What do you think, Breaststroke is Hard or Easy?
Your breaststroke pull generates roughly 30% of your total speed. That makes it the smaller propulsive force compared to the kick, but poor arm mechanics will drag down the entire stroke. A pull that starts too early, sweeps too wide, or recovers too slowly creates drag where your body should be moving forward.
This article covers the full pull cycle, how to spot problems in your own stroke, drills to fix them, and skill-level adjustments. The coaching staff at Rocket Swim Club, former Moldovan National Swim Team members, teach this stroke daily across all levels in the Greater Toronto Area.
How the Breaststroke Pull Actually Works
Muscles That Power the Pull
Your lats and pecs do most of the work during the insweep, producing the squeezing motion that generates backward force. Shoulder muscles stabilize the arm through each phase. Forearm muscles keep the wrist locked, and your biceps and triceps control elbow angle throughout.
If you only feel the pull in your hands after a hard breaststroke set, the larger muscles probably aren’t firing. That means your pull surface is smaller than it should be.
The Four Phases of the Breaststroke Pull
Phase 1: The Outsweep. Arms slide outward from streamline. Palms angle slightly out and down, hands travelling to just past shoulder width. No propulsion here. This is a setup move.
Phase 2: The Catch. Hands press downward, elbows begin pointing toward the surface, fingertips angle toward the pool floor. Your forearms and hands become a paddle facing backward. A good catch looks like an early vertical forearm, similar to freestyle.
Phase 3: The Insweep. This is where the speed comes from. Hands and forearms sweep inward and slightly upward toward the chest. The motion should accelerate. Think “squeeze” rather than “pull” to keep elbows from drifting too far back.
Phase 4: The Recovery. Hands shoot forward to streamline. Fast and direct. Hands can travel just above or just below the surface. The goal is to return to a low-drag position as quickly as possible.
Setting Up a Strong Catch
Patience during the outsweep is what separates an average pull from a good one. Pulling too early means the arms haven’t reached the catch position, so the hands push water sideways instead of backward. Wasted energy, missed propulsion.
Both arms start together after recovery rather than shoulder-width apart like in freestyle. They have farther to travel before reaching the catch. A useful cue: wait until your fingertips point toward the pool floor before pressing back. Rushing the outsweep feels fast but isn’t. The speed comes from the insweep.
Getting More Out of Each Pull
Use Your Forearms, Not Just Your Hands
Treat the forearm and hand as one flat surface. If only the hands pull, you’re using about half the available paddle area. The elbow and hand should move inward together. If the hand comes in faster than the elbow, backward force disappears. Same concept as a “dropped elbow” in freestyle.
Think Squeeze, Not Pull
“Squeeze your elbows to your ribs” works better than “pull your hands to your hips.” Squeezing keeps the elbows forward and makes recovery shorter. It also prevents a common disqualification: pulling hands past the hip line is illegal under World Aquatics rules.
Arm Recovery — The Part Most Swimmers Get Wrong
Recovery creates the most drag and zero propulsion. Two words should define it: aggressive and direct. Get the arms forward and back to streamline as fast as you can.
Hands travelling slightly above the water surface is a good default. Some part of the elbow must stay below the surface per World Aquatics rules. If you squeezed during the insweep, the elbows are already forward, giving the hands a shorter path to shoot out.
When recovery is too slow, hips drop, the head stays up too long, and the speed from the kick fades before the next pull starts.
| Rocket Swim Club coaches work on pull mechanics and recovery speed at every level. If you’re in the Greater Toronto Area and want stroke-specific feedback, visit rocketswim.com to learn about programs or book a tryout. |
Common Breaststroke Pull Mistakes
Rushing the outsweep. Starting to pull before the hands reach the catch position wastes the setup phase.
Pulling too wide or too far back. Elbows pass behind the shoulders, hands travel past the hips, recovery becomes drag-heavy. Also a disqualification risk.
Using only the hands. Ignoring the forearm creates a smaller pulling surface and usually means the lats aren’t engaged.
Slow recovery. The most common problem among newer swimmers. More time in recovery means more time at peak drag.
Leading with hands instead of elbows on the insweep. Hands move inward while elbows stay wide, killing backward force.8
Pausing under the chest. The pull should be continuous and accelerating. A dead spot here kills momentum.
Read more: Common Breaststroke Mistakes
How to Tell If Your Pull Needs Work
These are the signs Rocket Swim Club coaches look for during stroke analysis. You can check for them yourself:
You feel like you’re working hard but not moving forward between kicks. Your stroke count per length is higher than it used to be, or higher than swimmers at your speed. Your arms tire faster than your legs after a breaststroke set. There’s a pause or dead spot in each stroke cycle. Your head stays above water too long during each breath. A coach or training partner has mentioned wide elbows or slow recovery.
