Triathlon - Swimming -- Freestyle vs Breaststroke

Is swimming freestyle really that much faster and/or efficient than swimming the breaststroke? I went to the pool today to swim and realized I didn't have my nose plugs. I have to seal up my nose and ears or things can get ugly for me, so I didn't swim many laps freestyle. Instead I did mostly breaststroke.

I found that I did my normal swim in about the same time if not a few minutes less on the breaststroke because I wasn't stopping from being dead after a few laps like when I freestyle (i've still only been at this a few weeks).

So why is it that the freestyle seems to be the standard instead of the breaststroke? It seems like you'd go just as fast doing one without needing to stop as you would another that was faster but required more pauses.

Yeah, freestyle is much faster. I regularly pass breaststrokers in the tris I have done, and I am a slow swimmer.

Once you get into swimming, you won't need to stop while freestyling. Swimming is mostly technique, but you do need to build some endurance.

Please work on getting better at freestyle. Not only will you be faster, you won't kick a bunch of people swimming near you.

Please work on getting better at freestyle. Not only will you be faster, you won't kick a bunch of people swimming near you.

Yeah, that is actually a serious problem at tris.

I do freestyle about twice the speed of breaststroke. If you need noseplugs, you need some coaching on technique. You breath in through your mouth and breath out constantly through your nose. Noseplugs aren't part of tri swimming.

do me a favor, go look up the olympic freestyle and breastroke times in the same distance and tell me which is faster 10 bucks says it's freestyle

Gold Medal Times:
Men's 200m Breast Stroke - 2:07.64
Men's 200m Freestyle - 1:42:96 (about 20% faster)

Note, there is a 1500m freestyle but no 1500m breast stroke.

You're probably just better at breaststroke than you are at freestyle. Which isn't all that surprising--IMO, the difference between doing a so-so breaststroke and a so-so freestyle is huge. If you learn how to do even a moderately efficient freestyle stroke, you'll find that your times are much better with freestyle.

On the other hand, breaststroke is a great recovery stroke to use during a long swim, and it gives the freestyle muscles a good recovery, while still moving you along at a fairly decent pace. Plus you are probably better at navigating while doing breaststroke, unless you're a very experienced open-water swimmer.

Free is a much more efficient and hence faster stroke. Watch a good breaststoker (get your mind out of the gutter) and see how up and down they go - that's motion and effort not going forward. If your free and breast are close in time, it means you really need help or conditioning or both.
A competent stroke requires no stops, you should be able to maintain a pace; do you stop every mile cycling? Why or why not?
Once you can swim on your own for 15 minutes straight - join a Masters club. www.usms.org (http://www.usms.org)
That's your best bet for improving.

Using breast to recover on a long swim is akin to walking on a long ride to recover. One or two breast strokes to sight every 400 yards or so is the most you should ever do.

If you get kicked by me in a race, it's 'cuz I meant it; quit drafting on my ass.

Thanks, all. That's sorta what I figured, but I wanted other people's opinions.

I'll keep working. I'm sure I could use better technique and conditioning. Like i said, I've only been swimming consistently for about 5 weeks or so (and had to take a two week break while traveling on business). I've seen some improvements in that time but was just surprised at how much further I could go yesterday when I had to just do the breaststroke.

Thanks again.

Please work on getting better at freestyle. Not only will you be faster, you won't kick a bunch of people swimming near you.

oh like the *******s at my last tri that felt the need to BACKSTROKE the whole swim. Wouldn't be so bad if they stayed in the back but they jumped out in front of everyone then bounced around like pinballs off every other swimmer on their way back because they couldn't see a thing.

No, doing the breaststroke isn't like walking your bike. It is more akin to walking occasionally during a marathon, and this is a technique that many are using to improve their marathon times. During a full-distance triathlon, it is *very* common to combine walking with running.

A better analogy for bicycling is getting out of the saddle to climb--while it may be less efficient, it shifts the load to different muscles, and lets the other muscles recover.

Interesting words we use.

Freestyle is just that, any style at all you want to use in a race: breast, back, Australian crawl or AMERICAN CRAWL.

In the late 20's and early 30's an international debate raged as to which was going to be faster at the international meets, the tried and tested breast stroke favored by the Europeans or the so called "American crawl" favored by the Yanks, especially future Tarzan: Johnny Weismueller (Spellig?). It was no contest, American crawl soon dominated the "freestyle" races; so much so that within a generation "freestyle" and American Crawl were synonymous.

TysonB

I started swimming in Feb of this year. I was able to swim 25 - 30 yards without stopping. I hated it. Water in my nose, in my mouth, in my ears... you get the idea.

$50 for an hour with a swim coach and my world changed.

I actually enjoy swimming every now and again, and can swim a full hour (about 3,000 yards) non-stop. Not fast by most standards, but a damn site better than 10 weeks ago.

The proper swim stroke (which I can only approximate) is like a golf swing. You're probably not going to find it by getting in the water and splashing around. Find a coach. Find a coach. Find a coach!

As a competitive swimmer...

Freestyle is MUCH faster than breaststroke. However if you are truly racing breaststroke (I was a breaststroker) it is by no means a rest stroke. The up and down motion in breaststoke isn't really up and down. To truly do breaststroke right, you pull up when you bring your arm/hands out and when you 'shoot' back down you push forward with your whole body, not just going straight back down into the water.

To get better, as everyone has said, find a swimmer or a coach and spend some time with them. If you need any help, I've coached a local team, done swim lessons, and I've been a competitive swimmer for 9 years. I can try and help over the internet, but there isn't too much I can do.

Breaststroke in a wetsuit can be difficult actually. The bouyancy of your body is different, and it can be constricting in the movements.

Breaststroke makes sense if you are looking for a "resting" stroke during the swim, but otherwise freestyle should be much more efficient and faster.