What is the most important element of swimming breaststroke?

Timing is the most important aspect of swimming breaststroke. The swimmer needs to make sure to do the leg stroke (kicking) at a moment when the body is streamlined and presents the least resistance to the water. To achieve that, the arm stroke should be finished or almost finished before kicking begins. After kicking it is important to keep the streamlined position for some time to maintain the speed through gliding. The exact duration of gliding depends on the target distance of a given event or race. The longer the distance of the race is, the longer the gliding phase should be. For example, for a 50m race the gliding phase could be below 1 second, while for a 200m race it may be over 2 seconds.