I'm so grateful this video is here. During the pandemic, I've been trying to "teach myself" how to swim. Most days, I look awfully pathetic in the water, really struggling. I've watched dozens of TH-cam videos, but illustrations of the strokes and the kicks and the breathing are hard to make sense of - something always seems obscured in the water and instructors often go through the moves way too fast. This is *the* clearest, most helpful instruction I've found. You've made my day!
I can swim but never learned any proper technique growing up! I’m trying to learn lap swim ( in my 50’s ) I have searched high and low for help ! Bought books etc but until I found this simple video I was not doing anything right !!Bc of Covid I can’t take lessons but thanks to you ! I’m in the pool this pm to do my kicks (w board ) the ♥️is genius !! I’ve never seen that and been in masters swim a year!! Bless you!
You're a good teacher, Mr. Burton. Your visuals contrasting stokes and diagrams really helped me see and understand what others were trying to explain. Thank you.
Thank you for this video!!! My 8 yo son has been going to swim camp for the past 3 summers and still can’t swim properly. It’s so frustrating for both the kid and the parents. Since there’s no swim camp this summer due to Covid, I decided I teach him to swim myself. I watched other videos but it was still not clicking for him. I finally watched your video and you covered all the issues he had. After 3 days he improved drastically and passed our local lake swim test. Thank you!
By far best video. I see now what i'm doing wrong. Only swimming for 3 weeks now (after 14 years of no sports what so ever). I was putting my arms what to far to the side. Will try these instructions, hope it will go much easier.
i like the tip of pushing off the side to get your feet in the right orientation. i always kept my toes pointed for the glide. i’ll try it tonight after work.
I haven't taken swimming lessons since childhood (I'm an adult now). Today I was swimming laps, and barely making it halfway without running out of breath. I'm horrible at breathing while swimming. I don't know if it was the swimming God or a YMCA childhood memory, but suddenly I started doing this technique. It felt more natural for me (than hand strokes) and I was able to swim a lot longer and further. I only stopped because it started getting crowded. I came to TH-cam to see if I what I was doing had a name and behold! This is it! It feels great to know that there are different styles of swimming and to have found one that works for me. Thanks for sharing.
Amazing teaching techniques! I am currently enrolled in swim class for beginners and was looking for videos where I can understand and follow. I found it. Thank you
I've been searching through many instructional videos but this one is the most helpful. I'm required to swim 400m fully clothed with shoes, and it must be a forward stroke. So breaststroke seemed the most sensible given how much freestyle seems to exhaust with the added drag. But of course I first need to learn breaststroke.... thanks for the help.
This is an awesome video. Straight to the point and no filler. Some great practical exercises here for me to try in hydro while my back heals before I can get into lame swimming.
The stroke that was the bane in preventing me advancing to do the fun stuff in school swimming all because my leg action wasn't correct. Wish TH-cam was around back in the late 70's / early 80's Good instructional video that might tempt me to learn this stroke and add it to my front crawl and backstroke
I love your videos it helped me so much simple and well explained I didn't get what my instructor was telling me until I watched your videos thank you so much I'm still having hard time with the breathing.
+Uma Ma - Keep working at it. Breaststroke requires a good feel for the water. I have a lot of different breaststroke drills because it's tough to learn. This video (th-cam.com/video/b08GpbAHYWw/w-d-xo.html) has a couple more. Timing the breathing can be difficult for some people. Face down bubbles/exhale during the glide. Look for your breath early in the stroke.
+Chris Burton thank you so much finally I can swim all the way in but I still have problems with my breathing techniques thank you again your videos helped me so much.
This was very useful for me and the first one that actually helped I am actually a swimmer of 6 years and I've been swimming since I was 6 I was taught all the strokes when I was six and was just expected to remember all the strokes. I've remembered them all for the last 5 years but this year for some reason I had just completely forgotten breaststroke, it used to be my fastest stroke and I was the fastest in the group but cause I forgot it now I'm the slowest and my coach doesn't realize that I've forgotten the kick and just thinks I can't do it and I would ask for their help but there isn't any time cause our practice is very rushed so there is no time to ask for them to reteach it to me so I just keep struggling with it and then I found this video and I finally understand how to do the kick, thanks!
ok so i saw this and saw you reply to comments. i'm 250 lbs and learning to swim with just a friend and no real instructor, i can't afford it right now, just the pool pass. i'll be watching ALL of your swimming lessons and try to do better next time at the pool. i heard it takes time to learn so i won't be too desperate. i just can't get over the fear of drowning and losing my breath or something. i never swam. it may be in my head but i lose my balance really fast. hope to learn at least breaststroke and freestyle till april... oh, and a question, till i watch your videos, do you have one for my problem with the fear? thak you for the videos!
