Breast Stroke

trek climber

I ahve benn going to swimming lessons since Christmas and I have hit a problem. I am starting to master the front crawl and the backstroke but I cannot make any impression on the breaststroke. It seems the harder I try the worse I get - the instructor tells me to relax in the water and that I am trying to hard but that is easier said than done.
So, I am looking for advice from anyone who can swim the breaststroke comfortably.
Thank you..

AngryHippie

Breaststroke leg kick is a little bit counter-intuitive,
The actual propulsion is largely made by the action of squeezing your legs together at the end of the stroke, the quicker the whipping action of that is, the more thrust you will get out of it, practice at the edge of the pool, back to the wall, keeping your ass against the wall, watch your legs closely,
Start with your legs together extended out straight in front, slowly bend the knees and lift the thighs until they are as tightly tucked as possible, then you move your feet apart to the sides, followed by the knees, slowly straighten the legs out to the sides until each leg is straight, but legs apart, to finish the stroke, squeeze your legs together until they touch, bringing you back to the starting position, keep doing this, and gradually speed it up, The fast part of the stroke is the leg straightening and the squeeze together, this is called the propulsive phase. When you can see your legs performing something resembling the breaststroke kick, get some floats, lie on your back, and try the kick again, If you are splashing around a lot, lift your head up a little to sink your legs, Once you are able to move using this, its time to start work on the arms, short strokes are the key, to get an idea of what I mean by this, lean forward, stretch your arms out in front, face your palms back towards your chest and pull until your arms reach shoulder "height", then tuck your elbows in to your chest and shoot the arms forward again, If the arm pull is any longer than that, moving them back to start the next stroke will counteract most of the thrust you gained from the first stroke. Watch out that your upper arms are not moving too much, (think of a rowing machine, when you pull, your elbows pull out to the sides, that'll sap energy for very little gain, most of the movement in Breaststroke arms is done by the forearms)
Ask your instructor about sculling, its a good practice to build up arm strength and stamina, and you will get a bit of a feel for how to angle your hands to get the best out them.
Be patient, Breaststroke is one of the trickiest to get right, most people think they can do the stroke, but have bad habits all over the place. Make sure you warm up properly before doing Breaststroke, Its quite hard on the knees and lower back, If you have problems with either , then it might be best to work on it over a period of a few months, rather than trying to get the hang of it intensively over a few weeks.
slowly slowly catchy monkey;)