Most swimmers can recite breaststroke timing before they can swim it. Pull, breathe, kick, glide. Then you watch the same swimmer and the four parts arrive in a heap, hands and knees moving at once, the body never travelling in a straight line.
Breaststroke is the third leg of the 200 individual medley, the event I swam at two Olympic Games for Brazil and won at the 2015 Pan American Games in Toronto in 1:57.06. It is the leg where technique shows up faster than fitness, and almost all of it is timing.
What is the right breaststroke timing: pull, breathe, kick, glide?
The four parts happen one at a time, and the kick lands while your upper body is already long and quiet. The US Masters Swimming breaststroke timing guide puts the pull "while your legs are in streamlined position right after your kick," and the kick "right after you recover your arms and right before your pull."
While the legs work, the front end does nothing: "While you're kicking, you want to be as streamlined as possible with your upper body." Bring the heels up so that "the instant your arms get back into streamlined position, you're in the perfect position to kick hard."
Kicking early is the expensive fault. "Many swimmers start to bring their legs forward during their pull," the guide says, which "is like trying to stop and go at the same time."
Does the kick start after the pull or during it?
Here the coaching guidance stops agreeing, so know that before you pick a cue. The timing guide keeps arms and legs apart and warns that "If your timing is too aggressive, you'll start overlapping your arms and legs, which is like putting on the brakes."
The same organization's article on three myths about breaststroke argues the other way. It calls pull then kick "a simplified version of this sequence," and says "A more accurate description is that there's a slight overlap between your pull and your kick," with a number attached: "somewhere between half to two-thirds of the way through the pull, your legs should begin the kick."
A third article, on the modern breaststroke, names three options and prefers one. "Overlap timing is used by most fast breaststrokers to reduce the period of slowing down," which it describes as "done by sweeping the arms for the out scull while the legs are coming together."
Read that carefully, because its overlap sits at the other end of the cycle: arms starting while the legs finish, not legs starting during the pull. The guidance is vague about where the kick begins, and those three pages do not line up. A 2013 study of 23 young swimmers found that "The Glide or Overlap index was significantly related to the swimming speed V50surface breast 0.48, p < 0.05," which says the coordination matters without saying what to copy.
My position on the deck: if your stroke still bobs, separate the parts and earn the overlap later. If it already travels, start the hands a touch earlier at sprint speed and check the clock.
Why does a fast turnover make you slower?
Because every extra cycle buys two more recoveries, and recoveries are expensive: "Recoveries create a lot of drag because your limbs are moving forward underwater." The myths article adds that "High turnover can increase drag, reduce propulsion, and lead to quicker fatigue," and that too fast a turnover ends with "pulling against your kick and swimming uphill."
It will not let you overcorrect either, since "While gliding is beneficial, over-gliding can disrupt the rhythm and rapidly reduce your speed." Fast limbs, patient body, a rhythm rather than a speed: "your kick should have periods of very fast movement followed by periods of relaxed patience."
Why does pulling harder break the timing?
Because most of what a hard pull buys you is resistance. "In breaststroke, efficiency is more critical than raw power," the myths article says, and "Pulling too hard can lead to increased frontal drag." The mechanism: "The harder the pull, the more the body might break out of the streamline, causing greater resistance." If the pull also travels too far back, that is a separate fault, covered in how to swim breaststroke.
How should the timing change between a 50 and a 200?
It has to change, which is why timing is harder than it reads. "Great timing is difficult to perfect because it changes based upon how fast and how long you're swimming," the guide says, and both substitutions fail: a 50 on 200 timing means "you're not going to swim as fast as you otherwise could," and a 200 on 50 timing that "you're going to get very tired very fast."
So slow swimming gets room, because "When you swim slowly, you can be more patient between pulls and kicks," and fast swimming closes it: "Begin your pull as soon as you complete your kick."
Where does the breath fit in the sequence?
It rides the pull and clears out before the kick. The guide sets the kick up for "once your arms and head (after you take your breath) have recovered," so a head still up is a kick you cannot take yet. The myths article gives the return: "Immediately return your head to the water, eyes looking straight down." Crank the neck instead of letting the stroke lift you and you pay twice, in speed and in the lower back, the link I wrote about in how to avoid lower back pain in breaststroke.
How does SwimRead read this part of your swimming?
It does not read breaststroke, and you should know that before you film anything. The SwimRead home page states that "Backstroke, breaststroke, butterfly, underwater footage, starts, and turns are not supported analysis modes in this beta," and that "The current beta supports freestyle filmed from the side of the pool."
What it does do is read freestyle from a short clip. The page asks you to "Aim for 10 seconds of continuous freestyle," filmed "in landscape from the side, with the whole body visible, a stable camera, standard lens, and normal playback speed." From that, "On-device pose detection estimates up to 33 body landmarks in sampled video frames." It stops short of a verdict, since "These estimates are not validated technique grades."
On breaststroke you are the analyst: phone on the deck, film from the side, and watch whether the knees come forward while the hands are still pulling back.
What should you drill this week?
Start with the add-a-kick drill from the US Masters Swimming breaststroke timing drill. It forces the kick to arrive after the pull, not inside it.
- Add a kick. Push off "face-down in a streamline position," then, "With your arms extended above your head, take a quick breaststroke kick." Then "take a fast pull followed immediately by a quick kick," then "glide until you feel yourself slowing down."
- Quick ends, patient middle. From the same page: "Shoot for quick hands and feet every time you move," and on the glide, "you should aim to hold it a little longer than might feel comfortable."
- Count, then film. Four lengths easy and four at race effort with stroke counts, then one length filmed from the side.
Pair those counts with my free swim pace calculator to see whether fewer strokes came out faster and not just calmer. If the timing falls apart off the wall instead of mid-length, the breaststroke pullout is the piece to fix first.
SwimRead is free while in beta, and paid plans will come later with beta testers told before anything changes. For a reading of your freestyle, join the beta and leave your email.