Why does breaststroke get a bad rap?

And, to everyone else's point, if you learned it in the 1970s, completely impossible to change. No it isn't. I learned *** stroke in the 70's and never swam competitively,so it was pretty basic.When an injury forced me to give up most other forms of exercise I got back in the pool, only to find that the way I had learned the *** stroke was completely inefficient.With the help of my kids swim coaches, my pools aquatic director and by watching hours of footage of *** stroke and reading about various techniques I have gotten to the point where I am happy with my *** stroke. It was not easy, but I am glad I did it-it's the best stroke ever!:cheerleader:

In my case - it's too much effort for too little speed

Only breaststrokers have a wrongly placed superior attitude. They just think they look good in the water. Their finish is only complete with their first stroke underwater. They then think a good finish is somewhere near their shoulders. If I bent my knees that much and finished at my shoulders swimming crawl, every one would say that is not a streamlined stroke. We know how bad the kick they use is it almost the same as the illegal kick that butterfroggers use. It is allowed for the old foggy flyers eg; allowed for senior citizen flyers because these old guys cannot do a dolphin kick.

Breaststroke is the best stroke, no doubt about it.

As a breaststroker and sometime age group coach, I've noticed that often, kids can either do breaststroke kick naturally or it takes them quite awhile to learn to flex their feet and kick correctly. Then there's the timing issue, which is not easy to fake if you want to swim fast. I think freestyle is easier to swim (incorrectly even) for the novice swimmer. Hence, you have more freestylers and more freestyle events. The hostile attitude toward this particular stroke is a case of "breaststroke envy", IMHO...:wiggle: I agree totally about the breaststroke kick...I used to hate my "Mary Poppins" feet (my prom picture has my lovely feet pointing out) but I have found the breaststroke kick to be as natural for me as the flutter kick. I like the fly too...Free and Back are necessary, but boring, strokes as far as I am concerned. And I would much rather watch a butterflyer or breaststroker swim any day of the week.

Who says men can't change? Women.

Here's the most fun of all: a breaststroker going north on one side of the lane line and a backstroker going south on the other side of said lane line. The backstroker, bless its heart, is openly trying to grope at the body parts of the breaststroker (don't think we don't notice these things) and the breaststroker (completely in self defense, of course) attempts to deliver a disabling blow to the randy backstroker. When you connect, that's when you know that Kung Fu Breaststroke training has paid off!

No it isn't. I learned *** stroke in the 70's and never swam competitively,so it was pretty basic. Learning *** as a survival stroke or in a non-competitive pollywog class is entirely different from doing it for years and years in a competitive team environment. Obviously, I was using some hyperbole but the change to today's modern *** does take a good bit of tinkering from the old days to perfect. It's still a lame stroke, done by lame people in lame events only intended to give real swimmers rest between the real stroke events.

It's still a lame stroke, done by lame people in lame events only intended to give real swimmers rest between the real stroke events. Then you should be a pro...:rolleyes:

You are the type of swimmer I try to give a swift kick as a pass you by doing the *** stroke.:duel: There has never been a documented case of a breaststroker passing anyone in a pool, other than a noodler. All this is a bit tongue in cheek. I swam with an Olympic Trials breaststroker form Auburn and there is an Olympian breastroker at our pool and they are pretty incredible swimmers.