Skip to main content

The Four Competitive Swimming Strokes

The four main competitive swim strokes 

These swim strokes consist of the backstroke, the breaststroke, the butterfly stroke and freestyle. Here is a simple breakdown of each stroke.


Backstroke

Backstroke:

During the backstroke, the swimmer is laying on one's back. The legs are doing a flutter kick and the arms are moving in a fan-like motion. While one arm is moving from the hips up over the head, the other arm is underwater moving from over the head down to the hips. This stroke is slower than front crawl and butterfly, but faster than the breaststroke.   
Click here to watch a video on how to swim the backstroke.

Breaststroke

Breaststroke:

The breaststroke is easily the most popular and most used stroke styles. The swimmer's arms are moving in the same half-circle motion while their legs are moving in the same whip kick motion. Sometimes referred to as the "frog" stroke, the breaststroke is swam on the chest while the legs kick in an out and down motion similar to that of a frog.
Click here to watch a video on how to swim the breaststroke.

Butterfly stroke

Butterfly Stroke:

The butterfly stroke is the hardest and most unique of the four. It is swam on the chest while the arms are moving simultaneously and the legs are doing a dolphin kick. The arms come up and out of the water for an above water recovery. While doing the butterfly stroke, the swimmers body is creating a wave-like body undulation. This stroke is the second fastest stroke and can be difficult to learn.
Click here to watch a video on how to swim the butterfly stroke.  


Front crawl

Freestyle (Front Crawl):

In freestyle, the swimmer alternated their arms while swimming on their chest and they have an above water recovery. This is the fastest swim stroke of the four. The legs are in a flutter kick and the arms rotate similar to the backstroke. The only difference is that the swimmer is swimming on their chest, not their back. 
Click here to watch a video on how to swim the front crawl. 

-just keep swimming!


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Triathlon Training- Swim Smart, Swim Prepared.

For those of you gearing up for your next triathlon, we have some swimming tips to help you get started!  First... be prepared! Do your research on swimming techniques! You want to know how to work your body underwater in order to gain maximum speed for your race. If this is your first triathlon, don't fret...  You aren't expected to become a swim expert over night.  Maybe you can find your  local swim school  and get a few lessons on swimming strokes to help get you started. Swimming works many different muscles, so  it's very important to start practicing early.  Your body needs time to build that muscle memory. Let's talk gear! You have a few options to choose from for clothing. You can choose to change fully at each leg of the race, partially change or you can dress fully in tri clothing for maximum comfort at each leg without changing.  This is completely your choice. For longer races like the ironman, it makes the most sense to chang...
Post a Comment
Read more

Benefits of Swimming

What are the major benefits of swimming? Have you ever considered swimming? It is one of the best workouts you can do for your body. There are many reasons why swimming is a good choice for you. Let's talk about 5 of our favorite benefits to swimming! 1. Cardio AND strength training. If you are anything like me, then you know there is nothing much worse than cardio! (If you don't agree with that statement, I'm judging you. Just kidding... kind of.) The thought of running for miles both bores me and makes me want to clean my whole house first just to avoid it. But... I LOVE swimming! I always have. When I found out that swimming is both a cardio workout and strength training workout, I felt like there was hope for me to get into the shape I wanted to be in! Of course, a swimming workout looks a little different than the swimming I loved and was used to as a kid... but it's not near as bad as running in my book. 2. Great for your lungs. Now we know that swimm...
Post a Comment
Read more