Rare types of swimming. Briefly about types of swimming: which one is better to choose?

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Swimming is natural for humans and is the best option for developing a fit figure and improving the health of the whole body. Depending on the intended purpose, there are different styles of swimming. Also the following types of swimming:

• Sports- has a competitive nature. Provides for overcoming a set distance in a certain time.
• Game– involves intense movements in water of a playful nature. Often used by coaches when preparing children. The main purpose is to adapt beginners to water and have fun. This category also includes water polo, competitions in which are held as part of the Olympic Games.
• Figured– a complex of choreographic elements in water. Used to form acrobatic figures. It can be single (solo) or group.
• Wellness- promotes . Boosts immunity, improves metabolism, has a strengthening effect on the musculoskeletal system, develops the heart and lungs.

Sports swimming styles

Swimming received the status of a separate sports discipline only at the beginning of the 16th century. During this time, several of its styles were developed. In the pool, in particular, the following swimming techniques are used:

• – is simple and effective. became widely used thanks to its technology, which allows it to develop considerable speed. Its use allows you to cover the distance in the shortest possible time. This type of swimming style was borrowed from the aborigines of the Solomon Islands and American Indians in the 19th century. First used in professional sports by R. Cavill. The improvement of technology by the Americans in the 20th century allowed this method to supplant the butterfly, breaststroke, etc. The effectiveness of the crawl was confirmed by swimmers who won prizes thanks to the crawl. Now this technique is a mandatory part of the training of a beginning athlete.
• Back crawl– was recognized as a sport at the beginning of the 20th century. At that time, only men were allowed to use it. Women received this privilege only 20 years later. The formation of this method was facilitated by swimmers Harry Hebner, A. Kiefer, K. Muir. Now the backstroke is included in the Olympic program - it is used in distances from 100 to 400 meters.
  
  
• – is considered the most ancient of all methods of swimming. The first detailed examination of the specifics of this technique was made in the 16th century by Nicholas Vinman (Denmark). Breaststroke got its name in the 20th century, literally meaning “to spread one’s arms.” Included in the Olympic program in 1904. For a long time, this method existed only in its classical form; it underwent its first transformations thanks to the Soviet swimmers L. Meshkov and V. Minashkin. Further variations (“jumping breaststroke”) were demonstrated by K. Osaki and W. Mulliken.
  
  
• Butterfly– one of the most difficult and energy-intensive swimming styles. Dolphin originated as an offshoot of breaststroke in 1953. The method developed thanks to athletes G. Myers and D. Armbruster. Jack Sieg, in turn, modernized it and called it "dolphin" due to the similarity of leg coordination to the blows of a fish tail. Since 1956 it has been part of the Olympic program.
  
  

All swimming styles differ in the specificity of movements, speed and level of load. Photos and descriptions will allow you to trace each of the techniques in more detail.

Crawl on chest

Style Features

The front crawl involves alternating movements of the arms and legs. High-speed, which is especially important in professional competitions, but quite energy-intensive. Continuous movements of the limbs, their coordination with rhythm, provide greater speed.

Footwork

Leg work

They move like a frog. Pull-up - in this case, the legs are stretched and connected to each other. Next, repulsion occurs due to the straightening of both legs at the knees. The knees, as well as the feet, are spread to the sides. Working movement - rhythmic extension of the legs at the knee and hip area. In this case, the limbs are tucked towards the middle part of the body. The cycle ends with straightening the legs.

Hand work

The hands are in a connected and extended position, palms down. The principle of movement is that the limbs are directed to the sides and then down. At the moment of pushing off with the legs, the arms come out in front of the body and a slide is performed. Next, stroke with your arms and pull them towards your body.

Breath

Inhale through the mouth at the moment when the hand stroke is close to completion. Exhale after lowering your face into the water.

Breaststroke can be used to save energy when swimming long distances. The relative ease of this style makes it possible to use it as an introduction to the discipline for beginners.

Brass technique video

Butterfly or dolphin

Style Features

Wave-like movements. This style of technique is considered the most complex and energy-consuming. Depending on the type of coordination of movements, it can be three-impact, two-impact (the most common), or one-impact. Coordination - two kicks are given per stroke with the arms.

