To begin breast stroke you need to keep your body flat and lie face down in the water

aiming to keep
your body straight as possible.

The 3 steps are: The Catch, The Pull and The Recovery

The Catch
To start the catch extend your arms out in front of you with your hands pitched outwards ever so slightly.
Drills
A drill to isolate and focus on the arms is to swim breast stroke with a butterfly dolphin kick.
Breathing
Breathing is a crucial element. This delivers oxygen to your muscles and helps to swim more comfortably
and efficiently.
Kick
The breaststroke kick can be a difficult skill to master but having a strong kick can really help.
Drills
To focus on the kick you can also use a kickboard to isolate your legs and practice the technique without
worrying the timing of your arms.

Butterfly
It is swum on your front. Eyes facing down, forwards as in front crawl. Your body should be parallel to
the bottom of the pool.
Arm Action
Once you push off, start your stroke from a streamlined position.
Pull both your arms back towards your legs simultaneously.
Maintain a high elbow position, trying to keep your hands and forearms angled downwards for as long as
possible throughout the duration of the pull phase.
Then straighten your arms to finish the stroke off past your hips.
As you complete the pull, lift your hands up out of the water before using your shoulders combined with
momentum of your body movement to draw them out and around in front of your head, to start the next
stroke.

Leg Action
Two kicks are performed every stroke cycle. One as your hands enter the water and another as they exit.
To perform dolphin kick, you must drive from your hips. Keeping your lower legs relaxed. You’ll need to
use your core and glutes to help drive your ankles downwards and extend your legs with your toes relaxed
and pointed in order to press down the water resulting in that forward propulsion.
Breathing
Time your head movement into and out of the water
Maintain a neutral down froward-looking head position, until your hands are below your body.
As your hands start to push back on the water, lift your head to breathe but chin should never leave the
water.
As your arms drive backwards, and your legs kick powerfully down to propel you forwards, you can
maintain this head up position until you’ve taken you breath and ready for the next stroke.
Drills
You can improve your butterfly stroke by practicing a number of drills.
Kicking with fins can help you improve your ankle flexibility which is essential for a strong dolphin kick.
Swimming with fins can definitely improve your butterfly stroke.