If any of those sound familiar, the drills below target specific problems. Pair them with Sportecos performance tracking, the system Rocket Swim Club uses, to measure progress over time.
Adjusting Your Pull for Your Skill Level
Beginners
Keep hands in front of the shoulders at all times. A smaller pull circle is better than a big sloppy one. Get the sequence right first: outsweep, catch, insweep, recovery. Walking through the arm motion in shallow water is a good starting point.
Intermediate Swimmers
Start working on the squeeze concept. Engage your lats and move elbows and hands together. Practice recovery speed and make the shoot forward fast and direct. Count strokes per length and aim to reduce without losing speed.
Competitive Swimmers
Fine-tune catch depth and outsweep width for your body proportions and race distance. Experiment with recovery height: above-water recovery reduces drag but costs more energy. Use video analysis to check elbow position. Stroke count sets at race pace will show whether changes translate into speed.
| Rocket Swim Club offers programs from non-competitive beginners through senior athletes competing internationally. Coaches Alina and Ivan adjust pull technique based on each swimmer’s experience and goals.
Explore programs at rocketswim.com. |
Drills to Sharpen Your Breaststroke Pull
Front Sculling
Float face-down with arms extended and a pull buoy between your legs. Sweep hands outward and inward in small arcs, keeping elbows high and fingers angled toward the floor. Focus on pressure across the entire forearm. Use a snorkel if breathing disrupts your body position. This builds water feel and trains the forearm-hand paddle.
Breaststroke Pull with Dolphin Kick
Swim breaststroke arms with one dolphin kick per pull instead of the breaststroke kick. Removing the kick timing lets you focus purely on arm mechanics. The dolphin kick keeps hips up and maintains rhythm without interfering with the pull.
Closed-Fist Breaststroke
Swim full breaststroke with closed fists. This forces you to pull with the forearm rather than relying on the hand. When you open your fists, the hands feel larger and the pull feels stronger. Do 4-6 x 25 fists closed, then 2 x 25 open to feel the difference.
Breaststroke Pull with Flutter Kick
Replace the breaststroke kick with a continuous flutter kick. The constant motion forces faster recovery because there’s no glide phase to hide a slow shoot-forward. Good for swimmers who pause during recovery.
Stroke Count Sets
Count strokes per 25 and aim to lower the count without losing speed. A simple practice set: 8 x 25 rotating through these drills, 15-20 seconds rest between reps. Finish with 4 x 25 full breaststroke, applying what you practiced.
Protecting Your Shoulders During Breaststroke
Breaststroke puts different stress on the shoulders than freestyle or butterfly. The internal rotation during the insweep and rapid forward recovery can irritate the rotator cuff over time, particularly in high-volume training.
Warming up before breaststroke sets matters more than most swimmers realize. Arm circles, band pull-aparts, and internal/external rotation exercises take less than five minutes. If you feel a pinch at the front of the shoulder during the insweep, your elbows may be pulling too far back or your catch may be too wide. Mixing in backstroke or dryland external rotation work offsets the repetitive demand. Rocket Swim Club coaches monitor shoulder loading and adjust volume when swimmers show early signs of irritation.
Equipment That Can Help Your Pull
Pull buoy: Floats the legs so you can isolate arm mechanics without the kick.
Upside-down paddles: Held in the hand, not strapped on. These lock the wrist and force the forearm and hand to move as one unit.
Snorkel: Removes the breathing variable so you can focus on arms without lifting the head.
Use equipment in drill sets, then swim without it to feel the difference. These are training tools, not permanent additions.
A Quick Note on the Breaststroke Pulldown
The pulldown is the underwater pull sequence off the wall after a start or turn. The arm mechanics overlap with the surface stroke but the sequence differs: streamline, one dolphin kick, hands pull all the way to the hips, arms recover tight to the body, one breaststroke kick to the surface.
This is the one time in breaststroke where pulling hands to the hips is legal. Getting it right saves significant time, especially in short-course racing. We’ll cover pulldown technique in a separate article.
Conclusion
The pull accounts for about 30% of your breaststroke speed. That’s a smaller piece than the kick, but getting it right makes the whole stroke click. Three things matter most: be patient with the catch, use the forearm and hand together, and recover fast.
Work through the drills, check the self-assessment signs for your weak points, and adjust for your skill level. Small improvements to the pull show up in stroke count and speed.
| Rocket Swim Club coaches work on pull technique with every swimmer, from beginners to national-level competitors. Our coaches in the Greater Toronto Area can help whether you’re learning the stroke or refining race-day mechanics.
Reach us to learn more or sign up for a tryout. |