Breaststrokes anyone? (Page 3)

Slacker.    (You would have whipped my arse.  I never cracked a minute in Fly.)

Yeah, fly is hard to swim fast for any kind of distance.

This sounds like Chicago Tri. It's Lake Michigan water, but in a mostly protected harbor. Seawall/breakwater should keep at least most of the bigger waves down, but some might get through the boat access opening. Water temperature could be all over the place. Might warm some if there isn't as much exchange or it could turn over and be cold. Be ready for anything there.

Also, if it is Chicago Tri, there will seemingly be ~100,000 waves going off. You will overtake some people. You will be overtaken by people. Outside best you can is likely to be most appreciated by everyone. If I'm reading things right, it's mostly straight with a left at the end to get out.

Took a look at some things and am curious what the lessons were? Some looking at what's been done as some things didn't sit right. The race results show a swim placing of 17/19 age group and 259/327. Not really sure what "other styles" meant, but it's how you're doing relative to everyone that matters. And with the amount of swim training, it seems to be mostly 7-14 minutes at a time for 300-500 yds. That may be all that can be fit in, but it's also mostly a warm-up even for a beginner. That's why it's hard to get anywhere. Also seeing 3 swims a week, were there more not recorded? Again, that might be all that can be done, but is different from "every day". When that's said by these guys from swim teams or clubs that was a rather literal term. 6-7 days a week and often being two sessions a day. Granted, that would be way more than what's necessary for your goals, but should also adjust perception of the term.

It seems like the breaststroking may be coming from natural ability, so would see less reason not to try starting to advance on front crawl more. Going back to the lessons, were those from a masters coach or swim team coach? Who gives the lessons can make substantial difference. Fully realize that this all may come across as harsh, but it's really intended to take an honest look at things. See what's going on and if perceptions are matching up with what's actually happening. That is where tracking things can be very valuable as everyone can have some mental drifting happen at times. Especially those who haven't done it as much.

IMO it might be the most technical stroke.  While what you see might look right there are more places to have flaws.  Putting all the pieces of reach, pull, recovery together with the kick are a little different then swimming free.  The kick has a recovery aspect to it that is different from free in that it's not a constant (probably wrong word to describe it) motion like the kick in free.  Same with the recovery in the arm stroke.  You mentioned your kids take lessons.  If they are on a swim team at their next meet pay attention to the kids who specialize in breaststroke and I think you will notice the difference. 

Triathlon swimming aside, and maybe to Shane's point, the competitive swimmers that I get to spend time around all say that the breaststroke is the hardest to get competitive in.  There are stroke issues, kick issues, and most importantly, timing issues, that take years to get good at.  For some of them, the kick is REALLY hard to master.....it's not like the kick in any other stroke. 

Breaststroke for triathlon and breaststroke for competitive swimming really can't even be talked about in the same discussion.  They are COMPLETELY different animals.

When swimming breaststroke as a 'recovery'  or endurance stroke it requires less intensity and certainly can help with breathing and sighting issues.  Those things can make it seem 'easier'.   The downside is that the in-water arm recovery creates more drag resistance and the slower pace means you're in the water longer, both requiring you to burn more overall energy.  

If a swimmer really has problems swimming a crawl stroke, I'd suggest trying conventional sidestroke, or a combat sidestroke, which is low-intensity but still allows reasonable forward progress and eliminates the whip kick issue..  FWIW, that's what were trained to use during our mile swim test in Navy flight school versus the breaststroke.

Mark

^^^  Hard truth

combat sidestroke, which is low-intensity but still allows reasonable forward progress

There's been a group of Navy guys training at the pool I use for the last few months.  I was kind of shocked how fast some of them could combat swim or sidestroke, which ever it's called.  Never saw or heard of it before.  Like most things it comes down to training as I started seeing them regularily.  But on the day they were tested a couple of them were moving along pretty good.