Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.

Breaststroke

Definitions: Breaststroke

Breaststroke

Noun

1. A swimming stroke; the arms are extended together in front of the head and swept back on either side accompanied by a frog kick.

Verb

1. Swim with the face down and extend the arms forward and outward while kicking with the leg.

Source: WordNet 1.7.1 Copyright © 2001 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
 


Crosswords: Breaststroke

English words defined with "breaststroke": breaststroker. (references)

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Specialty Definition: Breaststroke

(From Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia)

Breaststroke is swum on the breast and is the most popular recreational swimming style due to its stability and the ability to keep the head out of the water at all times. In most swimming classes, beginners learn either the breaststroke or the front crawl first.

Speed and Ergonomics

Breaststroke is the slowest of the three official styles in competitive swimming. The fastest breaststroke swimmers can swim around 1.6m per second, most competitive swimmers swim around 1m per second. The push off at the start and after the turns contributes significantly to the swimming times. Therefore one way to improve the swimming times is to focus on the start and the turns. Breaststroke is swum on the breast, with the arms and legs under water (almost) all the time, and the body often at a steep angle to the forward movement. This slows down the swimmer more than any other style. Swimming breaststroke requires more strength and more energy than any other style, including butterfly. Furthermore, Breaststroke makes significant use of the leg muscles compared to other swimming styles.

History

(see History of swimming)

The history of breaststroke goes back to the Stone Age, as for example pictures in the cave of swimmers near Wadi Sora in the southwestern part of Egypt near Libya. The 1904 Summer Olympics in St. Louis, were the first olympics featuring a separate breaststroke competition, over a distance of 440 yards.

Technique

The breaststroke starts with the swimmer lying in the water face down, arms extended straight forward and legs extended straight to the back.

The Arm Movement

There are three steps to the arm movement: Outsweep, Insweep, and Recovery. The movement starts with the outsweep. From the initial position, the hands sink a little bit down and the palms face outward, and the hands move apart. During the outsweep the arms stay almost straight and parallel to the surface. The outsweep is followed by the insweep, were the hands point down and push the water backwards. The elbows stay in the horizontal plane through the shoulders. The hands push back till approximately the vertical plane through the shoulders. At the end of the insweep the hands come together with facing palms in front of the chest and the elbows are at the side at the body. In the recovery phase the hands are moved forward again into the initial position under water. The entire arm stroke starts slowly, increases speed to the peak arm movement speed in the insweep phase, and slows down again during recovery. The goal is to produce maximum thrust during the insweep phase, and minimum drag during the recovery phase.

As a variant, it is possible to recover the arms over water. This reduces drag, but requires more power. Some competitive swimmers use this variant.

Another variant is the underwater pull-down, similar to the push phase of a butterfly stroke. This stroke continues the insweep phase and pushes the hands all the way to the back to the sides of the hip. This greatly increases the push from one stroke, but also makes recovery more difficult. This style is well suited for underwater swimming. However, FINA allows this stroke only for the first stroke after the start and each turn.

The Leg Movement

The leg movement consists of two phases: brining the feet into position for the thrust phase and the thrust phase. From the initial position with the legs stretched out backward, the feet are moved together towards the posterior, while the knees stay together. The knees should not sink too low, as this increases the drag. Then the feet point outward in preparation for the thrust phase. In the thrust phase, the legs are moved elliptically back to the initial position. During his movement, the knees are kept together. The legs move slower while brining the legs into position for the thrust phase, and move very fast during the trust phase. Again, the goal is produce maximum thrust during the insweep phase, and minimum drag during the recovery phase.

As a variant, some swimmers move the knees apart during the preparation phase and keep them apart till almost the end of the thrust phase. This style is often easier for beginners, and also produces less stress on the knees.

Another variant of the breaststroke kick is the scissor kick, however, this kick violates the rules of the FINA as it is no longer symmetrical. Swimming teachers put a great effort into steering the students away from the scissor kick. In the scissor kick, one leg moves as described above, but the other leg does not form a elliptical movement but merely an up-down movement similar to the flutter kick of front crawl. Some swimming teachers believe that learning the front crawl first gives a higher risk of an incorrect scissor kick when learning breaststroke afterwards.

Breaststroke can also be swum with the dolphin kick in butterfly, yet this also violates the FINA rules.

