Sport swimming

Sport swimming is a competitive sport that may date back all the way to ancient Egypt. The sport requires excellent muscular strength and burns lots of calories, but it easy on the joints. Swimming builds endurance and improves cardiovascular fitness, but is an activity wherein all ages can participate. Individuals that are old or disabled are still able to swim and get exercise, which is very beneficial.

Organized swim clubs didn’t appear until 1800s and 1900s. By the twentieth century swimming had become more popular. Indoor pools were more common and swim clubs started to form. In 1912 a man named Johnny Weissmuller became the first person to swim 100 meters or less under a minute. He is considered the greatest swimmer of all time though many people since have swam faster than him. Today, swimming is the second most popular sport in the United States.

Training

Water Training

About 90% of the sport of swimming consists of water training. Competitive swimmers use the water as a tool of training in order to better themselves in this sport. When in the water there are multiple ways of training that are beneficial to swimmers. Obviously they practice swimming all the different strokes but there is more to it than that. They will practice the strokes in such a way so that they use the least amount of energy, to go as fast as they can. This requires a tremendous amount of upper and lower body strength. One of the goals is to be able to move your body as fast as possible with the least amount of oxygen intake as possible. Breathing and lung control is a huge part of this sport. Muscles need oxygen in order to function, athletes must train themselves to swim at a high intensity with little or no breathing. Having this kind of breath control is very important but takes time and a lot of mental strength to obtain. Also, flip-turns are practiced on a daily basis. When preformed regularly these will become an automatic habit that your body natural does while swimming. A flip-turn is like doing a somersault in the water but requires the person to push off the wall with their feet when fully rotated. Starts are practiced as well. A swimmer starts their race by exploding off diving blocks. There is a certain way to getting the full benefits from a start without belly-flopping. These are what the swimmers practice: how to have a powerful push with the legs, their hand placement, and water entry. All of these must be precise in order to have the best performance. In water training is very helpful to build up the swimmers confidence in the water as well as their abilities.

Land Training

In the swimming world on land training is called “dry-land”. This is because in this sport it’s the only type of training to be done when the swimmer is fully dry and not soaking wet. In order for swimmers to perform at their very best, dry land is an essential part of training. This training focuses on building core strength and cardio endurance. In order to induce core strength, athletes can do planks, crunches, and bicycle crunches. Core strength is the core element in this sport. For more cardio endurance, swimmers often go for runs to boost their heart rate up and also to help burn fat, although most of the cardio training is done in the water. Dry-land weight lifting is one of the main ways that swimmers gain muscular strength. They focus more on strengthening their upper body because the arms are what drive a swimmer through the water. The parts of the upper body that are worked out include shoulders, back, biceps, triceps, and chest. Pushups and pull ups help significantly in advancing a swimmers upper body strength. But they do focus on legs as well. They do calf raises, squats, lunges and sometimes run.

Nutrition

Swimmers eat a lot because they burn so many calories. A 150 pound swimmer will burn about 210 calories every half-hour, if the work out is moderate and not too vigorous. Although if the work out is vigorous, that same swimmer burns 330 calories every half hour. So it depends on how tough the work out is to determine how many calories are burned every half hour. A normal swim work out is two hours long, so if a swimmer has a vigorous work out he or she could burn a total of 1320 calories that day. This is a lot of calories! Because swimmers burn so many calories off, they need to take in a lot of calories. Diet is very important in the life of a swimmer. It is important that they eat a lot of protein, fruits, veggies and meat to stay healthy and keep calories in their body. Water is also very important. A swimmer must drink a lot of water to keep their body properly hydrated. Chocolate milk is good to drink after swim practice because it gives the body vitamins, fat and protein that the body has burned off. A wise swimmer will eat healthy and take care of their body.

Competition

Open Water

Open water swimming is obviously done in the open water, like in a lake or river. This sport dates back to B.C. times and didn’t debut in the Olympics until 2,000 years later. In 2008 open water swimming was officially added as an event in the Olympics. Much like indoor swimming, this sport presents challenges for its athletes. It is different from indoor swimming because there are no lane lines, walls, and starting blocks needed. The current elements often play a key role in deciding the winner of a certain event. Because of the unpredictable weather, this makes it possible for men and woman to participate alongside each other. Many people enjoy participating in this sport. This sport requires a lot of training, such as mental and physical strength, core strength and tolerance of the elements. This sport also allows many competitive opportunities for its competitors.

Indoor

Indoor water swimming is done in an indoor pool and is what most people think of in the sport of swimming. Competitive swimming has been around since before the birth of Christ and has become more popular over these last few years. The most popular competitive indoor swimming organization is USA swimming. Indoor swimming requires an indoor pool with lane lines, walls, and starting blocks. To get accurate times an automatic touch pad is used in each lane. Much training is done in the water to help perfect each individual’s ability in the water. The average practice time in an indoor pool is two hours.

Stroke Types

Butterfly

The butterfly stroke came originally from the breaststroke, which will be explained later. It was invented by a German man named E. Rademacher in 1926 and was improved by an American named Henry Meyer. It was accepted into official competition in 1933. This stroke requires a lot of upper body and core strength. The legs are also used, but this stroke is mostly driven by the arms. This stroke takes many years to perfect and takes a lot of training to do well. It’s called butterfly because the flying-like motion across the water.

Backstroke

When a swimmer is performing the backstroke, they remain on their back. At first this technique was first done by using frog kick, but has now evolved into a different form. To swim backstroke, one must be comfortable floating on their back motionless. After that is accomplished that person can start learning the stroke. The arms move in a windmill-like motion, while the legs kick strongly behind you. This stroke also requires much core strength which is learned over time. Flip turns for this stroke are a little different than when doing freestyle. When swimming into the wall, the swimmer must first turn over on his back and then perform a flip turn normally. The swimmer than pushes off on their back and continues the stroke.

Breaststroke

Breaststroke is one of the most complex and technological strokes in all of swimming. There are many strict rules witch need to be met in order for this stroke to be done correctly. Some rules include keeping the shoulders in line with the water, arm and leg movements must coordinate together to push the body forward, and at turns and finishes, both hands much touch the wall at the same time. At all times the swimmers head must be kept above the surface of the water. Absolutely no dolphin, scissors or flutter kicks are allowed. If any of these rules are violated the swimmer will be disqualified. This stroke takes a lot of core strength.

Freestyle

Freestyle is the main stroke in swimming. Every single swimmer knows to a certain extent how to do freestyle. This stroke is not limited to any major form of technique. Freestyle is often referred to as crawl stroke. This stroke requires much core strength and a hard kick to propel the swimmer through the water. Rotation of the body is required for maximum arm extension. Like all the strokes, it is important to have strong arms and legs.

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  This is a very good demonstration of the butterfly stroke, the most difficult of all the strokes.

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  This an example of backstroke, the only stroke done on the back.

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  This is a nice picture of Michel Phelps doing breaststroke, the most technological of all the strokes.

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  This is an example of freestyle, the main stroke in the sport of swimming and the easiest to learn.

Video

This is an example of open water swimming. This is an example of indoor water swimming. Nutrition for a swimmer