What Are the Hardest Strokes for Lap Swimming?

Lap swimming is an excellent way to stay in shape. Once you have mastered some of the easier or less strenuous swimming strokes, moving on to the more challenging strokes will give you a better workout. Freestyle, or front crawl, breaststroke and butterfly are the three most challenging swimming strokes. According to swim-teach.com, the butterfly is the most challenging because it is so strenuous. However, breaststroke is the most technically challenging stroke to learn. Spending some time learning how to do strokes correctly adds variety and challenge to your lap swimming workout.

  1. Butterfly

    • Both butterfly or breaststroke are difficult to learn as both are challenging technical strokes. However, the butterfly stroke has a huge energy expenditure as it takes a great deal of effort to lift both arms up and out of the water at the same time. The dolphin kick is very powerful, and that power comes by using up energy, making the stroke even harder.

      The double flutter kick, or dolphin kick, has both feet kicking together at the same time. The kick has a rhythm of two beats followed by a longer pause. The arms in the butterfly start out in front and simultaneously pull back through the water and exit down by the hips. The shoulders then rotate as the arms reach forward to do another pull. The kick is done when the arms are extended and when they are coming out of the water by the hips.

      Breathing is done when the arms are pulling back and the shoulders lift out of the water. Think of undulating through the water. Butterfly is so difficult to learn because the swimmer has to be very strong with flexible shoulders and strong hips. The shoulder and hip movement are what drives both the arm and the leg action in this challenging stroke.

    Breaststroke

    • The breaststroke appears to be easier than other strokes because it has a glide in it. But it is difficult to learn to do well, and in competition form, is very fast. The basic stroke has the swimmer lying in the water in a prone position with arms and legs stretched out. The arms bend at the elbow and the hands pull in towards the body. When they get close to the body they turn in and meet and extend back out to the front. At the same time, the knees bend and the feet draw up towards the buttocks. When they get close, the rotate out to the sides and then whip together. The whole combination is pull, kick, glide.

      While the breaststroke appears to be fairly simply, the mere misplacement of an ankle or knee can cause the swimmer to slow down and be inefficient. This stroke has a whip kick which is also difficult to do correctly, some swimmers struggle with dropping the hip and turning one foot in, more like a sidestroke kick. The technical aspects of this stroke can be discouraging and it is best to work with a coach when trying to master breaststroke.

    Freestyle

    • Breathing technique in freestyle.

      Front crawl or freestyle is the fastest stroke through the water. In the prone position, the swimmer uses a flutter kick, an alternating leg kicking up and down. At the same time the arms alternate reaching out in front of the body and then pulling down the body before exiting the water near the hip. What makes freestyle a challenge is learning how to breathe, which is done when one arm is lifted from the shoulder and reaching forward through the air. The swimmer turns their head just to the side, and takes a breath.

      Breathing correctly in freestyle takes some practice. Novice swimmers will attempt to lift their heads up to breathe instead of merely turning the head from side to side. Lifting the head causes the hips to drop down lower in the water and will slow the swimmer down. Novice swimmers will also try to swim flat on their stomachs instead of relaxing and allowing the hips to freely move from side to side while doing the stroke. The most difficult thing about freestyle is learning to relax into the stroke.

    Mixing It Up to Increase Challenge

    • When swimming laps it is always good to mix up the workout. After a warm up of five to ten minutes, change your stroke. Switch from front to back, or faster to slower. You can use a kickboard to focus on the lower part of your body, or put a pull buoy between your legs to just work on arm strokes. Practice your swimming skills each time you get in to swim to continue mastering your strokes.