Breathing

The easiest approach to breathing is to keep the head out of the water and breathe whenever necessary. This is usually done during recreational swimming, as it is the most comfortable way. In competitive swimming, however, the face is in the water up to the ears to streamline the body position, or even submerged completely. Breathing is usually done during the beginning of the insweep phase of the arms, and the swimmer breathes in ideally through the mouth. The swimmer breathes out through mouth and nose during the recovery and gliding phase. Breaststroke can be swum faster if submerged completely, but FINA requires the head to break the surface once per cycle except for the first cycle after the start and each turn. Thus, competitive swimmers usually make one underwater pull-down, pushing the hands all the way to the back after the start and each turn.

Body Movement

The movement starts in the initial position with the body completely straight, The body movement is coordinated such that the legs are ready for the thrust phase while the arms are halfway through the insweep, and the head is out of the water for breathing. In this position the body has also the larges angle to the horizontal. The arms are recovered during the thrust phase of the legs. After the stroke the body is kept in the initial position for some time to utilize the sliding phase. Depending on the distance and fitness the duration of this sliding phase varies. Usually the sliding phase is shorter during sprints than during long distance swimming. The sliding phase is also longer during the underwater stroke after the start and each turn.

Start

Breaststroke uses the regular start for swimming. Some swimmers use a variant called the frog start, where the legs are pulled forward sharply before being extended again quickly during the airborne phase of the start. After the start a sliding phase follows under water, followed by one underwater pull-down and another sliding phase before the regular swimming, this is known as the pull-out. The head must break the surface during the second stroke.

Turn and Finish

For competitive swimming it is important that the wall at the end of the lane is always touched by the hands at the same time due to FINA regulations.

The turn is initiated by touching the wall during the sliding or during the recovery phase of the arms, depending on how the wall can be touched faster. After touching the wall, the legs are pulled underneath of the body. The body turns sideways while one hand is moved forward (i.e. towards the head) along the side of the body. When the body is almost completely turned, the other hand will be swung straight up through the air such that both hands meet at the front at the same time. At that time the body should also be almost in the horizontal and partially or totally submerged. After the body is completely submerged, the body is pushed off the wall with both legs. Doing this under water will reduce the drag. After a sliding phase, a underwater pull-down is done, followed by another sliding phase and then regular swimming. The head must break the surface during the second stroke.

As a variant, some swimmers experiment with a flip over turn similar to front crawl.

The finish is similar to the touching of the wall during a turn.

Competitions

There are three common distances swum in competitive breaststroke swimming, both over either a long course (50m pool) or a short course (25m pool). Of course, other distances are also swum on occasions.

Breaststroke is also part of the medley over the following distances:

These are the official FINA rules. They apply to swimmers during official swimming competitions.

Source: adapted by the editor from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia under a copyleft GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL) from the article "Breaststroke."

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Commercial Usage: Breaststroke

DomainTitle

Books

  • Butterfly and Breaststroke the TI Way: Waterproof Drill Guide (reference)

    (more book examples)

Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

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Image Slideshow: Breaststroke

Illustrations:
Breaststroke

More pictures...

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Usage Frequency: Breaststroke

"Breaststroke" is generally used as a noun (singular) -- approximately 70.59% of the time. "Breaststroke" is used about 17 times out of a sample of 100 million words spoken or written in English. Its rank is based on over 700,000 words used in the English language. Some parts-of-speech are not covered due to the samples used by the British National Corpus. (note: percents less than one-hundredth of one percent have been omitted)
Parts of SpeechPercentUsage per
100 Million Words
Rank in English
Noun (singular)70.59%12101,599
Lexical Verb (base form)23.53%4175,879
Lexical Verb (infinitive)5.88%1339,140
                    Total100.00%17N/A

Source: compiled by the editor from several corpora; see credits.

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Frequency of Internet Keywords: Breaststroke

The following statistics estimate the number of searches per day across the major English-language search engines as identified by various trade publications. Hyperlinks lead to commercial use of the expression at Amazon.com.
 
ExpressionFrequency
per Day

breaststroke

40

breaststroke swimming

6

breaststroke technique

4

breaststroke drill

3

breaststroke video

3

breaststroke tip

2
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

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Modern Translations: Breaststroke

Language Translations for "breaststroke"; alternative meanings/domain in parentheses.

Chinese 

  

蛙泳 . (various references)

   

Czech

  

prsa (breast, bust). (various references)

   

German

  

brustschwimmen. (various references)

   

Hungarian

  

mellúszás (the breaststroke). (various references)

   

Italian

  

nuoto a rana. (various references)

   

Japanese Kanji 

  

胸泳 , ブレーク信号 (blade, blazer, blazer coat, blend, blended whiskey, bleomycin, blow, bracelet, braid, brain, brain trust, brainstorming, bread, break, break signal, breast, breast stroke, breath, brochure, broken, broken English, broken heart, broker, brooch), 平泳ぎ . (various references)

   

Japanese Katakana 

  

ブレストストローク , きょうえい (competitive showing of films, joint management, mutual prosperity, swimming race), ひらおよぎ. (various references)

   

Pig Latin

  

eaststrokebray

   

Serbo-Croatian

  

prsni stil. (various references)

   

Spanish

  

braza de pecho. (various references)

   

Swedish

  

bröstsim. (various references)

   

Turkish

  

kurbağalama yüzüş. (various references)

Source: compiled by the editor from various translation references.

