Basic Swimming Strokes — Scout Skills

The five strokes

Front crawl (freestyle) — face-down, alternating arms with a flutter kick and rhythmic side-breathing; the fastest stroke, for covering distance.
Breaststroke — symmetric arm pull and frog kick, head rising to breathe; lets you see ahead and is steady in rough or crowded water.
Sidestroke — on your side, a pull-and-recover arm motion and scissors kick; efficient, and used in swim rescues to tow a person.
Back crawl (backstroke) — on your back, alternating arms and a flutter kick; face out of the water so breathing is easy.
Elementary backstroke — on your back, a symmetric arm sweep and frog kick with a glide; the resting stroke — low effort, sustainable.

1Learn to be comfortable first — floating, gliding, and rhythmic breathing before stroke work, with instruction and under Safe Swim Defense.
2Front crawl — streamline, alternate-arm pull with a steady flutter kick, roll to the side to breathe.
3Breaststroke — pull, breathe, kick, glide — symmetric arms and a frog kick, timing the glide.
4Sidestroke — glide on your side, scissors kick, "pick the apple, put it in the basket" arm motion; low-effort and good for towing.
5Back crawl — float on your back, alternate-arm windmill with a flutter kick, keeping hips up.
6Elementary backstroke — sweep arms out and pull with a frog kick, then glide; practice it as your resting stroke.
7Practice combining and resting — string strokes together and switch to a resting stroke when tired — what the swim test checks.

Swimming for fitness, fun, and the Swimming merit badge.
The swim classification test — strong strokes plus a resting stroke sort ability groups.
Water rescues — the sidestroke tows a victim; a strong resting stroke keeps a rescuer safe.

A resting stroke can save your life. The elementary backstroke and floating let you keep moving with almost no effort when tired — panic and exhaustion, not distance, drown people.
Learn to swim under proper supervision. Stroke practice happens inside Safe Swim Defense, in the area matched to your ability.
Know your limits. A stroke in a pool isn't the same as open water with cold, current, or waves — swim within your tested ability group.
Strokes are a rescue tool, but untrained people should not swim out to a drowning victim (the "go" is the last resort of reach-throw-row-go).
Rest before you're desperate — switch to a resting stroke or float before you're exhausted, not after.

Five strokes, five jobs. Crawl for speed, breast to see ahead, side to tow, back crawl to breathe easy, elementary back to rest.
The resting stroke is the important one. New swimmers chase speed; the stroke that keeps you alive is the slow, restful one you can do for a long time.
Sidestroke is the rescue stroke. It keeps one arm free and your head up — which is why lifeguards use it to tow.

Requirement distances are Scouting America's — described here in our own words. Learn strokes with in-water instruction, not from a page.