I don't have any videos that discuss fear directly. Generally, the fear subsides as you get more comfortable and confident in the water. In many of my videos, I try to show you what not to do as well as the proper way. While learning freestyle and breaststroke is a good goal, backstroke is often the easiest to learn since you don't have to time your breathing, so give that a try as well. Here are a few videos to get you started: Preparing Beginning Swimmers for Freestyle - th-cam.com/video/2XQy3pfniKk/w-d-xo.html , Freestyle - Adult Beginners th-cam.com/video/OogkUMXxA6Q/w-d-xo.html , and Backstroke for Beginners - th-cam.com/video/nbG7uKqo2CA/w-d-xo.html Good luck!
Great video. I'm an adult who has learned to float and do the back stroke but I can't do the free style. I just sink when I want to do the lifeguard swim or tread water. Wish I had a coach like you near me. My goal would be to do lady laps or breast stroke.
Took me eight 45 minute lessons to learn to swim 25m pool length by front crawl and then after that took me only 5-10 minutes to learn to swim the same 25m length by breast stroke. Much much much much much easier than front crawl for me. Or maybe we can take into acount that I learned crawl first (8 lessons). If I took breast stroke before crawl maybe I would have taken more than 10 minutes to swim 25m. But still I am sure it would have taken much less than 8 lessons. So it is super easy compared to crawl. Of course the problem with crawls is not the movements, but learning to breathe correctly. With breaststroke breathing is easy :)
Excellent advice (but awful sound)! I teach the breaststroke to beginners and recognise many of the mistakes and look forward to trying the drills to amend such problems! Thanks!
Nice….I like breast stroke because it stress less my shoulder rotation. It is for a swimmer with shoulder issue a recovery style, instead of the back stroke
Very good video. would you still recommend a beginner to push off the wall with their feet to get their momentum going? Or does it matter? Can you just start from standing? I started practicing this on my last swim session and I have a hard time getting my face out of the water. It looks like the swimmer is doing a push-up in the water and that that force is pushing them out of the water but when I try it, my hands and body and head all seem to just sink down, I feel like I still need some momentum. My first stroke seems to be ok but then I slow down and start to sink. I like the part when you recommend transitioning from treading in the breast stroke style and then transitioning to the breast stroke. I will try that.
You can certainly push off the wall to get you momentum going. The tough thing about breaststroke pull is that you're not really pulling straight back and you're not pushing straight down. It's a finning/sculling motion. Try to stay smooth and fluid throughout the pulling motion. How's your kick? If you can get good thrust from your kick, that'll help you keep your momentum going. Keep working at it. Good luck!
well, I've just started to learn it. I can't say my kick is good yet but I go back and forth between trying it and scrutinizing videos of it paying attention to timing and the position and angle of every part of the body. I'll get the hang of it soon. Thanks.
+evilro3345 - I have a couple of videos that focus more on the kick (Breaststroke Kick Drills - th-cam.com/video/v61nEYUb5_0/w-d-xo.html & Breaststroke Beginner Drills - th-cam.com/video/b08GpbAHYWw/w-d-xo.html). Don't give up on it. It's probably the hardest skill to pick up, but once you do, you won't remember what was so hard about it.
Is the v shape (spreading out and then moving in the legs) common practice among the Olympic swimmers? I haven’t seen it but may be Its not visible fully without a steady under water camera..
I say "V Shaped" because that's generally something that kids can relate too. What we're really doing is turning our toes outward or flexing them out to the side. This video (th-cam.com/video/f9IN5qYfOEM/w-d-xo.html) has a good underwater view of the kick. I also go into the kick in more detail in this video (th-cam.com/video/v61nEYUb5_0/w-d-xo.html).
From a competitive perspective, the more narrow knee position "whip kick" provides more power than a wide-kneed "frog" kick technique. Years ago, they used to teach both techniques as different kicks, but both are functional for for recreational swimming.
You exhale in the water (i.e. blow bubbles) during the glide phase of the stroke, so that you are ready to breath in as soon as your nose/mouth are out of the water. Pull, breath, kick, glide with bubbles. Pull, breath, kick, glide and exhale.
I'm so grateful this video is here. During the pandemic, I've been trying to "teach myself" how to swim. Most days, I look awfully pathetic in the water, really struggling. I've watched dozens of TH-cam videos, but illustrations of the strokes and the kicks and the breathing are hard to make sense of - something always seems obscured in the water and instructors often go through the moves way too fast. This is *the* clearest, most helpful instruction I've found. You've made my day!