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Derivations: Breaststroke

Derivations

Words beginning with "breaststroke": breaststroker, breaststrokers, breaststrokes. (additional references)

Source: compiled by the editor, based on several corpora (additional references).

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Anagrams: Breaststroke

Scrabble® Enable2K-Verified Anagrams

Words within the letters "a-b-e-e-k-o-r-r-s-s-t-t"

-3 letters: barrettes, berrettas, keratoses, streakers.

-4 letters: abetters, abettors, aborters, asserter, assertor, assorter, barrette, berettas, berretta, berserks, boasters, breakers, estreats, keratose, oratress, reassert, reassort, rebaters, restarts, restates, restokes, restores, retakers, retastes, retreats, roasters, rosettes, rostrate, serrates, soberest, sorbates, starkers, starkest, starters, stertors, streaker, strokers, taborers, taborets, terrases, toasters, treaters.

-5 letters: abetter, abettor, aborter, aerobes, arbores.

 Words containing the letters "a-b-e-e-k-o-r-r-s-s-t-t"
 

+1 letter: breaststroker, breaststrokes.

 

+2 letters: breaststrokers.

Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

SCRABBLE® is a registered trademark. All intellectual property rights in and to the game are owned in the U.S.A and Canada by Hasbro Inc., and throughout the rest of the world by J.W. Spear & Sons Limited of Maidenhead, Berkshire, England, a subsidiary of Mattel Inc. Mattel and Spear are not affiliated with Hasbro.

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Alternative Orthography: Breaststroke


Hexadecimal (or equivalents, 770AD-1900s) (references)

42 72 65 61 73 74 73 74 72 6F 6B 65

Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519; backwards) (references)

American Sign Language (origins from 1620-1817 in Italy and, especially, France) (references)

=

Semaphore (1791, in France) (references)

Braille (1829, in France) (references)

Morse Code (1836) (references)

-...    .-.    .    .-    ...    -    ...    -    .-.    ---    -.-    .

Dancing Men (Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, 1903) (references)

Binary Code (1918-1938, probably earlier) (references)

01000010 01110010 01100101 01100001 01110011 01110100 01110011 01110100 01110010 01101111 01101011 01100101

HTML Code (1990) (references)

&#66 &#114 &#101 &#97 &#115 &#116 &#115 &#116 &#114 &#111 &#107 &#101

ISO 10646 (1991-1993) (references)

0042 0072 0065 0061 0073 0074 0073 0074 0072 006F 006B 0065

British Sign Language (Fingerspelling, BSL; 1992, British Deaf Association Dictionary of British Sign Language) (references)

Encryption (beginner's substitution cypher): (references)

368471678586858684817771

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INDEX

1. Definition
2. Crosswords
3. Usage: Commercial
4. Images: Slideshow
5. Usage Frequency
6. Expressions: Internet
7. Translations: Modern
8. Derivations
9. Anagrams
10. Orthography
11. Bibliography


  

Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.

 

 

 

 

