10 things about breaststroke

Courtesy of Lindsey Fano

Frog stroke, beast-stroke, best-stroke, breaststroke. It doesn’t matter what you call it, here are 10 things you know to be true if you’re a breaststroker:

1. Your thighs will never fit into a pair of skinny jeans.

A leg-driven stroke means strong, powerful, awesome legs, but the fashion world hasn’t quite caught on yet. Leggings and sweatpants are your best friends.

2. You could definitely do some serious damage if you kicked someone.

There are some perks to having strong legs, one of them being a good self-defense mechanism.

3. Somehow, you understand the concept of swimming slower to swim faster.

In theory, this makes no sense, but ask any breaststroker and they will tell you it’s all about finding the perfect balance of stroke rate and glide. It’s an art form really.

4. When you tell a non-swimmer your stroke, you’re used to the confusion.

And the jokes. It doesn’t even faze you. At this point, you’ve heard them all.

5. Flutter kick is a lost cause.

Seriously, can’t we just always do breaststroke kick?

6. Watching anyone else try and swim breaststroke will always be funny.

There are those who can swim breaststroke and those who most certainly cannot. It’s always entertaining to watch the latter.

7. You appreciate the quietness of an underwater pull-out.

Swim meets are loud. While it’s nice to hear your teammates cheering, there’s something so peaceful about an underwater pull-out and being completely surrounded by the water.

8. You respect the fact that everyone swims breaststroke a little differently.

Some strokes look more like butterfly, some people have a crazy long glide; it’s all about what works for you. It’s cool though that there are so many different variations of the same stroke.

9. Anything your coach says about not breathing into the finish doesn’t apply to you.

Sorry coach, but we will breathe every stroke going into the wall.

10. There are some days when you wish you swam any other stroke but in the end you’re a breaststroker at heart.

Sure, some sets you would give anything to do freestyle, you watch the backstrokers with envy, and even butterfly doesn’t look terrible but you know that no matter what you’re a breaststroker and that’s something to be proud of.