Breaststroke swimming technique. Part 3. The glide

We went over how to pull and kick in breaststroke. However, you could learn how to do both perfectly and you would still be missing a big part of what makes the good breaststrokers fast!

The glide

Depending on the distance they are swimming, olympic breaststrokers can spend around half a second per stroke gliding! In a two hundred meter race, they spend around thirty seconds gliding! Needless to say it is essential to learn this skill. There are three aspects to the perfect glide.

Position.
To get in the right position to glide you need to pay attention to the head and the hips. The head goes down when the arms go forward. It even goes a little bit passed the parallel line of the body to compensate and help move the hips up. The hips go up a little with the help of the kick and the core muscles.

Core.
It is essential to have enough core strength in breaststroke to be able to move your body from the pulling / kicking position to a perfect gliding position and back again. These muscles will give you the force and the stabilization necessary for a good stroke technique.

Tempo.
The final question to talk about remains: how long should the glide be kept before starting to pull again? Well, I am afraid there is no straightforward answer to this, because there are many things to consider like:
1- The distance being swam.
2- The strength of the swimmer.
3- The height of the swimmer
Many swimmers even change their tempo considerably within the same event. A faster tempo can feel like you are going faster, but sometimes that is not the case. If you are pulling and kicking correctly with a lot of strength, then it is convenient to glide a little longer. If you are getting tired and your pull and kick weakens maybe it is a good idea to shorten the glide and increase your tempo.

We will talk about different racing strategies and good practices on future videos.
Leave a comment to let us know what skill you would like to learn and what event you would like to swim faster! Let’s make this channel the go to community for swimming improvement!

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[levanter]

These videos are so helpful for me because I am a competitive swimmer during swim meets.

[HuongNguyen-sttb]

Thank you very much! Your video is very very very useful and helpful for me. I would like to swim very much.

[cosmostree]

정말 주옥같은 수영 강의입니다! 항상 감사하게 잘 보고 있어요 From South Korea

[everythingismiracle.]

So good. Thank you for your excellent video!

[andersonboy]

I have been seeing a quite big amount of swimming videos for years and I have to congratulate you with this breastroke videos, they are very usefull!! Thank you!

I would like to learn about strategy of the tempo in the breastorke race and how it varies in different distances.

[jeanydaroy]

Ya, e

im not a good swimmer but i enjoy my self to learn, so i continue to do it,

[AmyMirandaBeauty]

Great video, thank you. Please keep showing videos and explaining the gliding a bit more more. I think for me this is the hardest part.. i have been practicing now for 8 months and the gliding is better with me as I approach the border of the pool.

[nancyenjay]

These three breaststroke videos are awesome, thank you so much. The timing is such a struggle for me. I guess it's about PRACTICE!! Thanks again, anything more in depth on timing would be great. Look forward to future videos :)

[choiriyahumami]

thanks for sharing, its very good video!

[antonioqueiroz]

very helpful, even if your just swimming just for exercising or crossing a river. Thank you

[ianostasnadi]

very good video, learned allot from here, well done

[Jenesis]

Breaststroke was the only one I had learned after several failed swim lessons. I just swam this style with my head above water. When I got into the pool after 15 years from my last lesson, I had only minor issues with breaststroke. As soon as I got arm pulling right, fine tuned kicking, and be mindful of gliding, breaststroke became really easy soon as my core got strong from daily swim. Timing somehow seemed natural to me. I never had to consciously consider to time my arms and legs right. Freestyle on the other hand was not natural for me at all.

[SkillsNT]

What is a skills you would like to learn?
What is the main swimming event you would like to get faster in?

[DjLink]

Excelente video, les agradezco por todos los consejos a lo largo de todos los tutoriales, una pregunta acerca del video cuantas brazadas aconsejan realizar en pruebas de distancia corta 50 m ? y en distancia larga 100 m ? en piscina corta (25 m), muchas gracias

[emilianoaguila]

Si un nadador es considerablemente mas bajo que los otros nadadores, que tempo recomendarías usar uno largo o corto? Gracias muy buenos videos :)

[antonynjenga]

Good information ..how do u make sure u feet are always in the water when you are kicking?

[kiebr]

I have difficulty in harmonising the head, the pull and the leg. thats I never get too far at this style..

[durvamahale]

Hello could you please make a video giving tips and a good strategy for 100 m breaststroke

[AdnanKhurshidTI]

Hi there, i'd like to understand which leg and shoulder muscles to concentrate upon to improve breast stroke. One of the event i'm targeting is 200 IM (and work towards 400 IM over a 2 year time frame)

[change]

What is the head position in breast stroke..under the water and above the water?