techniques

Butterfly

This is probably the most difficult stroke of all to do. Butterfly is based on your timing, strength, and your endurance. This stroke involves a kick called the dolphin kick, when you do this stroke you must have your legs together at all times and perfect stroke.

Before you swim you should always stretch and get very pumped up before the race. It originally started out as a version of breaststroke in the 1930's, but then in 1952 it finally became its own stroke so it is relatively a young stroke.

Backstroke

This is a lot like freestyle but on your back, when you do this stroke you keep your head straight back looking at the ceiling and roll your shoulders. For this stroke you need a good shoulder roll and a good arm recovery. Backstroke was first demonstrated in the Olympic Games in 1912 through the swimmer Hebner. To swim good backstroke always keep your chin titled back upwards.

Breaststroke

Breaststroke is probably the slowest stroke of all four of the strokes. Your hands and legs are mostly under the surface of the water most of the time. Even though it is the slowest and easiest stroke to enjoy it does have the most rules to follow and the officials stick to them good. Most people mess up the arm stroke and make it to big or don't breathe properly.

This is the high-lift style of breaststroke. He lifts his upper body out of the water and moves the hips in an up and down motion. This reduces water resistance and makes you swim faster. So now that you know one type of breaststroke maybe you'll want to practice it and maybe learn more types or breaststroke to go faster in the water.

Freestyle

Freestyle is the fastest stroke of all. It has a continuous, powerful arm stroke, an uneven pullover, and a very powerful leg stroke. It is also called the crawl if not called freestyle. To swim good freestyle you should keep your toes pointed and your heels should be just below the surface of the water.

It is also a combination of many other strokes. For instance, you flutter kick your legs up and down under the surface. You must turn your head to breathe to either side during that arm recovery for that arm. There are also many other techniques and some people even make up their own type. There have been more events and races for freestyle than any other stroke since 1896. So that's a little fact for you just incase you ever want to become a freestyle swimmer then you know that your event could be the most important event in the meet.

Starts

There are many different kinds of starts for you to choose from and pick one that is the easiest and most comfortable for you. For the freestyle starts there is the grab start which is where you grab the edge of the block with your hand and your toes are on the edge also and then you dive into the water, this helps you get a bigger push off the block. Also there is a start called the track start. This gives you a bigger push off the block and it is quite easy. You first put one foot on the edge of the block then the other foot no more than a foot away from your other foot, then bring your hands down to the edge and hold it then dive off the block. The breaststroke and butterfly start is the same with either dive except you want to go deeper into the water.

The last start is the backstroke start this one obviously starts in the water with your toes right under the surface of the water and then pull yourself into a little ball and EXPLODE off the wall. It helps to do little dolphin kicks under the water before you come up to swim.

Turns
There is basically only two types of turns the freestyle and backstroke turn and the breaststroke and butterfly turn. In the freestyle turn you take one stroke into the wall and then do a flip or summersault into the wall. Then plant your feet in the middle of the wall and push off on your back and gradually turn over onto your stomach. It is exactly the same in backstroke but you take one freestyle stroke into the wall from your back.

The breaststroke and butterfly turns are much different than a freestyle or backstroke turn. For both strokes you must touch the wall with two hands and bring you legs into the wall and bring one hand and pretend that you are elbowing someone in the stomach and then bring the other ear over the ear as if answering the phone and gradually bring them together in a streamline and push off the wall and then do a butterfly kick or a pullout depending on the event.