In the individual medley races, there are a lot of transitions between strokes: fly to back, back to breast, breast to free where each swimmer could either gain or lose time on the opponents. Usually, the most complex turn is the one from backstroke to breaststroke. In the history of swimming,...

Do you swim breaststroke every time you have a swim workout? If you do, perhaps it is time to start learning other strokes and give your knees a bit of a rest. I know quite a few competitive breaststroke swimmers who did not train properly during their younger years and now suffer from knee...

Being a beginner swimmer is definitely not easy. Where do I start? How do I do it? It seems much harder than it looks. How come? These are just a few questions I get asked all the time. As I discussed on many occasions, swimming is not as simple sport as it may seem. Sure, what is there...

Swim breaststroke like an inchworm?  Yes, however, not in the sense of up and down movement, think more in terms of the horizontal plane:).  Breaststroke is probably the easiest stroke to swim, however, the toughest along with butterfly to learn to swim correctly.  If you look around your lo...

After a short break, I am back with some highlights from the Swimator Blog archives for 2011. What swimming tips did you find the most interesting in 2011? That is the question. Below is a short list of the top 10 Swimator Blog swimming tips: 1) As traditionally, our novice and beginner swi...

Knock knock. Who is there? Head hovering right above the water, perhaps even with regular rimmed glasses on and dry hair, arms slowly pushing the water to the sides with a rhythmic, lazy, and very wide breaststroke-like kick in a weird angle to the bottom of the pool. I am sure you know who...

I've been swimming and coaching for many years and one thing that I see the most room for improvement, even in competitive swimmers, is the butterfly and breaststroke turn. Let me give you a few tips and tricks on how to improve and speed up your butterfly or breaststroke turn. 1) Do not be...

Swimming, as we have always been told, is called the ultimate, all-around exercise activity. It is said that swimming works all of the body's major muscle groups, has little impact on your joints and can burn as many calories as going for a run. I do not need to talk about the fact that...

Many of you have asked me to give some breaststroke workout advice in your comments, so here it is. Below you will find a few tips for your breaststroke 50s and 100s and I am sure it could come handy for longer events as well. First, keep in mind that breaststroke is a combination of leg power...

If you have ever wondered how you can combine butterfly and breaststroke, here is your answer :). In fact, this is an old school stroke that used to be popular a long time ago and is still used by some older masters swimmers. I would not recommend anyone using this in a competition, however...

Now that you have been instructed on how to use the arms in breaststroke, we can get on with explaining the leg movements. Don't get discouraged here as it is one of the hardest parts of swimming to teach. When I was little I was always told: "kick like a frog, kick like a frog". Hmm, it...

It has been another long period of not posting, so I will try to redeem myself. :). This post will focus on how to use your arms in breaststroke. There are also a couple of videos that will demonstrate some of the info I am about to give you. If you are more interested in how to use breast...