Yeah, I was thinking of amateurs, there, not competitions-- The sort of folks for whom the goal is “finish the course”, not necessarily speed. Like, whenever my Boy Scout troop had a mile swim, most used a breaststroke. Though if you prefer, substitute in a competitive event that’s long enough to be an endurance feat even for a competitive swimmer.
As a former competitive swimmer, who specialized in breaststroke, I can tell you that ‘proper’ competitive breaststroke is completely different from an effort standpoint than the ‘lazy’ breaststroke that people use when they are tired. Breaststroke done for speed is exhausting (whether for distance or a sprint).
Most people when they do a ‘lazy breaststroke,’ which can be easy, do a nice frog kick (which is basically the same as you would do competitively, though probably with less attention to form for maximum thrust). However, with the arms, they usually leave out at least half the stroke…they pull back and then basically stop the stroke and move their arms back to the front.
In a proper breaststroke for speed, the pull comes out and then down, but there’s also a forceful thrust as you bring your arms together. With the angle of the forearms, this thrust gives another push forward, and then the arms are brought back to the front together (quite aerodynamically). This requires a fair bit of effort, but adds a nice punch of speed. Coordinating it together can be rather quick (though still the slowest of the four strokes for anyone equally competent), and would not be the form one would use for long distance swimming due to the inefficiency compared to the crawl and the fact that it isn’t relaxing at all. On the other hand, a lazy breaststroke can be quite efficient in energy usage, but is very slow.
You’ll want to see this -
Edward the Head already posted that video.
oops :smack: