Breaststroke is a way of swimming on your front. You push both arms out, then sweep them round in a circle back toward your chest, while you bend your knees up toward your body and kick them out and back together — a bit like a frog. That arm-and-leg cycle is one stroke. It is one of the four racing strokes; it is usually the slowest, but many learners start with it because you can keep your head up more easily than in freestyle. You can also use it as a verb: to breaststroke across the pool. Breast here is the chest you swim on, not a rude word. Though actually, race breaststroke has strict rules — the kick, the glide, when you may duck your head — and it looks quite different from the soft frog-kick many people do at the beach.