Swimming Strokes and Technique
100 flashcards by MentisLibrary
The four competitive strokes and the skills around them: body position and drag, catch and kick mechanics, breathing, starts, turns and race rules, open water navigation, training sets, and water safety.
- What are the four competitive swimming strokes?
- Butterfly, backstroke, breaststroke and freestyle.
- What is the order of strokes in an individual medley?
- Butterfly, backstroke, breaststroke, freestyle.
- What is the order of strokes in a medley relay?
- Backstroke, breaststroke, butterfly, freestyle.
- What are the three main sources of drag on a swimmer?
- Form drag from the body's shape and position, wave drag from disturbing the surface, and friction drag along the skin and suit.
- What is a streamline position?
- Arms extended overhead with one hand stacked on the other, biceps squeezing the ears, head neutral, legs together and toes pointed.
- Where should a freestyle swimmer look?
- Down at the bottom of the pool, with the waterline crossing around the top of the head and the neck long.
- What is body roll in freestyle?
- Rotating the whole body around its long axis, typically toward 30 to 45 degrees on each side, driven from the hips and trunk.
- What is the catch in freestyle?
- The moment after the hand enters and extends, when the swimmer sets the hand and forearm to press water backward.
- What is an early vertical forearm or high elbow catch?
- Bending the elbow so the forearm and hand face backward while the elbow stays high, making a large paddle out of the whole forearm.
- Where should the hand enter the water in freestyle?
- In front of the shoulder, fingertips first, entering cleanly and then extending forward under the surface.
- How does the freestyle kick contribute?
- It stabilizes the body, supports rotation and adds some propulsion, driven from the hips with relaxed ankles and a small knee bend.
- What is a six-beat kick?
- Six kicks per full arm cycle, common in sprint freestyle and in swimmers with strong kicks.
- What is front quadrant swimming?
- Timing the stroke so that one hand is still in front of the head when the other begins its catch.
- What is distance per stroke?
- How far the body travels per arm stroke, usually measured by counting strokes across a length.
- What is stroke rate and how does it interact with stroke length?
- Stroke rate is cycles per minute. Speed is stroke rate multiplied by distance per stroke, so the two must be balanced.
- What is SWOLF?
- A simple efficiency score adding the seconds and the stroke count for a length. A lower number suggests a more efficient length.
- How should a freestyle swimmer breathe?
- Rotate the head with the body roll so the mouth clears the water in the trough beside the head, with one goggle staying in the water.
- What is bilateral breathing?
- Breathing to both sides, usually every third stroke.
- When should a swimmer exhale?
- Continuously or in a steady trickle underwater, so the lungs are ready to take air the moment the mouth clears.
- Why is repeated breath holding dangerous in swimming?
- Hyperventilating and holding the breath can delay the urge to breathe until oxygen falls far enough to cause blackout underwater, with no warning.
- What is the body position for backstroke?
- Flat on the back, hips near the surface, head still with the ears in the water and eyes looking up and slightly back toward the feet.
- How does the arm enter the water in backstroke?
- Little finger first, directly in line with the shoulder, arm straight, with the body rolled toward that side.
- What does the backstroke catch look like?
- The arm bends after entry so the hand is roughly 30 to 45 centimeters deep with a high elbow, then presses back and down toward the hip.
- How does rotation work in backstroke?
- The body rolls from side to side around the long axis while the head stays still and level.
- What does the backstroke kick look like?
- A continuous flutter from the hips with relaxed ankles, the knees staying below the surface while the toes just break it.
- What are the backstroke flags for?
- They hang across the pool 5 meters from each wall so backstrokers can count strokes to the wall without looking.
- How must a backstroke race finish?
- The swimmer must touch the wall while on the back.
- What is the cycle of the breaststroke?
- Pull, breathe, kick, glide, in that order and with the body streamlined during the glide.
- What is the breaststroke arm action?
- An outsweep, then an insweep with high elbows sculling inward, then a fast recovery forward under or near the surface.
- What is the breaststroke kick?
- A whip kick where the heels draw up toward the seat, the feet turn out and the legs sweep around and back together.