h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Nice amusing article but you would think there is no use of the legs in Crawl, breastroke and Backstroke. Strangely enough, in all 3, the use of the legs is the main form of propulsion, but never mind eh?

This comment is wrong.

Both frontcrawl and backstroke are arm-dominated strokes. While your legs provide a small amount of propulsion, it is the arms that are the main driving force.

The only leg-dominated stroke is Breaststroke.

I'm not sure that I agree with you. Legs and arms both are significant in breastroke, pretty equally I think. (by the way, I'm a competitive swimmer who is fairly fast at breastroke, I am getting 9 grand a year to swim it in college). If you spin your arms, there is no way even the best kick in the world is going to propel you efficiently. Breastroke takes the most core body strength of any of the four competitive strokes. Pulling yourself out of the water and forward comes mostly from the arms. The kick is the end "thrust" of the stroke, driving the swimmer into the crucial glide/recovery time.

I do agree that freestyle(or frontcrawl if you must) and backstroke are arm driven with less leg movement. Butterfly is also, it's not the arm movement OVER the water that propels you, it's the fast pulls underwater combined with the dolphin kick. Thanks!