Note to the press & webmasters - this dictionary can be linked, indexed, or referred to using the following non-English expressions:
woordeboek, fjalor, ‏معجم, ‏قاموس, diccionariu, речник, diccionari, diksyonario, diksinario, 字典, gérlyver, slovník, ordbog, woordenboek, shimiyuc p'anca, orðabók, orðbók, dictionnaire, wurdboek, wörterbuch, λεξικό, אוצר מילים, szótár, uqausiit tukingit, dizionario, 字引 , じい, じびき, じて", ディクショナリー , じり", じしょ, '"かい, ディクショナリ , 사 , dizionari, recnik, fockleyr, dikshonario, słownik, dicionário, dicţionar, dicziunari, словарь, lolomi fefiloi, foclair, abardair, faclair, briathrachan, pukuntau, leksikon, rečnik, vocabbulariu, diccionario, sí-chazamagâma, ordbok, lexikon, พจนานุกรม, sözlük, ansiklopedik sözlük, словник, довідник, có tính chất sách vở, geirlyfr, geiriadur, for dictionary;
definisie, qartësi, përcaktim, saktësi, ‏الوضوحية في الشيء, ‏حد, ‏تحديد, ‏تعريف, ‏التحديد, ‏الإيضاحية, яснота, сила, очертания, дефиниция, 定義 , 定义, definice, deskriptordefinition, definitie, määritelmä, définition, ορισμός, "'"ר", "'בל", meghatározás, definíció, definizione, 確定 , ディーゼル電気車 , デ'ドロ酢酸 , デフィニション , ディフィニション , ていぎ, かくてい, 의, geyrid, meenaghey, keeayllaght, baght, definishon, definição, definiţie, determinare, definire, определение, definicija, definición, definition, açıklama, belirleme, belirtme, kesinleştirme, tanım, tarif, seçiklik, tanımlama, чіткість, тлумачення, виразність, визначення, дефініція, ясність, чітка чутність, sự định rõ, sự định nghĩa, lời định nghĩa sự định, diffiniad, darnodiad, for definition;
vertaling, transferim, transmetim, ‏ترجمة من لغة أجنبية للغة الأم, ‏ترجمة, ‏إفتتان, транслация, огъване, превод, предаване, поддаване, тълкуване, превеждане, 翻译, překlad, oversættelse, translatie, taajuusmuutos, translaatio, traduction, oersetting, Übersetzung, μετάφραση, תור'מ ות, תר'ום, "עתק", "עתק, fordítás, traduzione, 翻訳 , へい"ういどう, やくしょ, やくしゅつ, "うどく, ほ"やく, トランスレーション , やくじゅつ, ほ"やくしょ, 번역, tradukshon, tradução, translaţie, tãlmãcire, traducere, сдвиг, трансляция, перемещение, перевод, tumačenje, traducción, översättning, tercüme, процес перекладу, переклад, пояснення, переміщення, sự dịch, sự biến th nh sự giải thích, trosiad, for translation;
Sjinees, Chinees, kinez, ‏الصينية, ‏لغة الصين, ‏صيني, ‏الصيني أحد أبناء الصين, Chinu, китайски, Ininsik, 汉语, 中 , 漢 , 中國 , èínský, èínština, èíòan, kineser, kinesiskt, kinverskur, kiinalainen, Chinois, Sineesk, Chinesisch, Κινέζος, κινέζικα, κινέζικοσ, κινέζοσ, σινικόσ, kínai, Kínverji, Sínis, cinese, チフス菌 , チャイニーズ , 중국, Cina, Sheenish, Sheenagh, Hainamana, chines, Chińczyk, chinês, chinés, chinezesc, chinezeşte, chinezã, chinez, китайский, китаец, Saina, kineski jezik, kineski, chino, snesi, sneysi, kinesisk, çinli, çince, çin ile ilgili, çin, китаянка, китайська мова, китайський, кита"ць, for Chinese;
Tsjeggies, Tsjeg, çek, ‏تشيكي, ‏اللغة التشيكوسلوفاكية, ‏التشيكي أحد أبناء تشيكوسلوفاكيا, Checu, чешки, Sekoslovakyano, 捷克語 , 捷克语, 捷克 , èesky, èeské, èech, èeština, èeský, èeška, tjekker, tjekke, Tsjech, Tsjechisch, tjekkiskt, t?ekkiläinen, tchèque, Tsjechysk, Tscheche, tschechisch, Tschechin, Τσέχος, cseh, ceco, 체", Sheckagh, Sheckish, Czech, chèc, ceh, чешский, češki jezik, čeh, češki, checo, tjeck, Çek, çekoslovakyalı kimse, çekoslovakyalı, çek dili, чех, чеська мова, чеський, чешка, người Séc tiếng Séc, for Czech;
