Breaststroke is the slowest competitive stroke and the hardest to master.
↳ Timing,
↳ Kick, and
↳ Body position
All have to work together, and when one breaks down, the whole stroke falls apart. Drills let you isolate each piece so you can fix it without worrying about everything else at once.
Below are 10 drills you can bring to your next practice, each with a skill-level tag.
These are progressions our qualified coaches at Rocket Swim Club use with athletes across the Greater Toronto Area.
How to Tell Which Breaststroke Drills You Actually Need
Before picking a drill, figure out what you need to fix. Our coaches typically start by asking swimmers four questions:
Do your hips sink after every breath?
If your answer is yes then it’s a body position problem. Start with Drills 5 and 9.
Does your kick feel weak or lopsided?
If your answer is yes then your kick mechanics need work. Focus on Drills 1, 2, and 8.
Do you stall between strokes?
If your answer is yes then you’re struggling with your timing. Drills 3, 4, and 10 will help.
Does your pull slip through the water?
If your answer is yes then Your catch needs more attention. Go to Drills 6 and 7.
If you checked more than one, start with body position. A sinking body creates drag that makes every other part of your stroke worse.
How Do I Know If My Breaststroke Technique Is Bad?
Film yourself underwater or ask a coach to watch.
Common signs: hips dropping after each breath, knees spreading wider than your shoulders during the kick, a visible pause between pull and kick, and your head lifting high instead of pressing forward.
10 Breaststroke Drills That Actually Make You Faster
1. Streamline Breaststroke Kick (Stomach and Back) [Beginner]
Targets kick power and streamline. Push off in streamline and kick breaststroke on your stomach, then flip onto your back and repeat. Keep your knees under the surface and never wider than your shoulders. On your back, look at the ceiling, not your toes. Point toes outward gently during the catch phase. Forcing internal rotation under load is what causes breaststroker’s knee.
2. Heel Tag Drill [Beginner]
Targets heel recovery speed. Swim with hands at your sides and try to touch your heels to your hands on every kick before snapping feet outward. If you can’t make contact, don’t force it. The goal is building the habit of pulling heels up quickly.
3. 2 Kicks + 1 Pull [Beginner to Intermediate]
Targets stroke rhythm and glide. Take one full stroke, then hold streamline and do an additional kick before pulling again. The extra kick forces you to hold your streamline longer. That extended glide is where the speed comes from in breaststroke.
What Is the Best Drill for Breaststroke Kick?
Streamline kick on your back (Drill 1) is the best starting point. It removes breathing from the equation so you can feel whether your knees break the surface or splay wide. Add Heel Tag (Drill 2) and Speed Bump Kick (Drill 8) as you progress.
4. Breaststroke Arms with Flutter Kick [Intermediate]
Targets faster arm recovery and stroke tempo. Use your normal pull but replace the breaststroke kick with a continuous flutter kick. Your arms will move noticeably faster because the flutter kick removes the pause most swimmers carry between strokes. Keep distances to 25s.
5. Breaststroke Arms with Dolphin Kick [Intermediate]
Targets hip undulation and body position recovery after the breath. Use one dolphin kick per stroke cycle, timed with your arm recovery. Drive hands forward, not down. Stay close to the surface. Too much bobbing means you are kicking too deep.
6. Sculling with a Pull Buoy [Beginner to Intermediate]
Targets feel for the water during the catch and outsweep. Place a pull buoy between your legs and scull hands outward and inward in a windshield-wiper motion. Keep wrists lower than elbows and let your forearms do the work.
7. One-Arm Breaststroke [Intermediate]
Targets pull symmetry. Extend one arm ahead and pull with the other arm only, using a normal breaststroke kick. Switch arms each length. Pay attention to whether one arm catches more water than the other.
8. Speed Bump Kick Drill [Intermediate to Advanced]
Targets hip thrust and forward surge. Start with your hands at your sides. Pull heels up to your knuckles and kick powerfully, as if kicking yourself over a speed bump. For the second half of the lap, move hands into streamline position. Keep knees tracking forward, not splaying outward.
| Want Coaching on These Drills?
Rocket Swim Club coaches Alina and Ivan build drill progressions like these into every training cycle for Junior, Senior, and Masters swimmers across the Greater Toronto Area. See our swimming programs at Rocketswim. |
9. Head-Up Breaststroke [Intermediate to Advanced]
Targets awareness of head position’s effect on hips. Swim breaststroke with your head out of the water the entire time, water-polo style. This exaggerates a bad position on purpose. After 25 meters, put your head back down. The contrast is immediate.
10. 1-Arm, 1-Leg Breaststroke (Race Tempo Drill) [Advanced]
Targets race tempo and neurological speed. Grab one ankle with the opposite hand and swim breaststroke with your free arm and leg. At 15 meters, let go and carry that turnover into full-stroke swimming. Do this on 25s with full rest.
How Can I Swim Breaststroke Faster?
Reduce drag by holding a tight streamline between strokes, speed up arm recovery with flutter-kick drills (Drill 4), and build race tempo with the 1-Arm 1-Leg Drill (Drill 10). Most swimmers gain speed by eliminating pauses, not by pulling harder.
Protecting Your Knees During Breaststroke Drills
Breaststroker’s knee is the most common injury specific to this stroke. The whip kick puts rotational stress on the medial collateral ligament, and drill work often means more kick repetitions than a normal practice. Warm up your hips and ankles before any kick drill. If you feel pain on the inside of your knee, stop and switch to a pull-based drill. The best prevention is proper form: knees track forward over your toes, not wide to the sides.
Is Breaststroke Bad for Your Knees?
Not with proper technique. Knee injuries happen when swimmers splay their knees outward during the kick, stressing the MCL. Keep knees tracking forward and warm up hips before kick drills to reduce risk.
Sample Breaststroke Drill Workout You Can Use Today
This workout groups drills by goal so you work on one thing at a time.
Warm-Up
200 easy swim + 4 x 50 choice drill, 15 seconds rest
Block 1: Body Position
4 x 25 streamline kick on back (Drill 1) + 4 x 25 head-up breaststroke (Drill 9), 15 seconds rest
Block 2: Kick Power
4 x 25 heel tag (Drill 2) + 4 x 25 speed bump kick (Drill 8), 15 seconds rest
Block 3: Tempo and Timing
4 x 25 flutter kick with breaststroke arms (Drill 4) + 2 x 25 1-arm, 1-leg drill (Drill 10), 20 seconds rest
Cool-Down
200 easy swim
Total: approximately 1,200 meters. Adjust rest based on fitness level.
How Do You Structure a Breaststroke Workout?
Start with an easy warm-up, group drills by training goal (body position, kick power, or tempo), work on 25s and 50s with full focus, and finish with a cool-down to let your body absorb the technique.
How to Get the Most Out of Your Breaststroke Drills
Do drills at the start of practice when you are fresh. Tired drilling is sloppy drilling. Quality matters more than distance. A focused 25 beats a mindless 200 every time. Film yourself underwater or ask a coach to watch. You cannot fix what you cannot see. Track your stroke count and split times to measure whether drills are working. At Rocket Swim Club, our coaches use Sportecos technology to track progress across training cycles. Mix drills up so you don’t repeat the same ones every session.
Conclusion
Doing drills once will not change your stroke. Consistent, focused repetition over weeks is what produces real improvement. Start with the self-assessment above, pick two or three drills that match your biggest weakness, and add them to your next practice.
| Train with Rocket Swim Club
Our coaches build progressions like this into every training cycle for swimmers across the GTA. Personalized feedback, structured plans, and Sportecos performance tracking included. Learn more at rocketswim.com or email info@rocketswim.com. |