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Expert
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| I was chatting with two people at work today about my lack of swimming skills and both suggested doing the breaststroke instead of freestyle. The suggested it would be an easier stroke to learn, better way to breath and sight too. One happened to be a swimming instructor too. Since I am inexperienced when it comes to swimming, my only reply was, "if the breaststoke is so much better, why does everyone freestyle?"
Which do you think better for a tri race and why? |
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Pro
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Location: Chicago, IL
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| Free without a doubt...Breast stroke will burn your legs up and its much slowly. |
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Champion
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Location: Dallas, TX
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 Bronze member | Free.
Honestly, unless you can do an proper breaststroke... it won't be efficient. And, if you are going to learn a stroke... learning the front crawl... that will get you a lot further.
Dream big... what if you want to do a HIM or IM some day? You can't do that with breaststroke.
Good luck! |
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molto veloce mama
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Location: minnesota
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| if you're not aiming for speed, it might be a good option to help w/ your breathing problems. my mom alternates between the two, and from my own experience w/ races, i think MANY people do that - alternate. of course, i also complain about getting kicked by the breast strokers. make sure you've got the space to switch before you do. side stroke is also something worth looking into. also slow, but you'd be a big more streamlined amid the other swimmers. the one time i got kicked in the face during the swim, i switched to side stroke for a while to get my bearings and assess the damage...so its a good thing to know for that reason as well. |
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Champion
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 Gold member | Walking is easier. Think I'll do that in my next tri...  Sorry for the smart red bike response, but IMHO breast stroke if done correctly is not easier than freestyle. The breast stroke that you and I do, as opposed to breast strokers, isn't really breast stroke, it's more rest stroke, as it allows you to regain your bearings, get your breath back, etc. Reason #1. It's faster. |
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Extreme Veteran
Posts: 483
Location: Louisville, KY
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 Silver member | Take the time to learn freestyle properly. Breaststroke will help if you merely need to get some yardage in, but in the long term its not going to serve you well. Mainly because you wont have room to do that in a packed open water swim. |
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Extreme Veteran
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Location: Charlotte,NC
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Bronze member | Breast stroke is the slowest of all 4 strokes.
It will also tire your legs,groin and hip muscles.
Saying that if your aim is just to finish(like most of the people here) a sprint or a super sprint triathlon you can get by with any kind of stroke.
I even saw some people side stroking in a pool triathlon but with the generous time limits(to attract more $$$$) anybody can finish a sprint distance race even with little training.
Edited by doubleplay 2007-03-22 12:36 PM
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Pro
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Location: Central Illinois
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Bronze member | Freestyle means any stroke you want to swim. Front crawl is more efficient (distance per energy expended) but it does require something of a moderate-to-high effort to perform whereas breastroke can be done at very low effort. Think of it this way. You can expend 100 KJ and swim 1000 meters front crawl or 800 meters breastroke in 20 minutes (5 kJ/min). You could do breastroke at 1 KJ/min (obviously much slower), but it may be hard to do front crawl at 1 KJ/min. (These numbers are for illustration, I don't know how many KJ would really be expended with either stroke.) For triathlons, you also want to save your leg muscles for the bike and run. |
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Location: Kansas
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Silver member | Breaststroke is good for sighting, so for me it's good to practice it a bit. I'm actually fairly fast with breaststroke, so I incorporate it into my training. I end up doing about 2/3 freestyle and 1/3 breaststroke in my races. I've even done backstroke (which was my 2nd best stroke when competitively swimming)... it's all in what you are comfortable with.
And like Autumn said, if you're gonna breaststroke, be sure you have some room around ya.
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Champion
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Location: Butler
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Silver member | I agree with everone else. Learn the front crawl, it is faster. |
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Member
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Location: Aumsville, OR
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| MikeP you need to stick with freestyle and practice, practice, practice. Have your coworker help you out with the details. When you become a more efficient you will be glad you learned. And just a tip on the side, use earplugs if water in your ears bothers you. It will let you consentrate on your stroke. |
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Master
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Location: New York
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| Breast stroke is a more comfortable feeling stroke at slower speeds, and imho is easier (RPE wise) to maintain as a new swimmer than freestyle may be. That being said, freestyle (or crawl) is the most enegy efficient stroke, i.e. the same amount of energy expenditue will produce more distance from crawl than any other stroke. |
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Champion
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Location: Lake Zurich, IL
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| I did the "breast stroke" for alot of my first triathlon and sure enough I was out of the water completely exhausted in 56 mins. like 4 or 5 weeks later after training the front crawl I was out of the water in 36 minutes and I still had energy for the rest of my triathlon.
Moral of the story is learn what is faster and more effeiecent. it may take time but your better off in the future.
Edited by chirunner134 2007-03-22 1:27 PM
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Pro
Posts: 4495
Location: Puyallup, WA
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Bronze member | For racing -- freestyle.
For survival -- breast stroke. |
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Master
Posts: 1644
Location: South Florida
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| Absolutely freestyle...I use the breast stroke for a quick 15 seconds of sighting and active recovery during a race, but what they all said above! |
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Elite
Posts: 3522
Location: New Berlin, WI
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Silver member | No love for the sidestroke? Cmon peeps, it got me through my HIM!!  (Um, but I am getting better at free and it is faster) |
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Expert
Posts: 945
Location: Rochester, NY
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Bronze member | When you're in shape, freestyle is far more efficient. If you're just beginning, you may benefit from the easier breathing provided by breast stroke or side stroke or whatever. My first year of tris, on almost every swim, I'd use all the strokes. Just trying to keep my HR down. By my second year of tris, I was all freestyle and much, much, much faster. |
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Veteran
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Location: San Jose, CA
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| briderdt - 2007-03-22 12:34 PM
For racing -- freestyle.
For survival -- breast stroke.
I think this sums it up, with the important caveat that to a beginning swimmer, survival may be a great accomplishment. When I started swimming, I was actually faster at "breaststroke" than free, and it took about 1/4 as much energy, so i did that. Now I'm working on my free endurance, and it's getting better (it is now faster than breast), but I'm happy to know that I have a stroke that can carry me the whole distance when needed. |
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Expert
Posts: 943
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| When going under a wave while swimming out when in the ocean: breaststroke At all other race/open water swims- freestyle is by far the way to go. I don't remember where I read it, but breaststroke (at least done correctly) is actually the most taxing on you in terms of energy required or something (I really don't remember the details but basically it was something to the effect of for the same distance, swimming it breaststroke is just going to require more calories- surprisingly not butterfly which most consider the hardest to do strength-wise). Do some breaststroke in at least some of your workouts (there are some benefits of not just swimming freestyle in workouts) and it can always be a backup/rest stroke during a race. But if your going to stick with this sport, you need to comfortable with freestyle. You can also basically swim a little of your workout (like a 100) with your head out of the water the whole time (basically doggy paddle). That's really the way to sight during a race if you can't see enough breathing on your side.
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freestyle vs breaststroke which is better?
