Why is breaststroke so hard?

I believe it is Wayne McCauley on this website who has a quotation on his posts referrring to breaststroke..."It's not how fast you swim, it's how fast you slow down". Breaststroke can be heavy on drag and the key to being fast (one of the keys anyhow) is to reduce the drag. I am not much of a breaststroker right now but I do know that avoiding the urge to look up when you breathe helps significantly by keeping your hips a little higher in the water. Another thing that helps is to practice kicking *** on your back. To do it right you don't want your knees to break the surface of the water (I'll admit that my knees tend to protrude a half inch or so from time to time) as you kick. This will help modify your kick to avoid drag when swimming full stroke. In full stroke, the further your knees drop the more drag you create and the harder you have to swim to maintain your pace. I think Wayne's username is breaststroker...send him a PM and I am sure he will be glad to offer some more pointers.

I believe it is Wayne McCauley on this website who has a quotation on his posts referrring to breaststroke..."It's not how fast you swim, it's how fast you slow down". Breaststroke can be heavy on drag and the key to being fast (one of the keys anyhow) is to reduce the drag. I am not much of a breaststroker right now but I do know that avoiding the urge to look up when you breathe helps significantly by keeping your hips a little higher in the water. Another thing that helps is to practice kicking *** on your back. To do it right you don't want your knees to break the surface of the water (I'll admit that my knees tend to protrude a half inch or so from time to time) as you kick. This will help modify your kick to avoid drag when swimming full stroke. In full stroke, the further your knees drop the more drag you create and the harder you have to swim to maintain your pace. I think Wayne's username is breaststroker...send him a PM and I am sure he will be glad to offer some more pointers.