Quote Originally Posted by anakiwa View Post
So what's wrong with me that my breaststroke is so much better than my crawl? Are there any implications of doing the breastroke for a more sustained distance? I suppose I need to repeat the experiment in open water over a longer distance.
Nothing's wrong with you. Like I said, for the average swimmer, breaststroke is their strongest stroke. It's pretty much the top choice for "ok, I need to haul in a 300 lb man who was drowning" even if you're a 120 lb female lifeguard. Lots of power, and easy to sustain with one hand behind your back.

It sounds like you aren't putting in the lap time to develop fast twitch muscle fibers for crawl. Crawl is a lot like cycling in terms of needing to sustain a fast repetitive motion for long durations. So you'd need to do the same kinds of training. Work on cadence. Do intervals (not just speed ones, vary your strokes since each one uses different muscles). Make sure your form is *right*. Go slowly to build strength. That training will also buff your breast stroke, but breast stroke will get less net speed out of it than crawl will.

Honestly, if doing speed comparisons between the two strokes will get you in the water so that you stay there, keep doing them! If working on form in private lessons will help, do that. Weight work might also help, either as a motivator to get into the pool, or as a way to build muscle.