In breaststroke timing, you want to be able to coordinate the pull, the breath, and the kick to have an effective and smooth stroke. Doing each part of the breaststroke may seem simple, but it’s a new challenge when coordinating all the components together.
Starting in a front layout position, you want to exhale water first, then initiate the pull with your arms and come up to take a breath. Begin the whip kick before lowering your head and extend the arms forward into a glide back into a front layout position upon initiation of the kick.
A great way to practice this skill is to extend the glide period to complete a full stroke before moving on to the next. You want to take your time when learning the coordination, and as you get more comfortable with the stroke, you can cut the glide shorter.
Check out the previous tip in this series Breaststroke Kick
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By Colyn Ma
Colyn is one of the Aquatic Programmers at MacEwan University Sport and Wellness. He has been with us for over six years and has over 10 years of competitive swimming and coaching experience.