Duits, Duitser, Duitse taal, Germaan, gjerman, ‏ضرب من الرقص, ‏جرماني, ‏المانية, ‏الماني, ‏اللغة الألمانية, роден, германски, немски език, немски, немец, готически, германец, 德語 , 德语, 德文 , 德國 , nìmecký, nìmec, tysker, Duitse, týskur, týskt, týskari, saksalainen, Allemand, Dútsk, Deutsche, Deutsch, "ερμανός, gjermanisht, 'רמ י, 'רמ ית, német, þjóðverji, þýskur, GearmÚnach, GearmÚinis, tedesco, ジプシー音楽 , ジャーマン , 독일, todesch, Germaanagh, Garmane, Germaanish, Carmane, aleman, Niemiec, niemiecki, alemão, alemand, neamţ, немецкий, Siamani, germanski, alemán, Tudesku, Doysri, mjeremani, mdachi, sí-Jalimáne, tysk, เยอรมัน, าษาเยอรมัน, Alman, німкеня, німецький, німець, $sisters german$ chị em ruột, $cousin german$ anh chị em con chú bác ruột, sister, Almaenwr, isiJalimane, iliJalimane, iJalimane, for German;
Hongaars, Hongaar, hungarez, ‏الهنغاري, ‏مجري, ‏هنغاري, ‏المجري, ‏اللغة الهنغارية, Húngaru, унгарски език, унгарски, унгарец, Hungaryan, 匈牙利語 , 匈牙利语, maïarský, maïar, maïarština, ungarer, Hongaarse, ungarskt, unkarilainen, hongrois, Hongaarsk, ungar, Ούγγρος, "ו 'רי, magyar, ungherese, 헝가리, Ungaarish, Ungaaragh, Węgier, ongrés, ungureşte, ungur, limba maghiarã, unguresc, maghiar, limba ungarã, венгр, венгерский, mađarski, mađar, mađarski jezik, húngaro, ungrare, ชาวฮังการี, macarca, macar, угорська мова, угорка, угорський, угорець, người Hung-ga-ri tiếng Hung-ga-ri, for Hungarian;
Italianer, Italiaans, Italiaan, ‏شخص إيطالي, ‏اللغة الإيطالية, ‏الإيطالي, ‏إيطالي, Italianu, италиански език, италиански, италианец, Italyano, 意大利 , 意大利語 , 意大利语, italština, italský, ital, italiener, italienskt, italialainen, Italien, Italjaansk, italienisch, Ιταλός, italisht, איטלקי, איטלקית, olasz, Ítali, IodÚilis, italiano, 이탈리아, Iddaalish, Włoch, italianã, italienesc, italieneşte, italian, итальянский язык, итальянский, итальянец, Italia, italijanski, italijanski jezik, italijan, sí-Taliyáne, italienare, italiensk, italienska, เกี่ยวกับอิตาลี, ชาวอิตาลี, าษาอิตาลี, italyanca, italyan, італі"ць, італійська мова, італійський, італійка, for Italian;
塞爾維亞克羅地亞語 , 塞"维亚-克罗地亚语, serbokroatisch, 세르보크로아티아, servo-croata, sârbo-croat, srpsko-hrvatski, srpsko-hrvatski jezik, serbokroatiska, serbokroatisk, เกี่ยวกับ าษาเซอร์เบียและโครเอเชีย, าษาหลักของชาวเซอร์เบียและโครเอเชีย, for Serbo-Croatian;
Spaans, Spaanse taal, spanjoll, ‏اللغة الأسبانية, ‏الأسبانية, ‏أسباني, испански език, испански, espanyoles, Espanyol, 西班牙语, 西班牙文 , 西班牙語 , španìlský, španìlština, spanskt, espanjalainen, espagnol, Spaansk, spanisch, ισπανικά, ισπανικόσ, ισπανοί, karaiñe'êmegua, ספר"ית, ספר"י, spanyol, SpÚinnis, spagnolo, スペイン語 , スパイ罪 , スペイン", スパニッシュ , 스페인, Spaainagh, Spaainish, spañó, espanhol, espanhòl, spaniolesc, spanioleşte, spaniol, испанский, Sipaniolo, španski jezik, španski, español, spanska språk, spansk, ispanyollar, ispanyolca, ispanyol, іспанська мова, іспанський, for Spanish;
Sweeds, suedez, ‏اللغة السويدية, Suecu, шведски език, шведски, швед, Swedis, 瑞典語 , 瑞典语, švédský, švédština, Zweeds, svenskt, ruotsalainen, suédois, Sweedsk, schwedisch, σουηδικόσ, σουηδικά, svéd, sænskur, Sualainnis, svedese, スウェーデン語 , スウェーデン", 스웨덴, Soolynish, Soolynagh, suèc, шведский, švedski jezik, švedski, sueco, svensk, เกี่ยวกับคน าษาและวั'นธรรมของประเทศสวีเ"น, isveççe, isveç dili, isveç, Ísveçlí, шведська мова, шведський, người Thuỵ điển tiếng Thuỵ điển, for Swedish;
Turks, turk, ‏تركي أحد أبناء تركيا, ‏اللغة التركية, Turcu, турски, турски език, Turko, 土耳其, 土耳其語 , tureètina, turecký, turkist, turkkilainen, turque, turc, Turksk, türkisch, τούρκικοσ, טורקי, török, Yn Turkish, Turkagh, turcesc, турецкий, turski jezik, turski, turco, turkisk, türk, türkçe, турецька мова, турецький, tiếng Thổ nhĩ kỳ, for Turkish;