Swimming for Dummies: The Most Useful Information on an Olympic Kind of Sport

Swimming is a popular Olympic kind of sport that unites the best athletes from the whole world. Competitive swimming includes numerous events that happen all year round. Thus, the given article is going to present the most important information on the sport of swimming.

Pools and Equipment

Swimming competitions take place in pools with slack water. These pools can be 12.5, 16.75, 20, 25, 33.75, and 50 meters long. With this, a separate swim lane should be 2.5 meters wide. There should be visible limitations between all the lines. The front walls should be vertical and should be at least 80 cm under the water level. Starting platforms can be 50-75 cm above the water level.

When it comes to the Olympic Games, World and European Championships, these competitions are held in 50-meter pools only. The same refers to world records; they are officially approved only if a competition took place in a certified pool.

Every participant in official swimming competitions should have a particular set of equipment. Thus, women compete in one-piece transparent swimming suits with straight cutouts for legs. As for men, they wear suits which do not go above the navel or below the knee. In addition, both male and female athletes should have goggles to keep water and chlorine out of their eyes.

Officials

Swimming competitions are a particular kind of speed competitions. If all the rules are followed, finishing places are distributed according to the fact in what order did swimmers touched the board. Every swimming event consists of various preliminary, intermediary, and final swims. Only those athletes who managed to show the best results in the preliminary and intermediary swims may qualify for the final stage.

In addition to that, every official swimming event is served by a few officials, each of whom is responsible for a particular area.

• Referee. This official is the head of all the officials. He or she is totally responsible for organizing the competitions.
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• Starter. This official asks athletes to take their starting positions, checks whether they have taken these positions properly and makes an acoustic starting signal. A false start is called when one of a few athletes started moving before the acoustic signal was made. If it happens, all the swimmers should occupy their previous positions. In some cases, a false start wire is lowered in the pool to notify the swimmers of the false start if they did not hear it. The same procedure occurs in the case of the second false start. If this scenario happens for the third time, this situation is known as the early start, and the swimmers are not returned to their starting positions. However, the swimmer who made this early start is disqualified at the finish.

• Timekeepers. These officials are responsible for keeping the time that took for particular athletes to overcome a distance. The time starts immediately after the acoustic signal and stops when an athlete touches the finishing board according to the official rules. It is a common practice nowadays when special software programs are used to keep the time automatically. When it comes to individual competitions at distances that are higher than 400 meters, a timekeeper should make a corresponding signal for the swimmer he controls that there are 100 meters left before the finish.
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• Finish Judge. It is one of those officials who determine an order, according to which athletes finish in a swim. It is true when there is no automatic finishing system. In some cases, it is this official who determines who made the third false start.
• Inspectors of Turns. These officials report to the chief finish judge. They watch whether an athlete or athletes comply with the accepted rules of turning. When it comes to individual competitions at distances that are higher than 400 meters, these officials show how many lanes there are left before the finish.
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• Judges of Stroke. These officials report directly to the referee. They watch whether athletes follow the rules of swimming styles and assist inspectors of turns to perform their functions. If they notice a violation within their responsibility area, they should immediately notify the referee of this in a written form.

Turning

Swimming competitions usually take place in no more than 50-meter long pools. As soon as the most competitions include longer distances, athletes should change their direction 180 degrees one or even a few times almost in every swim. In addition to that, a particular swimming style determines whether they should touch a pool board with their one or two hands while turning.

Before touching and taking off, they can perform any move and turn. During a long swimming history, there have been developed various turning techniques that depended mainly on pool peculiarities.

Freestyle Swimming

At present, crawl stroke is used in all freestyle swimming competitions. The fact is that it is the fastest swimming style for both long and short distances, in which hands and legs work equally effective.

Athletes keep on moving forward thanks to alternate moves of hands and legs. The hands travel under the water to move forward, while their backward movements occur above the water surface. Legs up-down movements represent a slight retarding force. In this case, the body is straight, the shoulders are higher than the waist, the head is a bit lifted.

Hands Movement

Under the water, athletes use their hands to take off and move forward. This movement is over when the hand is lifted from the water close to the hip. After that, and without a pause, the athlete places his/her hand back in front of this shoulder. The hands are in a constant state of work. At a moment when the left hand is in front of the shoulder, the right one is moving under the water. When the left hand starts moving under the water, the right one is placed in front of the shoulders by the air.

Legs Movement

Legs perform rhythmic movements up and down. These movements affect every part of the body that is lower than the waistline. When an athlete is moving his leg down, they tend to bend a foot inside to increase the efficiency of taking off. An amplitude i.e. a distance between the feet in the moment of the peak depends on the length of legs and specific abilities of separate athletes. However, this distance is usually about 30-50 cm.

General Movements

As a rule, hands and legs movement coordinate in a six-time rhythm meaning every full hands’ movement cycle corresponds to six movements of legs.

Breathing

The most common way of breathing is when a full hands movement cycle refers to one sniff and one exhalation. For example, if swimmers sniff in the left, they tend to exhale in the water while their left hands are performing movements under the water. At the end of this movement, they bend their heads to the left and make an exhalation when the left hand is placed in front of the shoulders. At the same time, however, there are different breathing rhythms.

