New Breaststroke Rule Adopted by FINA

Be a Safer Swimmer - 360swim SaferSwimmer

Oct 18, 2005

New Breaststroke Rule Adopted by FINA










You can read a bit more about it here



Alisa said...

Personally, I cheered when my coach told me I was allowed the dolphin kick. I'm an IMer and I really lose my lead when breast comes around.

Because I was competing in USA and public highschool meets at the same time, I was confused as to when I am allowed to use the dolphin kick. Has it been approved for HS swimming?

Michelle said...

A dolphin kick = a fly kick?

Cuz I always thought we could do fly kicks after kicking off the wall.. I know I've always done it.. and I was an IMer..

Soothie said...

No, it hasn't been adapted to the High School leagues, neither has the rule that you can have your toes out of the water on your backstroke start.

Shannon - Canada said...

I think that FINA made a good decision in adopting this rule. It will definitely reduce the number of disqualifications in breaststroke, and it's great to see that they're allowing swimming to "evolve". It's the same thing as when they changed the rules to allow front flipturns in backstroke, long ago.

Anonymous said...

It seems to me that a doliphin kick would slow you down...I'm a breast person myself, and I prefer that breast stroke have as little to do with the fly as possible. Thats just me.

libor said...

Actually, dzolphin (fly) kick is to be considered amongst swimmers as the 5th stroke. If done properly (after lots and lots of practice) it is the fastest way to go through the water right after the push off. However, I agree that this kick is one of the hardest once to learn. If you are a beginner, free/back kick is the best to start out with.

aquabot said...

It appears you might slow down because of that..How much the breast stroke have an impact on it ..tell me...

libor said...


I don't have much research data in regards to the dolphin kick being faster or slower, however, from experience I can tell you that if you perform one fly kick, it will propel you forward a bit as oppose to not doing the kick. I'd guess you can get extra 0.5-1 meter of each turn if done properly. If you combine it with a shoulder shrug as described in this post, you'll be amazed how much further you will go underwater. Now, going further underwater equals to not spending extra energy swimming, so theoretically you should be faster. (given the assumption holding your breath is not a problem for you) :)

ERP said...

If you are a USA swimmer, this change brings the rules in line with FINA rules. The governing bodies seem to want swimmers to be good at swimming the stroke, not streamlining across the pool. Check the rules section at If you are in another organization, check on their web site for other information.

Anonymous said...

With this update to the stroke swimmers will be allowed to do all the fly kick they want before the usual breastroke underwater kick + arm pull (until 15m) which will certainly drop the world record 5 to 6 seconds. Breastroke will be very similar to fly underwater unfortunately..