How to Learn Breaststroke: Why We Teach the Kick First

Of all the swimming strokes, breaststroke often looks the easiest to a beginner. The head comes up, you can see where you're going, the movements seem relaxed. It's the stroke many people default to for leisurely swimming. Yet, in the world of professional coaching, we know a secret: breaststroke is the most technically complex and counter-intuitive stroke to master.

Many learn to swim programs make a fundamental mistake. They rush to teach the most visible parts first—the arm pull and the breath. The result? What we call a "survival breaststroke": a vertical, inefficient, and splashy struggle where the swimmer is constantly fighting to keep their head above water.

At Dreamers, we have a radically different and more effective approach. We teach breaststroke "backwards." We deliberately delay the arm pull and breath, and instead, we obsess over two foundational elements that are far more important. This is our "foundation-first" philosophy in action, and it's the secret to building a truly powerful and graceful breaststroke.

The Problem: The "Survival Breaststroke"

When a learner's first goal is to get their head up to breathe, they instinctively use their arms to push the water down. This action forces their hips and legs to sink, creating a vertical body position with massive drag. Because their body is now fighting against the water, they are forced to take another breath immediately. They get trapped in a tiring, inefficient cycle with no forward momentum.

This is not swimming; it's a form of controlled drowning. And it is the direct result of teaching the parts of the stroke in the wrong order.

The Kick and the Glide Are Everything

A great breaststroke is a stroke of power and patience. The power comes from the kick, and the patience comes from the glide. These two elements are the engine and the chassis of the stroke, and they must be mastered before anything else.

1. Building the Engine: Mastering the Breaststroke Kick The breaststroke kick is the most powerful kick in all of swimming, but it is also a highly technical and unnatural movement for the human body. As we've discussed on our other pages, teaching this knee-dominant movement too early or incorrectly can put significant strain on a child's developing joints.

This is why we dedicate so much time to it in isolation. A swimmer must first learn to generate power from their hips, not just their knees. They must develop the ankle flexibility to "catch" the water with their feet. We use a series of specific, purposeful drills, with and without a kickboard, to build a powerful and, most importantly, safe breaststroke kick. This powerful kick is what will eventually lift the hips and propel the body forward.

2. Finding the Patience: Mastering the Glide After a powerful kick, there should be a moment of stillness—a streamlined glide where the body shoots through the water like a torpedo. This is where the efficiency of the stroke comes from. However, this requires a swimmer to be completely comfortable with their face in the water and to have a profound sense of balance and buoyancy.

We dedicate lessons to this specific skill. We teach a swimmer to feel the momentum from their kick and to be patient, holding a tight streamline until that momentum begins to fade. Rushing the next arm pull is one of the biggest mistakes in breaststroke; mastering the glide is the cure.

The Final Step: Adding the Pull and the Breath

This is the "paradox." Once a swimmer has a powerful kick and a patient glide, the arm pull and breath become remarkably simple. They are no longer a desperate action for survival; they are a calm, rhythmic part of the stroke.

Here's what happens:

1. The swimmer starts in a glide.

2. They perform a small, efficient arm pull.

3. The momentum from the previous kick and the small pull is what naturally lifts their head and shoulders out of the water for a calm, forward-looking breath. They are not forcing their head up; the stroke is lifting it for them.

4. As they take their breath, their legs are getting ready for the next powerful kick, which drives them back into the glide.

By teaching the foundation first, the rest of the stroke falls into place naturally and correctly. It’s a patient, intelligent, and science-backed approach that builds a beautiful, powerful, and efficient breaststroke that will last a lifetime.