How to Kick Breaststroke

Start in the water with both of your hands on the wall. Lie flat on your stomach with your legs stretched out behind you. Make sure you look straight down to help keep your feet from sinking. Looking down will help straighten your back, and lift your hips higher in the water. This will make it easier for you to float on the surface.

While floating on your stomach, touch your legs together and lock your knees. Flex your feet. To do so, feel your feet pull toward your shin. Flexing your feet allows you to push the water away from you, propelling you forward on every kick.

With your feet flexed, keep your heels touching and turn your toes outward. If you could see your feet, you’d notice that they’re making a “V.” For the remaining steps, try to keep your toes angled away from each other in this V-shape.

Turning your toes out will allow you to use your whole foot to push water. It also flexes your calf, which puts your leg in an ideal position to shove the water back and propel yourself forward.

Next, bend your knees to bring the heels toward your buttocks. Your knees should still touch with your feet flexed. Try not to let your feet come out of the water. Kicking air will not get you anywhere. This will also throw you off-kilter as you kick.

Now bring your legs slightly apart while keeping them bent. Try not to bring your legs too far apart. Many swimmers have very wide breaststroke kicks. Although it may feel intuitive to bring your legs far apart in order to push more water, this is not the case. Instead, keep the kick narrow. Try to let your knees come to about shoulder-width apart. This will save you time and effort on the kick.

Now straighten your legs. Your knees should still be about shoulder-width apart, and your feet should still be flexed.

Next, snap your legs together quickly until you feel them touch. Once again, your legs should be straight and together as they were in Step 2. This snapping motion is what is going to propel you forward. Keep this motion quick.

Glide at this point in the stroke. Between kicks, keep your legs touching with your knees locked. While holding this position, feel yourself shooting forward. If you kick too soon, this is like pulling a parachute: It will slow you down tremendously.

Instead, try to move like a jellyfish through the water. This means alternating between shoots and glides. Feel yourself shoot forward as you snap your legs together. Then, hold your body still for about two seconds before performing the next kick. You’ll feel yourself glide forward as you do so.

Go through Steps 2-6 over and over again. As you do, think about pattern you make with your feet. Here’s an easy way to remember it: “Up, out, squeeze.” Keep repeating that phrase with each step. At first, it might feel a little confusing. But keep practicing, and you’ll get it down.