I can swim but never learned any proper technique growing up! I’m trying to learn lap swim ( in my 50’s ) I have searched high and low for help ! Bought books etc but until I found this simple video I was not doing anything right !!Bc of Covid I can’t take lessons but thanks to you ! I’m in the pool this pm to do my kicks (w board ) the ♥️is genius !! I’ve never seen that and been in masters swim a year!!
Bless you!
Good luck!
This is the best ever tutorial, I keep falling apart, your clip gate such a detailed breakdown in all possible ways. thank you
You're a good teacher, Mr. Burton. Your visuals contrasting stokes and diagrams really helped me see and understand what others were trying to explain. Thank you.
I'm about to start swim this style, and definitely, this is the best video I've watched. Thanks a lot!!
Alexandre Figueiredo baby
Baby
Thank you for this video!!! My 8 yo son has been going to swim camp for the past 3 summers and still can’t swim properly. It’s so frustrating for both the kid and the parents. Since there’s no swim camp this summer due to Covid, I decided I teach him to swim myself. I watched other videos but it was still not clicking for him. I finally watched your video and you covered all the issues he had. After 3 days he improved drastically and passed our local lake swim test. Thank you!
WooHoo!
Thanks Chris! That reverse heart visual really helped.
Thank you for your detailed videos ! Very easy to understand. They have helped me with the breast stroke kick when no other video could .
I'm so glad I found your channel. One of the best teachers I've found coming from an adults perspective. Thank you shout out from New Zealand
By far best video. I see now what i'm doing wrong. Only swimming for 3 weeks now (after 14 years of no sports what so ever). I was putting my arms what to far to the side. Will try these instructions, hope it will go much easier.
Thank Chris Burton! I will do the drills with a board. This helps a lot. I seem to kick and move the arms at the same time.
This is very helpful and much better than commercial tips videos
This is my first time seeing a barbell for swimming
Wish i had that one back then to teach 😅
i like the tip of pushing off the side to get your feet in the right orientation. i always kept my toes pointed for the glide. i’ll try it tonight after work.
Thank you for posting this and other videos. Your dry land examples are very helpful.
I haven't taken swimming lessons since childhood (I'm an adult now). Today I was swimming laps, and barely making it halfway without running out of breath. I'm horrible at breathing while swimming.
I don't know if it was the swimming God or a YMCA childhood memory, but suddenly I started doing this technique. It felt more natural for me (than hand strokes) and I was able to swim a lot longer and further. I only stopped because it started getting crowded.
I came to TH-cam to see if I what I was doing had a name and behold! This is it! It feels great to know that there are different styles of swimming and to have found one that works for me. Thanks for sharing.
Lillian I'm taking lessons at they Y but I can't do it because they make us use the boards so its harder
Amazing teaching techniques! I am currently enrolled in swim class for beginners and was looking for videos where I can understand and follow. I found it. Thank you
I've been searching through many instructional videos but this one is the most helpful.
I'm required to swim 400m fully clothed with shoes, and it must be a forward stroke. So breaststroke seemed the most sensible given how much freestyle seems to exhaust with the added drag.
But of course I first need to learn breaststroke.... thanks for the help.
Pengwin Why with clothes and shoes?
He is most likely in/joining the military, I may be wrong however.
THAT'S HILARIOUS
it was so helpful😊 thank you
best video ever! finally got it with the upside down heart analogy.
This is an awesome video. Straight to the point and no filler. Some great practical exercises here for me to try in hydro while my back heals before I can get into lame swimming.
Good easy technics sir early to Learn with your videos. Thanks from India
Best video on this I’ve found.
The stroke that was the bane in preventing me advancing to do the fun stuff in school swimming all because my leg action wasn't correct. Wish TH-cam was around back in the late 70's / early 80's
Good instructional video that might tempt me to learn this stroke and add it to my front crawl and backstroke
I have enjoyed this video. I would recommend it to others! Way to go!
This video was very helpful and it explains how to do it!
I love your videos it helped me so much simple and well explained I didn't get what my instructor was telling me until I watched your videos thank you so much I'm still having hard time with the breathing.
+Uma Ma - Keep working at it. Breaststroke requires a good feel for the water. I have a lot of different breaststroke drills because it's tough to learn. This video (th-cam.com/video/b08GpbAHYWw/w-d-xo.html) has a couple more. Timing the breathing can be difficult for some people. Face down bubbles/exhale during the glide. Look for your breath early in the stroke.
