According to many fitness professionals, swimming is the single best all-around exercise for health and is without parallel in terms of working a wide array of the body's muscle groups. It is mentally relaxing and is an outstanding cardiovascular exercise since, during a swimming workout, the swimmer is able to reach and maintain an optimum heart rate. It is especially beneficial for toning up muscles in the arms, shoulders, trunk and legs. Swimming offers the benefits of other strenuous exercises but without the wear and tear on joints and skeletal system that can be characteristic of jogging or other sports that involve running. Reaping the health benefits of swimming, however, involves knowledge of some basic techniques. Dog-paddling or bobbing about in a pool may be fine for relaxing, but it's not likely to give you noticeable results if you're looking for health improvement. It also won't help you build strength, stamina or speed. Swimming instructor and swim-meet official Dr. Bill Lauer gives Belma Johnson some tips to help master three of the basic swimming strokes. Freestyle Stroke Freestyle is the most common stroke in swimming and is the mainstay of most contemporary swim competitions because it's so well adapted to speed. Freestyle is a slightly modified version of the "crawl," a stroke that shocked Europeans when it was first introduced to them at a swimming exhibition by Native Americans in the mid-1800s. At the time, the more genteel breaststroke and sidestroke were the norm for both recreation and competition. The new aggressive style of swimming was described by onlookers in London as "thrashing like the sails of a windmill." Eventually the stroke gained wide acceptance and provided a young Johnny Weismuller with a means of picking up five Olympic gold medals in the 1920s. Ultimately Weismuller's award-winning crawl would become familiar to nearly everyone as he displayed his aquatic prowess on movie screens as Tarzan.
One of the most common mistakes made by swimmers untrained in technique is to keep the body too flat during the swimming stroke. For freestyle, imagine a rod extending down through the entire longitudinal axis of your body. As you go through each stroke, reaching with the leading arm, the hips and upper body should rotate (figure A). The hips should roll from side to side with each stroke. The leading arm and elbow should come high out of the water and the forearm should form a straight line, from elbow to fingertips, angling down toward the water. As the leading arm comes down, the fingers should enter the water first as if the hand were entering a hole (figure B). Imagine a hole in the water in front of your shoulder, and reach into it as your shoulder rolls and your arm extends. As you finish the stroke by bringing the arm back with force underneath the water, you begin the next stroke with the other hand as your upper body rotates to the other side. All of this upper-body movement takes place as the feet continually kick up and down. The swimmer breathes as the face comes out of the water, to either the side of the body, on each stroke.
Backstroke For the more relaxed backstroke, again keep in mind a straight longitudinal axis through the length of your body. Think of your body as a clock with your hands extended above your head in the 11 o'clock and 1 o'clock positions (figure C). With your body lying face-up in the water, your arms should enter the water at the 11 o'clock and 1 o'clock angles. Avoid letting one arm cross over the center axis toward the opposite side, as this will reduce your power and speed. As you proceed through the stroke with the right arm, the full length of the arm enters the water and then rotates downward below the surface in a motion that pushes water toward the feet (figure D). Imagine that you are throwing a ball at your foot with each stroke. The correct position of the arm when it is out of the water is with elbow locked, arm straight, and the pinky finger leading to the water (figure E). As the right arm makes its rotation and then digs down underneath the water, the elbow is bent toward the bottom of the pool as the arm forces water toward the feet. As the right arm finishes its stroke with a downward motion, the left arm has already begun the ascent portion of its rotation. As with the freestyle stroke, the upper body rolls from side to side, rotating from the hips on the longitudinal axis.
Breaststroke The arms work in unison with the breaststroke, rather than alternately as they do in freestyle and the backstroke. As you lie in the water with your body facing downward, think of your two hands and arms drawing a large circle to achieve the power of each stroke (figure F) and then extending from the chin and snapping straight overhead in unison (figure G) for the recovery portion of the stroke. With your arms extended straight ahead of you in the water, your body forms a streamlined shape, like a javelin traveling forward from the force of the stroke. Breathing occurs as your head rises out of the water during the power portion of each stroke. The action of the legs and feet also occurs in unison rather than alternating. The breaststroke kick is a whiplike action similar to the motion of the arms and hands. The legs bend at the knees so that the feet extend toward the posterior. The legs then separate like a V, and then both snap together quickly and in unison as they extend straight out behind the body. The whipping action occurs mainly from the knees down. The breaststroke kick can be practiced while hanging on to the poolside with your hands.
RESOURCES :
Swimming Drills for Every Stroke
Model: 0880117699
Author: Ruben J. Guzman
1998, Human Kinetics Publishing
The Essential Swimmer
Model: 1558213864
Author: Steve Tarpinian
1996
The Lyon's Press
New York, NY 10011
Phone: 212-620-9580
Fax: 212-929-1836
Website: www.lyonspress.com
Total Immersion: The Revolutionary Way to Swim Better, Faster and Easier
Model: 068481885X
Author: Terry Laughlin
1996, Fireside
American Red Cross swimming, safety and fitness information
The Web site of the American Red Cross features a section on swimming, fitness, aquatic safety and lifeguarding.
Web site: www.redcross.org/hss/aquatics/index.html
United States Masters Swimming (USMS)
USMS is a national organization devoted to various aspects of swimming including fitness, training, coaching and competition. Their site features helpful information and numerous links to other swimming-related sites.
Web site: www.usms.org
swimsearch.com
A Web search-engine for information related to swimming.
Web site: www.swimsearch.com
swiminfo.com
A comprehensive online resource for swimming. Includes related links and subscription information for swimming publications SWIM magazine and Swimmer's World.
Web site: www.swiminfo.com
101 Favorite Swimming Workouts
Author: Marianne Brems
1980, World Wide Aquatics
Toll-free: 800-543-2763
Web site: http://www.kastawayswimwear.com/
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