India 12 October 2016:
The Different Swimming Strokes / Styles
Some of the common swimming strokes or styles used in swimming are the freestyle stroke, the backstroke, the breaststroke and the butterfly stroke. These swimming style are used in swimming competitions and hence they are well known. Other swimming styles like the sidestroke, the trudgen, the combat swimmer stroke etc. are used less often. All of these swimming styles are easy and fun to learn.
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The Freestyle Stroke
One of the most preferred stroke which professional swimmers use is the Freestyle Stroke or front crawl. In this swimming it uses alternating arm movements with an above water recovery. The legs do a flutter kick. It is one of the fastest and most efficient style of swimming making it the most used style of swimming in competitions.
Breaststroke
One of the most popular swimming strokes is the Breaststroke. To do the breaststroke, You need to execute half-circular arm movements at the same time under water in front of the swimmer with both arms. In this style the arm recovery also happens under water and the legs continuously execute a whip kick. Breaststroke being one of the easiest swimming strokes, it is often the first swimming stroke to learn swimming for beginners. When you do the breaststroke you can keep your head above the water which helps the beginners to breathe while in water. If you are an experienced swimmer then submerging your head while doing the stroke cycle helps increasing the efficiency of the stroke. Breaststroke is one of the slowest of the competitive swimming styles.
Butterfly Stroke
The butterfly stroke is one of the fastest swim strokes. The unique and spectacular technique used in the butterfly stroke makes it stand out among the competitive strokes. The butterfly stroke uses a symmetrical arm stroke and allows for an above water recovery. It also uses a wave-like body undulation and the legs execute a dolphin kick.
Butterfly is kind of hard to learn. Also this stroke is quite exhausting. Once you know it, it’s quite fun to swim doing the butterfly.
Backstroke
From the name it’s understood that the backstroke is swum on the back. The backstroke uses alternating circular arm movements and allows for above water recovery. The legs movement is similar to the one we do in freestyle stroke, i.e. flutter kick. Backstroke is also one of the slowest swimming styles and is not used by competitive swimmers in competitions. It is faster than the breaststroke but slower than the butterfly stroke. Swimming the backstroke is excellent way to workout your back muscles. It is also prescribed by Physicians to people who have back problems.
Sidestroke
One of the old swim stroke is the sidestroke which is swum on the side and uses a scissor kick movement and asymmetrical under water arm movements. This is one stroke you won’t see being used in swimming competitions and hence isn’t that well known nowadays. The sidestroke is one of the easiest swimming stroke to learn and is an interesting alternative swimming stroke for leisure swimming. This is one of the strokes used by lifeguards to rescue victims.
Elementary Backstroke
This is the simpler version of the backstroke known as the Elementary backstroke. Just as the backstroke this is a swim stroke that is swum on the back, which uses a reversed whip kick and a simple synchronous underwater arm stroke. Elementary backstroke is one of the easiest swimming strokes to learn and can be used as a first swim stroke for beginners who are just learning to swim.