Swimming breaststroke beautifully

Swimming breaststroke is Katie’s passion. Katie is a current Great Britain International breaststroke swimmer who also provides adult swimming lessons in Manchester with Turner Swim. Watch our video of Katie swimming breaststroke beautifully and read her first of three breaststroke blogs:

“Breaststroke is widely used throughout the swimming world, whether you’re a child learning to swim with frog legs or an adult swimming ‘head up’ breaststroke. This blog explains all from face in the water breaststroke, why it is important to use the correct ‘glide phase’ and tips on how to move faster through the water.

The key to swimming Breaststroke faster is all about being efficient! The less resistance that the body can create in the water the faster you will swim!

Why do we swim with our face in the water?

A lot of people ask “why do we have to swim with our face in the water on breaststroke?” There are a few reasons for doing this:

It keeps the body and spine in line from fingertips to toe.
It’s efficient – there is less resistance against the body, you are streamline from fingertips to toes.
It’s faster – as there is less resistance against the body it allows you to move through the water faster.

Why do we have a ‘glide phase’ in Breaststroke?

The glide phase is the key part to breaststroke; this is the only place we pause in the stroke. Many people ask why we have this ‘pause’, and question whether you actually swim faster with this.

Effectively if the glide phase is in a tight streamline position from fingertips to toes (like the picture below) you’ll travel at your fastest speed.

Katie gliding while swimming breaststroke

With less resistance on the body, for example, elbows are locked out rather than relaxed, feet are together with toes pointed. All these details are key in the glide phase. Breaststroke is all about the little details that help the stroke perform at its best.

Ensuring that we finish our leg kick before we start our next stroke cycle, we have a two second glide. This allows us to continue travelling through the water. If we begin our arm pull before our leg kick has finished, this creates more resistance against the body that slows us down.”

Adult Swimming Lesson in Manchester with Katie

Adult swimming lessons are available in Manchester with Katie’s favourite Turner Swim programme being our Olympic Breaststroke course. Learn how to have your face in the water while you swim, how to do a correct arm stroke and a dynamic breaststroke kick and glide. Click here to read more about our Olympic Breaststroke programme.

Keen to learn more about breaststroke and receive swimming coaching from Katie?
Join Katie for one-to-one adult swimming lessons near Manchester at Worsley Park Marriott Hotel and Country Club. Check out Katie’s availability and book swimming lessons online by clicking here.