+Chris Burton thank you so much finally I can swim all the way in but I still have problems with my breathing techniques thank you again your videos helped me so much.
I'm glad that you are making progress. Great Job!
Thanks for posting. I couldn't get my legs right, this video has helped ALOT 😎👍🏼
thank you I have used your videos and learned how to swim! aiming for perfection !
Very good demonstration
This really makes it simple, awesome video!
Great video. I got some weird looks though when I was lying on the side of the pool practising
I don't like Breaststroke, but this is an excellent video for learning it.
I need to know how to do it properly even if I dislike it.
Great video!! This helped me so much, better explained then those posted by speedo and stuff. thank you!
2:03 - Pull Breath Kick Glide - I'll keep that in mind and practice is this winter...ThQ
Thank is really clear what i miss before
as a competitive swim coach this is so helpful. I know how to swim but oven it’s hard to put into words
well this must be the best explanation video i have ever watched thank you very much 👍👍👍👍
old video but better then all the new ones. ty
This was very useful for me and the first one that actually helped I am actually a swimmer of 6 years and I've been swimming since I was 6 I was taught all the strokes when I was six and was just expected to remember all the strokes. I've remembered them all for the last 5 years but this year for some reason I had just completely forgotten breaststroke, it used to be my fastest stroke and I was the fastest in the group but cause I forgot it now I'm the slowest and my coach doesn't realize that I've forgotten the kick and just thinks I can't do it and I would ask for their help but there isn't any time cause our practice is very rushed so there is no time to ask for them to reteach it to me so I just keep struggling with it and then I found this video and I finally understand how to do the kick, thanks!
This man is a genius
@WAFFLES AND PEEPS thanks dude :D
Very clear explanation...thanks for sharing this vid!
This is awesome ! Great tips! I use similar method to teach private lessons
So technical. Thank you!
It's really helpful, and you can do practice & exercise at home too. Thanks a lot!
Julian Liu home to own
Great video. Has helped me so much, thank you!
ok so i saw this and saw you reply to comments. i'm 250 lbs and learning to swim with just a friend and no real instructor, i can't afford it right now, just the pool pass. i'll be watching ALL of your swimming lessons and try to do better next time at the pool. i heard it takes time to learn so i won't be too desperate. i just can't get over the fear of drowning and losing my breath or something. i never swam. it may be in my head but i lose my balance really fast. hope to learn at least breaststroke and freestyle till april... oh, and a question, till i watch your videos, do you have one for my problem with the fear? thak you for the videos!
I don't have any videos that discuss fear directly. Generally, the fear subsides as you get more comfortable and confident in the water. In many of my videos, I try to show you what not to do as well as the proper way. While learning freestyle and breaststroke is a good goal, backstroke is often the easiest to learn since you don't have to time your breathing, so give that a try as well. Here are a few videos to get you started: Preparing Beginning Swimmers for Freestyle - th-cam.com/video/2XQy3pfniKk/w-d-xo.html , Freestyle - Adult Beginners th-cam.com/video/OogkUMXxA6Q/w-d-xo.html , and Backstroke for Beginners - th-cam.com/video/nbG7uKqo2CA/w-d-xo.html Good luck!
Easily the best video!
Wow, thanks!
The best one I've ever seen thanks a lot 🙏🙏
Great video. I'm an adult who has learned to float and do the back stroke but I can't do the free style. I just sink when I want to do the lifeguard swim or tread water. Wish I had a coach like you near me. My goal would be to do lady laps or breast stroke.
this actually helped a lot! thank youuuuu
it did help a little. thanks!
Took me eight 45 minute lessons to learn to swim 25m pool length by front crawl and then after that took me only 5-10 minutes to learn to swim the same 25m length by breast stroke. Much much much much much easier than front crawl for me. Or maybe we can take into acount that I learned crawl first (8 lessons). If I took breast stroke before crawl maybe I would have taken more than 10 minutes to swim 25m. But still I am sure it would have taken much less than 8 lessons. So it is super easy compared to crawl. Of course the problem with crawls is not the movements, but learning to breathe correctly. With breaststroke breathing is easy :)
good video for beginner
very useful .thanks for teaching
Dude u are so helpful thanks god. bless you
Thank You Very Much ❤️🙏🏻
You’re welcome 😊
This helped so much!! thanks!!
