Learning to swim breastroke first?

[vera16]

In my day everyone learned breastroke first and then moved in to front crawl if they wanted to get serious about swimming. Breastroke can be done with head out of the water and is also crucial for treading water so consequently you can get comfortable in the water quite quickly - IMO. My DS is currently learning front crawl as a first strike and is struggling because he doesn't want to put his head in the water yet. I would actually much prefer him to learn breastroke first for above reasons. Anyone know how I can find a swim school which teaches this?

Joking apart this is a very good point but it would take a long time to get good enough at front crawl to be able to swim out of a rip ride. I just want to get him safe and comfortable in the water ASAP and finesse later.

I'm having similar issues with my daughter. A couple of weeks ago the swim teacher said that if she doesn't start putting her head under water it'll be pointless carrying on as 'she'll never learn to swim.' I agree that she needs to get over her fear of putting her face in but at the same time surely she could still learn to move through the water with her head out?

Wow, that teacher doesn’t sound great! It’s obviously far better to be able to swim with your head out of the water than not swim at all. As an adult I keep my head of out the water mostly as I don’t like putting my head underwater either.

The best way to tread water is rotary kick not frog kick and then sculling with your arms. If you tried to tread water doing breaststroke, you'd get tired quickly I think.

My kids learnt front crawl, back stroke, breast stroke and butterfly all together which makes more sense to me than learning one then moving onto another. They are confident in all four strokes becayse the way they were taught broke down the strokes effectively. Also, watching a class of children barking as they swim a length of doggy paddle is one of the funniest things I've ever watched.

If you look at the history of how the modern strokes developed I think that probably explains why in Europe breaststroke is taught first and that in America and Australia front crawl is taught first. Also, breaststroke historically was swum with the head up, it's relatively recent that swimmers have been allowed to put their head below the surface in competitions.

I'm sorry, I was being culturally intolerant! I didn't realize about the history of strokes in different continents.

Europe is wrong though, and it's not the first time. Just saying.

I tried 4 different swim schools for my DD before I found one that teaches the 'old fashioned way' she learnt breaststroke head out of water with armbands on. Gradually decreasing the air in the armbands until she didn't need them. She's 8 now and still doing well, they're learning front and back crawl now.

Yes it took absolutely ages but it was definitely the right route for my DD. She hates water in her face with a passion. She even got dunked at previous swim schools which didn't help at all.

😃wow

All people and all countries get things wrong at time. Trouble is we don't all agree on what is 'wrong' all the time.

I don’t really understand why you think breaststroke is connected to treading water. I’ve never treaded water with a breaststroke type kick.

I'm an Olympic swimmer, I agree it is far easier and you have far more control if you tread water with a front crawl kick rather than a breaststroke kick, much less bobbing around. A child should be taught to float on their back first and then how to put their head underwater. I learnt that first and then moved on the front crawl when I learnt to swim in the 70's

One of mine learned in the Netherlands, breaststroke first. The other is learning in the UK, front crawl first. I like the Dutch way. They can see where they're going for a start. I've never managed more than 4 consecutive lengths of front crawl though, so I'm biased. Can swim sidestroke and breast stroke for hours though.

I think the breast stroke kick is quite hard for them to learn. I did a lot of swimming when young and I didn’t realise how hard it was until I’ve seen my kids do it. The difficulty with breast stroke is the different movements at all the joints in your leg (hip, knee ankle). I wonder also if kids’ muscles may have different relative strengths making some actions harder than others. I’m not a swim coach though

For safety, your child should be taught to float on his back first. Next comes front crawl (or ‘freestyle’ in some countries).

Front crawl is best stroke for safety because it is faster and stronger. If you want to get out of danger (whether to exit a rip tide or to dodge someone coming down a slide) you want to do it quickly and exerting as little energy as possible. That’s front crawl.

Breaststroke is more difficult because you need to coordinate different arm and leg movements. Can you or your child simultaneously pat your head and rub your tummy? Breaststroke is a bit like that - doable but tricky until you get the hang of it.

Any stroke that keeps your head out of the water will tire you more quickly than a stroke with your head in the water. Getting tired in the water is dangerous. So, for safety, we focus on being comfortable with your head in the water. It reduces strain on your neck and reduces panic if the swimmer is splashed or hit by a big wave.

Breaststroke may appear similar treading water. It isn’t. Proper treading water takes very little energy. Breaststroke takes quite a lot of energy, even if you stay in one place. For safety, you don’t want to run out of energy in the water.

I STRONGLY advise you to avoid any swim school that teaches breaststroke first and to do whatever you can to get your child comfortable with his head under the water. Try in the bath tub and shower at home, splashing in the pool, making faces underwater, picking things up from the bottom. The pool will probably have buckets with holes in the bottom (or similar devices) so you can pour water over each other to acclimatize new swimmers to this.

Love that we have

Where I live they learn front crawl, back stroke and do star floats etc.

My ds couldnt improve for a few months until he was happy getting face under. If you want to speed then I think taking him more often to get him happy putting face in water is best way. We used to put mouth and nose in and blow bubbles then build up to face in.

Just to say again, all my friends with children from my home country and another country where I lived for a while, think it's mad to not learn "school stroke " first. But yeah as usual UK knows best😁