Swimming: why is breaststroke slower than front crawl?

Swimming front crawl (well) is far quicker than breaststroke because you should be creating far less resistance, and you will have almost constant propulsion.

By comparison, breaststroke is swum with the hips and knees lower in the water, and because both arms and both legs move at the same time, there are dead spots every single stroke.

If you’re swimming in a wetsuit you will be slower still as the majority of wetsuits aren’t designed with lateral (sideways) mobility in mind; so pushing against the wetsuit may well cause additional, unnecessary fatigue.

220 Triathlon Team Journalists, reviewers, coaches and athletes

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The 220 Triathlon team is made up of vastly experienced athletes, sports journalists, kit reviewers and coaches. In short, what we don't know about multisport frankly isn't worth knowing! Saying that, we love expanding our sporting knowledge and increasing our expertise in this phenomenal sport.