Really good demonstration thanks
Excellent advice (but awful sound)! I teach the breaststroke to beginners and recognise many of the mistakes and look forward to trying the drills to amend such problems! Thanks!
thank you for this video ... it really help it me to swimming
Really'Really'Really helpful!!
Thank you!
best video to explain breaststroke. thanks
Hi! I learned breaststroke through your tip for drawing a heart. Thank u ❤🏊🏻♂️
Great job!
very nice videos swimming thanks so very much,
I love the bar method. It's very helpful.
thanks to share perfect swimming techniques videos
Really helpful. Thanks
I love swim is my favorite and iam watching videos like this video is great i can learn more on this video
Thank you for breaking it down! The kick finally makes sense to me.
best Video. Thanks a lot
this video is very helpful
Nice….I like breast stroke because it stress less my shoulder rotation. It is for a swimmer with shoulder issue a recovery style, instead of the back stroke
Very helpful - thank you!
Thanks for this!
This is an extremely good video. It really helped me a lot!! Thank you! Keep making more swimming tutorials! Your videos are really great :)
liked the way u explained
Great tips tho....finally got the hang of it😊
You have a gift sir.
Thanks ❤
thanks a lot
good job
thank you so much it is very useful to the beggingners
تمارين جيدة لقد ساعدتني كتيرا...شكرا..
simply great
Breaststroke helps us to comes up from water when we are in water?
Top man!!
Hi very good info, but you need to use an hd camera it is hard to see.
best advice..hold breath, kick, fly
so helpful thank you from #Morocco
Very good video. would you still recommend a beginner to push off the wall with their feet to get their momentum going? Or does it matter? Can you just start from standing? I started practicing this on my last swim session and I have a hard time getting my face out of the water. It looks like the swimmer is doing a push-up in the water and that that force is pushing them out of the water but when I try it, my hands and body and head all seem to just sink down, I feel like I still need some momentum. My first stroke seems to be ok but then I slow down and start to sink. I like the part when you recommend transitioning from treading in the breast stroke style and then transitioning to the breast stroke. I will try that.
You can certainly push off the wall to get you momentum going. The tough thing about breaststroke pull is that you're not really pulling straight back and you're not pushing straight down. It's a finning/sculling motion. Try to stay smooth and fluid throughout the pulling motion. How's your kick? If you can get good thrust from your kick, that'll help you keep your momentum going. Keep working at it. Good luck!
well, I've just started to learn it. I can't say my kick is good yet but I go back and forth between trying it and scrutinizing videos of it paying attention to timing and the position and angle of every part of the body. I'll get the hang of it soon. Thanks.
Michael McGill
Thank you verry much ! i just start to how to swimming breakstrok this vedio really helpfull.
this is perfect thank you!
The kick is the hardest part for me ._.
+evilro3345 - I have a couple of videos that focus more on the kick (Breaststroke Kick Drills - th-cam.com/video/v61nEYUb5_0/w-d-xo.html & Breaststroke Beginner Drills - th-cam.com/video/b08GpbAHYWw/w-d-xo.html). Don't give up on it. It's probably the hardest skill to pick up, but once you do, you won't remember what was so hard about it.
My hamstrings are shortened so kicking is almost impossible for me :(((
Jesus is Fake images.app.goo.gl/DFttyCzjBKYmj7iK9
Same
Same
very good
love the idea
Is the v shape (spreading out and then moving in the legs) common practice among the Olympic swimmers? I haven’t seen it but may be Its not visible fully without a steady under water camera..
I say "V Shaped" because that's generally something that kids can relate too. What we're really doing is turning our toes outward or flexing them out to the side. This video (th-cam.com/video/f9IN5qYfOEM/w-d-xo.html) has a good underwater view of the kick. I also go into the kick in more detail in this video (th-cam.com/video/v61nEYUb5_0/w-d-xo.html).
Wow awesome
Is bending the knee and opening the legs wide a wrong technique?
From a competitive perspective, the more narrow knee position "whip kick" provides more power than a wide-kneed "frog" kick technique. Years ago, they used to teach both techniques as different kicks, but both are functional for for recreational swimming.
Thanks for telling me, my breast stroke is terrible. I haven't swam in months. I need to work on my chest muscles and pectoral muscles as I need to.
How do you exhale, does that fall in with glide or do you do that as soon as your nose/mouth are out of the water?
You exhale in the water (i.e. blow bubbles) during the glide phase of the stroke, so that you are ready to breath in as soon as your nose/mouth are out of the water. Pull, breath, kick, glide with bubbles. Pull, breath, kick, glide and exhale.
Thank you so much, this is a great help!
Great tiqnq thanks