Which swimming stroke is easiest to learn?

Ask a pool full of adults which stroke they learned first and most will say breaststroke, often a heads-up version their grandparents would recognise. There is a reason for that, and there is also a case for not stopping there.

Breaststroke: the friendly one

Breaststroke has three big advantages for an adult beginner.

• Your head can stay up. You can see the wall, your friend and the lifeguard, which is reassuring.
• You breathe when you like. There is no strict rhythm to learn before you can go anywhere.
• It is slow and forgiving. The glide gives you a pause in every stroke.

The tricky part is the kick. The feet turn out and push back in a circle, which feels odd at first, and many self-taught swimmers use a looser scissor-style kick instead. A teacher can sort that out quickly. As you improve, you start putting your face in the water between breaths, which makes the stroke smoother and kinder on the neck.

Backstroke: the relaxing one

Backstroke asks for one leap of faith: lying back and letting the water hold you. Once that clicks, it is wonderfully calm.

• Your face is out of the water all the time, so breathing is easy.
• The rhythm is gentle: alternating arms, small steady kicks from the hips.
• The challenge is direction. You cannot see where you are going. Count your strokes per length, look at the ceiling or the sky for a reference point, and use the flags or lane ropes if your pool has them.

Some people find lying on their back unsettling at first, especially if water goes over their face. Practise floating on your back near the wall, with a float under your head or held to your chest, before adding arms.

Front crawl: the one worth the effort

Front crawl is the stroke most people picture when they think of swimming, and for many adults it is the one that feels hardest. The arms and legs are not the issue. The breathing is: face in the water, breathing out underwater, then turning to the side to breathe in, all in rhythm.

Once that is sorted, front crawl tends to feel smooth and efficient, and it is the stroke many people use for longer swims, in the pool and in the sea. If breathing is the stumbling block, our guide to breathing in front crawl breaks it down step by step.

And butterfly?

Butterfly is beautiful, powerful and not anyone's first stroke. Learn it for fun, later, when you want something new to be terrible at.

How to choose your starting point

• If deep water makes you nervous, start with breaststroke near the wall and learn to float on your back as well.
• If you already swim heads-up breaststroke, learning to put your face in the water is the next big step, and it opens the door to front crawl.
• If you want to swim further, front crawl is worth the patience.
• If you just want to relax, backstroke is the stroke for lying in the sea and looking at the clouds, where conditions allow.

The best approach for most adults is to learn two: one restful stroke and one that moves you along. Many pools run small, friendly adult classes; our page on learning to swim properly as an adult explains what to expect.

What makes any stroke easier

• Relax your neck and shoulders. Tension sinks you.
• Slow down. Most beginners hurry and run out of breath.
• Practise floating. Floating on front and back teaches you that the water helps.
• Get feedback. A teacher, a friend with a phone at the poolside or even a session with a kickboard tells you more than another hundred lengths alone.