Freestyle Backstroke Breaststroke Butterfly
Breaststroke
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This
stroke was started in 1969 when one of the earliest books on swimming
described a stroke that was swum with one's head out of the water. People
continued to practicing and improving the stroke. This stroke was the
stroke of choice when competitions first started, in 1837. This stroke is
the oldest and least efficient stroke used today. Until the
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| 1950's it was the only that had style requirements. It is known as the ''silent stroke.'' The swimmers realized that you can travel a lot faster under the water rather than above the water, so that is how they swam it. Yes, it was faster, but it was very hard on the person's lungs. After a few years the rules changed and the stroke had to be swum with your head above the water. | |
Freestyle
| Freestyle was originally known as the crawl, it was invented by two Native-Americans, their names were Flying Gull and Tobacco. They entered a British competition, they sailed past the British and took first and second place in the event. The British said that the stroke was totally unacceptable and they kept using their old stroke for about 40 years. On a trip to South America, Arthur Trudgen noticed that the Indians went a lot faster. Trudgen went back to England and started teaching his brothers how to swim it the way the Native-Americans swam it. | 
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When the English men started to swim the event, they shaved 10 seconds off the fastest 100 freestyle. The next man to make an improvement on the stroke was a man by the name of Fredrick Cavill. He did the same thing that Trudgen did except he noticed that they had a different way of kicking. He went back home and started to teach it. His sons, were beating all of the existing records. That is the history of Freestyle. |
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Butterfly
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Coaches and swimmers have been searching for ways to improve the stroke efficiency since competitions first started. That is how butterfly became a stroke. It was developed in 1934 by a coach from the University of Iowa, by the name of David Armbruster. He stumbled on his discovery while he was searching for a way to make breaststroke faster. He realized that because the arms and legs recover under the water, there was
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a natural speed barrier. He then developed a double arm recovery that used a breaststroke whip kick. One year later, Jack Sieg, an Iowa swimmer began swimming this stroke on his side and he was mimicking a dolphin's kick. He and Armbruster combined their techniques and with practice and a lot of coordination, they were able to do 100 yards in under one minute. The kick on butterfly was ruled illegal because of the the strict rules governing form of the breaststroke. Breaststrokers were still using the over arm recovery to win their races and finally, butterfly was finally approved as a separate stroke. |
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Backstroke
| Since its first appearance at the 1900 Olympic Games, backstroke has changed little. It is the only stroke that starts with a push off the wall, instead of a dive into the pool. It is an upside-down variation of the crawl with a flutter kick, with your arms reaching straight up out of the water. Adolph Kiefer, who dominated in backstroke from 1935 to 1945. He developed thrust by pulling with his arms held straight up in the water. But, Australian backstrokers figured out that you could create more horizontal thrust by slightly bending the arms as it came around under water. Other swimmers have adopted that style. As the stroke evolved farther, backstrokers realized that they could go faster doing a streamlined dolphin kick under the water. Swimming backstroke in the Olympics was a big deal. Backstrokers tried to do the whole event under the water. The officials ruled that you are not allowed to kick under the water for more than 15 meters. | 
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