How much glide is right in breaststroke: why the stretch after the kick holds your speed and how the stroke count helps you find the ideal glide time.
The honest answer to "how much glide is right?": at a calm steady pace about one to two seconds per stroke – long enough to carry the speed along, short enough not to starve to a standstill. The glide phase is the moment you harvest the drive of the kick instead of giving it away.
It sounds paradoxical: of all things, doing nothing makes you faster. The reason lies in the physics of breaststroke – it has the largest velocity fluctuation of all strokes. After the kick you're at your fastest; start the next pull immediately and you brake yourself in the middle of your best phase.
Gliding isn't a pause, it's active speed-keeping. This guide shows you how to hold the stretch cleanly, how long it should be and how a simple number lets you work out whether you start the next pull too early or too late.
For many this is the aha-moment in breaststroke: they pulled too frantically for years and thought they had to work harder. In truth they only lacked the courage to briefly do nothing. That short nothing is the difference between swimming and fighting – and it costs you no strength, it saves some.
### 1. Into the stretch after the kick As soon as the kick closes, make yourself as long and narrow as possible: arms extended forward, head low between the arms, legs together. This streamline lowers drag and lets you roll far.
### 2. Hold one to two seconds Count inwardly "one-thousand-one" – that's roughly your glide time at steady pace. You feel yourself glide evenly first and then slow. Right at that point, just before you brake noticeably, the next pull begins.
### 3. Measure via stroke count Count your strokes per 25 m length. Speed is stroke rate times stroke length – more glide means fewer strokes at the same time. If your number drops without you getting slower, you glide more efficiently.
### 4. Match glide time to pace Glide time is not a fixed value. On long, calm distances you glide longer; in a sprint you shorten it a lot because there you need rate. Distance rewards patience, sprint rewards rhythm. Get to know both ends of this scale, then you can steer your pace via glide time instead of only via more force.
The glide phase itself is joint-friendly – it gives shoulder and knee a micro-break each stroke. But don't confuse it with daydreaming: in a long glide it's easy to underestimate the remaining distance to the wall, especially at turns and lane ends.
If you have a history of back or neck trouble, keep the head neutral between the arms in the stretch and don't press it into an arched back. That keeps the glide line long and the spine relaxed.
Play the game "one length, one stroke fewer": try to do each 25 m length with one stroke less without getting slower. The only lever for that is more clean gliding.
Eventually you find your personal tipping point – the longest glide time before the speed collapses. From there you swim breaststroke like an advanced swimmer: maximum distance per stroke, minimum lost power.
### How much glide is right in breaststroke? At a calm steady pace about one to two seconds per stroke, until the speed noticeably drops. In a sprint clearly shorter. Rule of thumb: glide while you roll well, and start the next pull a touch before you get noticeably slower.
### Can you glide too much in breaststroke? Yes. Glide to a complete standstill and you must re-accelerate every stroke from nothing – that costs more energy than it saves. The ideal glide time ends just before your speed collapses, not after.
### Why do I get slower when I glide more? Then you're probably gliding too long, almost to a standstill. Gliding only holds the speed the kick created – it produces none itself. Shorten the stretch so you start the next pull while still rolling noticeably.
### How do I measure whether my glide is good? Via strokes per length. Fewer strokes at the same time mean more distance per stroke and therefore more efficient gliding. Note your strokes over 25 m across several weeks – if the number drops at constant pace, your glide is improving.
### Do you glide when sprinting too? Barely. In a sprint stroke rate dominates and the glide shrinks almost to zero, because you don't want to waste time. The long glide belongs to economical distance swimming; in a short competitive sprint it's deliberately sacrificed.
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