Breaststroke Swimming

Among the others, this swimming style is the slowest one. First of all, it is explained by retarding force that is active when athletes move their hands forward and by not very active movements under the water. Nowadays, it is a common thing when rounded movements dominate in the style of breaststroke swimming.

Athletes have their bodies straighten in the water, while the shoulders are horizontal. When swimmers achieve high speeds, their shoulders appear above the level of the water as a result of powerful movements. Consequently, athletes are performing flapping movements with their hands.

Hands Movement

After the hands are straightened, they move to the opposite directions at the same time. At the same time, the palms are positioned inside out; they act as paddles. As soon as the hands equal with the shoulder level, athletes pull them close to the chest and throw forward. It is a full hands movement cycle.

Legs Movement

From a straightened position, legs are symmetrically pulled to the pelvis, while the knees and heels are facing the opposite sides. From this position, in which there is a distance of 30-40 cm between the heels and the pelvis, athletes make a wide push with straighten legs. With this, the highest pressure is put on the shins and the soles. After it is completed, athletes bring their legs together, which forms a complete legs movement cycle.

General Movement

When the body is straight, the movement begins with hands. As soon as they perform a pushing stage, the legs start their work. When the hands are placed forward, the legs make a powerful hit that makes an athlete swim. This swimming style can be used to achieve a high speed only if the general movements go one after another.

Breathing

A single movement cycle coincides with one inhalation and one exhalation. When athletes use their hands to take off the water, a powerful inhalation should be made. When a new pushing stage is about to begin, athletes should exhale the air through mouths and noses.

Diving

After the start and after every turning, an athlete has the right to perform diving movements. For this, they move their hands to the hips, which results in an additional pushing impulse. Athletes start moving their legs only after the working stage of hands movement is ended.

Butterfly Swimming

Butterfly swimming is now performed with the help of the flickering above water hands and body movement. These movements resemble those of dolphins because they are similar to the paddles of the animal. This swimming style is the second fastest way of sporting swimming. In this swimming style, there is no moment when athletes’ bodies seem to be evidently straightened. It is connected with the fact that the body tends to constantly make waves, starting from the legs.

Hands Movement

Before the start of movements under the water, the hands are in front of the shoulders; they are moved to the body simultaneously. Once the palms are close to the body, they are forcefully thrown back to grapple as much water as possible.

Dolphin Movement

In this case, it refers to the body and the legs. Both parts of the body participate in the movement simultaneously; in addition, it is necessary to use the hips to achieve a more powerful effect. The movement starts near the waist, and it travels then to the legs. To achieve a higher pushing force, it is necessary to turn the feet inside.

General Movement

Even though this swimming style is young enough, there have appeared various coordination kinds. The most popular of them, however, is when athletes manage to make two dolphin movements with a full hands movement cycle.

Breathing

When it comes to the given swimming style, the athletes’ mouth and nose tend to be under the water quite long. That is why it is necessary to use an ideal breathing technique to provide an organism with oxygen. Usually, athletes tend to perform one inhalation and one exhalation over a complete movement cycle.

A swimmer starts exhaling after an athlete submerges his/her head under the water after throwing the hands forward. An exhalation is said to be over when the hands are close to the shoulders. An inhalation begins in the second stage of the movement underwater. It is a common thing when an athlete combines two or more movement cycles with a single breathing one.

Backstroke Swimming

This swimming style is similar to freestyle swimming, but the latter can be used to achieve higher speed. The body is straight, the shoulders are a bit higher than the waist, while the head is placed close to the chest.

Hands Movement

Before the start of the movement under the water, which moves an athlete forward, the straightened hand is on the water surface above the shoulder. A palm is placed as if an athlete is going to make a taking off movement. When the hand is pushing, its elbow is a bit bent. When it ends its movement under the water, it is again straight. During the whole movement, the palm appears at a depth of 20-30 cm. Athletes alter their hands differently than it is in crawl swimming. While one hand is pushing under the water, the other one is performing a flapping movement to submerge in the water.

Legs Movement

Similar to crawl swimming, legs make altered movements up and down. In some cases, athletes turn their feet inside to increase the pushing effect. A movement amplitude is about 30-50 cm.

General Movement

Hands and legs movements are coordinated in six-time rhythm meaning a single complete hands movement is in line with six hands movements.

Breathing

As soon as both mouth and nose are above the water surface, backstroke swimming does not pay specific attention to breathing techniques as it is with the other swimming styles. However, it is recommended to combine breathing with hands movements.

History

At the dawn of humanity, swimming was of vital importance for society, which contributed to its great popularity. Inhabitants of the areas that were close to rivers and seas were the most skillful swimmers. Cave drawings of the 4th century B.C. are said to be the most popular swimming pictures. It is believed that ancient people widely used a swimming style that was quite similar to modern crawl swimming style.

When swimming had been considered as a way of self-protection and preparing for further work at first, a slave-owning system considered this activity as pre-war training methods. That is why swimming was extremely requested among the ancient Greeks. However, regular physical education was open to slave-owners only.

1908 witnessed as the International Swimming Federation appeared. Nowadays, it comprises about 120 national federations. Sporting swimming is an Olympic kind of sport since 1896.