined glide. Begin your arm pull while your legs stay straight and together. As your arms finish the pull and start recovering forward, draw your legs up toward your hips. The instant your arms reach full extension, fire a hard kick. Then hold the glide for a beat before starting the next cycle.
Recovering your arms quickly matters more than most swimmers realize. The faster your arms get back to streamline, the less time your body spends in a high-drag position. It also means your legs can stay streamlined longer during the pull, so you extract more speed from each arm stroke. During the pull, your legs are essentially waiting, coiled and ready to spring into a fast recovery and powerful kick.
Speed Compared to Other Strokes
Breaststroke is the slowest competitive stroke at every level. At the Olympic level, the 200-meter breaststroke world record sits around 2:05, while the 200-meter freestyle record is roughly 1:42. For recreational swimmers, the gap is similar:
- Beginners: 35 to 55 seconds per 25 meters in breaststroke, versus 30 to 45 seconds in freestyle
- Intermediate swimmers: 25 to 40 seconds per 25 meters, versus 20 to 30 in freestyle
- Experienced swimmers: 14 to 28 seconds per 25 meters, versus 10 to 20 in freestyle
The speed difference comes down to drag. Freestyle keeps the arms above water during recovery and uses a continuous flutter kick, so momentum stays relatively constant. Breaststroke’s underwater recovery and its pull-kick-glide rhythm mean you accelerate and decelerate with every single stroke.
Calories and Fitness Benefits
Breaststroke burns roughly 200 calories per 30 minutes of swimming at a moderate pace, compared to about 300 calories for freestyle in the same time. Despite the lower calorie count, breaststroke is considered a strong cardiovascular workout. The repeated acceleration against high drag forces your heart and lungs to work hard, and the kick is particularly demanding on the lower body, engaging the inner thighs, glutes, and hips in ways that other strokes don’t.
Protecting Your Knees
The breaststroke kick places unique stress on the knee joint, particularly the inner (medial) side. This is common enough to have its own name: breaststroker’s knee. Research published in the American Journal of Sports Medicine found that nearly half of swimmers who experienced weekly knee pain from breaststroke had tender, thickened tissue on the inner side of the knee called medial plicae, and pressing on that tissue reproduced the same pain they felt while kicking.
Swimmers with limited hip rotation tend to be more vulnerable, because tight hips force the knee to absorb rotational forces that should be handled higher up the chain. Stretching to improve hip internal rotation can help. Other preventive steps include ramping up breaststroke training volume gradually at the start of a season, warming up thoroughly before hard sets, and applying ice after training if soreness develops. If knee pain becomes a regular problem, the most effective first step is simply reducing the amount of breaststroke you swim until the irritation settles down.
A Brief History
Breaststroke may be the oldest swimming stroke still in competitive use. Cave paintings in ancient eastern Egypt depict people swimming with a motion that resembles it, and cultures around the world developed similar techniques independently, likely by imitating the movement of frogs. The first recorded crossing of the English Channel, from Dover to France, was completed using breaststroke. Over time, the arm pull evolved from simple outward sweeps into the more efficient elliptical pull pattern used today, but the fundamental frog-kick motion has remained recognizable for centuries.