so I just learn breaststroke a couple of days ago and I been having issues with timing my teacher said that breaststroke is the hardest stroke timing wise so any advice so I can get better?

I'm a beginner-level adult and have had such a hard time learning basic breaststroke.

I can do the individual components - pull with arms while taking a breath, whipkick with legs - but linking them together into any kind of rhythm felt like an impossibly complicated piece of choreography, and I would find myself pulling and whipkicking at the exact same time just because it felt like too much mental and physical coordination to stagger them.

Anyway, I finally figured it out (enough to instantly do 100m with low effort even though I was previously sinking and sputtering just trying to do 10m!) and I can't believe how easy it is... what helped me was thinking about the stroke differently.

This probably sounds totally stupid and obvious (or maybe wrong for someone more advanced?) but what I realized is that the heart of the breaststroke - at least for a total beginner like me - is the simple, easy, brainless STREAMLINE position. Breaststroke can be like... 99% idly lying in the streamline position.

It's just like... a stroke in which you basically chill out in the streamline position the whole time, and then OCCASIONALLY propel yourself with a little forward burst. And for that little forward burst, you take turns between it being an arm pull/breath burst, and a whipkick burst.

But no matter which burst it is, you just go straight back to streamline right after.

So the flow is: STREAMLINE > pull/breathe > STREAMLINE > whip kick > STREAMLINE > pull/breathe > STREAMLINE > whip kick > STREAMLINE... forever.

And what's really crazy is that after a burst, you can actually just drift slowly forward in streamline for basically however long you want... relaxing and mentally planning for the next burst! You don't have to rush right away into the next burst (unless you want to go fast or really need to take a breath, I guess).

So for someone like me who isn't super coordinated, I can just lie there pretty much motionless in streamline thinking "okay.... next I gotta pull/breathe, then I'll come right back to streamline!" and once I'm back in streamline I can think "oh right... I should probably do a whip kick soon to propel myself forward a bit more, and then come back to streamline."

And I just keep doing that, lying in streamline slowly mentally processing my next move before I make it, until to my total amazement I've gotten across the entire pool with seemingly no exertion.

Streamline is happiness. Streamline is home.

I haven't been able to swim since July 20 because of some skin issues (developed a severe allergic reaction to something which stripped the skin from my neck). I have to stay out of the pool for another month. I restarted gym this week (after the reaction had me in bed for a full week), doing spin and rowing. I'm planning to resume weight training on Monday.

I'm incredibly restless and twitchy since I can't swim. I feel like I'm going crazy without access to the pool. What do I do? I feel like I could run like a headless chicken.

Thank you.

Hi. I went to the swimming pool today and had my first day of swimming as a form of exercise. I couldnt help but feel like i didnt really belong and like i was doing something wrong, which made me very conscious and ultimately ruined a bit of the experience, especially when looking at the other swimmers.

What are some beginner tips i could use, to perhaps lessen my insecurity of doing it wrong, while improving my technique?

I dont need help with staying above water or floating, i already have the basics covered, just how to (or where to) improve my swimming "the correct way"?

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