SWIM FASTER: BREASTSTROKE
Mastering the Timing and Technique of the Breaststroke
Students who reach the Breaststroke milestone will:
- Push themselves to set a personal best time
- Learn more about streamlining and minimizing drag
- Get detailed instruction on positioning
- Standard for mastery: Breaststroke with pattern stroke, turns and finishes: goal time x 1 lap for respective pool
Throughout our curriculum at Foss Swim School, we seek to develop confident, well-rounded swimmers. It’s why we go beyond the freestyle and backstroke and teach all four competitive strokes – including the breaststroke. In Swim Faster, we focus on refining strokes to gain speed in a swim-team-like setting.
The breaststroke has several unique features that come into play when swimming for speed. Unlike the other strokes, the recovery – the phase when the arms move forward – happens underwater. Arms and legs move laterally. And timing is absolutely crucial to an effective stroke.
The breaststroke is a face-forward stroke in which both arms and legs move in a circular motion. The arms push forward, then simultaneously scoop to the sides, and recover with both hands coming together under the chest and up to the mouth before repeating. Legs are drawn forward, bending the knees, then extended to the sides before snapping together.
Moving Water Efficiently
The key to swimming the breaststroke efficiently lies in both form and timing. The goal is to move the largest amount of water with your hands and feet while expending the least amount of energy. Once you have achieved maximum efficiency through form, you can add speed to your stroke to go faster.
To maximize efficiency in the breaststroke, swimmers are coached on five elements that are common across all strokes:
Propulsive Hands and Feet
To catch as much water as possible, focus on stretching as far out as possible, with hands streamlined when punching forward to minimize resistance. When bringing the arms back, the hands catch water like paddles. For the kick, legs need to be opened widely, then snapped together quickly, pushing water back and propelling the swimmer forward.
Recovery
When bringing the hands together in the recovery, the goal is to keep them close to the body and minimize drag. This is happening underwater, and an inefficient recovery can essentially push you backward.
Streamlining
When punching the arms forward, keep them as streamlined as possible. At the end of the kick, the legs should also be streamlined, held in line with the body, and the toes pointed.
Timing
Many people try to synchronize their arms and legs so that streamlining occurs at the same time, but this is not ideal timing. The goal is to have the forward arm motion finish just before snapping the legs together. That snap will lift the body just as the arms come back, carrying the swimmer to the surface, reducing drag (since more of the body is out of the water) and providing an opportunity to breathe.
Breathing
As a face-forward stroke, swimmers can snatch a breath when their faces come out of the water with each stroke. Breathing in before re-submerging also creates power – the buoyancy of the air-filled lungs helps push the swimmer back to the surface as part of the next stroke.
The Swim Faster Levels
Is Swim Faster right for your student? Since this program (level Big 6 in our Swim Path) assumes students have mastered the four competitive strokes and are familiar with turns, finishes, and swimming longer distances, we recommend a Preview Lesson to assess skills unless you are joining from another FOSS program.
The Swim Faster Levels
Is Swim Faster right for your student? Since this program (level Big 6 in our Swim Path) assumes students have mastered the four competitive strokes and are familiar with turns, finishes, and swimming longer distances, we recommend a Preview Lesson to assess skills unless you are joining from another FOSS program.
Achieving the Breaststroke Milestone in the Swim Faster Program
Over the course of a quarter, Swim Faster swimmers will work on these improvements to swim a personal best time, and will pass the milestone once they surpass the target time set for the breaststroke.
After that, swimmers can work on other stroke milestones, or sometimes return for another quarter of Swim Faster to improve speed even more. It’s all about what swimmers want to achieve, and represents the ultimate culmination of their Swim Path journey with FOSS!
