Which swimming style is the hardest?

But let's try to stick to the facts:

According to this image, the hardest style of swimming is the butterfly.

Here you burn the most calories in 30 minutes. 404 calories compared to 367 in breaststroke and 257 in both crawl and backstroke.

So that discussion was closed pretty quickly, wasn't it? Good thing you've always been a butterfly swimmer then, and have listened to all the breaststroke and crawl swimmers in Horsens Svømmeklub, who time and time again have complained about how hard they have had it in various speciality series (you know who you are :)).

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In fact, the image also shows that swimming in general is significantly harder than running, cycling, walking and rowing. Not really surprising, but nice-to-know nonetheless.
The fact that the butterfly is the hardest is not surprising to me either.

Here, your legs, core and arms are constantly moving without any breaks. In breaststroke, for example, you glide more, and in the crawl and backstroke you just lie still and move your arms and legs occasionally.

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Another way to look "tough"...

The hardest style to swim can also be seen by how long a distance you can swim in each style alone.

Here, you can keep swimming breaststroke for an almost infinite amount of time until it just gets boring.

You can almost do the same with crawl and backstroke.

The same is not the case with butterfly. You just get tired of it very quickly.

(this is also why butterfly swimmers are often allowed to swim other styles in "speciality series" - simply because it is impossible for the body to swim that far in that style)

So which style is the hardest to learn to swim correctly?

Another way to look at it is in terms of learning how to swim the different styles correctly. Here, it shouldn't necessarily be butterfly.

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On the other hand, I think it's more difficult to learn to swim breaststroke correctly, because it's very much a question of coordination between legs and arms, which is something that really bothers a lot of beginners.