Breast stroke???

[Torrilin]

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.

[Wahine]

I would like to bring up what Kimmyt said about affecting the legs. Breast stroke stresses the inner knee and thigh. Fatiguing this area will predipose you to problems on the run, potentially.

Your slower front crawl times are likely related to body position in the water. I would guess that you're legs are hanging down in the water and creating drag and that you may be swimming "flat" (with very little roll side to side). Working with a coach even one or two times can make a huge difference and you may notice an increase in your speed very quickly.

So I am not in favor of swimming the whole event with breast stroke, but switching it up would be OK.

[Jolt]

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.

Yeah, freestyle isn't so good for hauling somebody in--that flutter kick just doesn't cut it, and when you're bringing somebody in your legs are doing most of the work seeing as your arms are sort of busy holding onto said person! Actually, I think elementary backstroke is probably the closest to what one does when bringing in a victim, at least if using a rescue tube like the Red Cross teaches.

The point about the breaststroke kick possibly tiring out your legs is a good one--in freestyle your arms are doing most of the work and the kick is mainly to keep your legs at the surface (at least that's basically all that my freestyle kick does--you should see how slow I am when using a kickboard and doing flutter kick). I wouldn't do breaststroke the whole time--switching it up sounds like a better plan considering that the other two events use your legs and not your arms (so tired arms wouldn't be a big issue).