Breaststroke vs. Butterfly vs. Freestyle: Which Technique Should You Master?

Imagine you're at the pool, staring at the black line, and you've got one season to become the best swimmer you can be. You can't master everything. So which stroke technique deserves your precious practice hours? I'm picking a winner, and I'm not going to pretend it's a tie.

The three strokes I'll compare are breaststroke, butterfly, and freestyle. I'm leaving out backstroke because it's a different beast — you can't see where you're going, and the start is in the water, which changes everything about how you train. These three are the ones most swimmers actually choose between when they're building an identity in the pool.

The criteria that matter

I'm judging each stroke on four things: raw speed, technical difficulty, how forgiving the rules are, and how much it helps you in other events. Speed is obvious — faster is better. Technical difficulty matters because a stroke you can't repeat under pressure is useless. Rules matter because disqualification is the fastest way to erase months of work. And transferability matters because most of us swim more than one event.

Let's start with speed. Freestyle — specifically the front crawl — is the fastest of the four strokes, and it's the one used in freestyle races (Britannica: Swimming sport). That's not opinion; that's why the 100 m freestyle world record sits at 46.40 seconds, set by Pan Zhanle at the Paris 2024 Olympics (Reuters: Pan Zhanle 100m freestyle world record). Butterfly is the second fastest, and it's often called the most difficult to master (Britannica: Butterfly). Breaststroke is the slowest of the three. So if pure speed is your goal, freestyle wins before we even talk about technique.

But speed alone doesn't decide this. Let's talk about rules, because this is where breaststroke and butterfly punish you. In breaststroke, you need a simultaneous two-hand touch at every turn and the finish, one arm stroke and one leg kick per cycle, and your elbows must stay underwater with your hands not coming back beyond your hip line (World Aquatics). You also have to get your head above the surface before your hands turn inward on the second stroke after the start or turn. Miss any of that, and you're done. Butterfly is even less forgiving: both arms must come forward over the water together, you need that same two-hand touch, and your legs must kick together in a dolphin motion — no alternating, no breaststroke kick (World Aquatics Swimming Rules Reference Card). Freestyle, by contrast, lets you swim any style you want, and you just need some part of your body to touch the wall at each turn and finish (World Aquatics). That's a massive difference in mental load.

Technical difficulty follows the same pattern. Butterfly is a timing nightmare — get the second dolphin kick wrong and your hips sink, and the stroke collapses. Breaststroke is a puzzle of glide and pull, and the rule about a single butterfly kick during the first breaststroke kick after the start and each turn (World Aquatics) is a gift most swimmers don't use well. Freestyle is the most forgiving because you can adjust your tempo, your breathing pattern, and your kick without breaking a rule. You can't do that in the other two.

Now, transferability. This is where freestyle quietly dominates. In the individual medley, the order is butterfly, backstroke, breaststroke, freestyle, and the medley relay goes backstroke, breaststroke, butterfly, freestyle (World Aquatics). Freestyle is the anchor leg in both. That means if you're a good freestyler, you're valuable on relays — and relay swimmers who race only in the heats still get a medal if their team earns one (NBC Olympics: Swimming 101 competition format). Butterfly and breaststroke are also in the medley, but freestyle is the one stroke that appears in its own standalone events from 50 m all the way to 1500 m. Backstroke, breaststroke, and butterfly max out at 200 m (Olympic swimming pool specifications). So freestyle gives you more ways to compete.

Let's put this in a table.

So who is each stroke for? Butterfly is for the swimmer who loves a physical challenge and has a coach who can drill timing relentlessly. It's a specialist's stroke — you don't dabble in butterfly and expect to win. Breaststroke is for the tactician, the swimmer who enjoys outsmarting the field with a perfect pullout and a legal two-hand touch every time. It rewards patience and precision. Freestyle is for almost everyone else. It's the stroke that gives you the most events, the most relay value, and the least chance of getting disqualified for a technicality.

My recommendation: if you're building a competitive foundation, make freestyle your primary technique. Not because butterfly and breaststroke aren't beautiful — they are — but because freestyle is the stroke that keeps you in the meet. You can swim it in the 50, the 100, the 200, the 400, the 800, the 1500, and every freestyle relay. In the individual medley, you finish with freestyle, and in the medley relay, you anchor with it (World Aquatics). That's leverage. And when you're tired and your technique is fraying, freestyle is the stroke that won't betray you with a disqualification for an illegal kick or a one-hand touch.

That said, I'll make a specific exception. If you're already a strong freestyler and you want to become a complete swimmer, learn breaststroke next. It's the stroke that teaches you patience and body awareness, and the rules — head breaking the surface before the hands turn inward, feet turned outward during the propulsive kick — force you to be precise (World Aquatics Swimming Rules Reference Card). Butterfly can wait until you have a base. Trying to learn butterfly before you can hold a consistent freestyle tempo is like trying to sprint before you can jog.

Here's the bottom line. Freestyle wins for most swimmers because it's the fastest, the most forgiving on rules, and the most transferable to other events. Butterfly wins only if you're a specialist with time to drill. Breaststroke wins if you love the chess match. If I had one season and one stroke to master, I'd pick freestyle every time — and I'd spend my first month on turns and breathing, not on trying to look pretty.

Sources

• World Aquatics - https://www.worldaquatics.com
• World Aquatics Swimming Rules Reference Card (2023-2025) - https://eastswimming.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/WA-Swimming-Reference-Card_13072023-Large-Print-Bold.pdf
• Britannica: Swimming sport - https://www.britannica.com/sports/swimming-sport
• Britannica: Butterfly (swimming) - https://www.britannica.com/sports/butterfly-swimming
• Reuters: Pan Zhanle 100m freestyle world record - https://www.reuters.com/sports/olympics/swimming-chinas-pan-obliterates-100m-freestyle-world-record-gold-2024-07-31/
• NBC Olympics: Swimming 101 competition format - https://www.nbcolympics.com/news/swimming-101-olympic-competition-format
• Olympic swimming pool specifications (Wikipedia) - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Olympic-size_swimming_pool