Footwork

When moving from bottom to top, the limbs are extended in the hip area. Then there is a bending back, and the pelvis is lowered. The upward movement of the pelvis is performed with straight legs. Next, the ankle moves down, and the pelvis becomes close to the surface.

Hand work

The full complex - entering the water, performing a surge, rowing (with the shoulders in the highest position), exiting and carrying the limbs above the water.

Breath

At the end of the stroke, an inhalation occurs. After completing the movement of your arms, exhale.

Butterfly technique video

The complexity of coordination in butterfly shapes the proportional shape of the body. Mastering this style begins with concentrating on the legs. It is due to the complexity of their movements that a specific wave-like appearance is ensured.

The main swimming methods presented above differ in the complexity of mastering and the level of load, so before choosing one of the directions, you should take into account your physical fitness and goals.

Freestyle swimming is the first thing that comes to mind when talking about this sport. This style is considered the oldest. You and your opponent swim by any means necessary. The terms “freestyle” and “crawl” are used interchangeably. Crawl is a type of sports swimming, during which the athlete makes long strokes, changing his right and left hands. At this time, the swimmer’s legs are in continuous motion, keeping his body afloat. The word "bunny" has nothing to do with furry creatures. Translated from English, “crawl” means to crawl. If you look at the swimmer from the side, you get the impression that he is “crawling” through the water. The swimmer's body turns during the stroke, removing excess water resistance. This style is easy to learn, all that remains is to improve it.

If you want to take freestyle swimming lessons for yourself, or for a competition, then it is important to learn about the correct technique before doing so. Your result will depend on this. It is important to understand the technical aspects, freestyle swimming techniques and standards.

Freestyle swimming - what is it?

Freestyle swimming is a sport discipline. When an athlete completes a section of the distance, he is allowed to change swimming methods. The only condition is that any part of the athlete’s body cuts through the surface of the water. During the medley swimming distance, freestyle includes any swimming, except for backstroke, breaststroke and butterfly.

Like any other discipline, freestyle swimming dictates its own standards for different distances:

• Swimming 50 meters freestyle;
• Swimming 100 meters freestyle;
• Swimming 200 meters freestyle;
• Swimming 400 meters freestyle;
• Swimming 800 meters freestyle (women);
• Swimming 1500 meters freestyle (men).

The competition includes any style, but most participants use the front crawl.

Photo 1. In freestyle you can swim in any way, including freestyle (pictured)

Photo 10. London Aquatics Center - London Aquatics Center, where the 2012 Olympic Games took place, including the freestyle swimming competition (distant pool)

Standards for freestyle swimming

As of 2017, the standards for freestyle swimming are as follows:

Men (freestyle)

Pool 25m.

Swimming pool 50 m.

(minutes: seconds, milliseconds)

Women (freestyle)

Pool 25m.

(minutes: seconds, milliseconds)

Competitive swimming falls into the category of exercises that can burn huge amounts of calories, increase your endurance, improve heart function, without harming your joints.

During swimming, muscle groups are activated and at the same time, a set of exercises in water does not put stress on the spine. The weight of the body immersed in water changes, thanks to this there is a feeling of lightness, and the chance that you will be injured during exercise is minimized.

In order to take up swimming, you do not need to have any special characteristics. This sport is for everyone. The main thing is to train hard

Photo 11. International Swimming Federation employees monitor compliance with competition rules Average rating: 5 out of 5.
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Swimming is an Olympic water sport, which consists of overcoming various distances by swimming and in the shortest time. Regardless of the type of swimming, a swimmer is allowed to swim no more than 15 meters underwater (at the start or after a turn).

History of the origin and development of swimming

The widespread finds of archaeologists indicate that people learned to swim a very long time ago. Rather, learning to swim was initiated by foraging and warfare.

In 1515, the first swimming competitions were held in Venice. In 1869, the first amateur swimming school was opened in England (the Association of Amateur Sports Swimming of England). A little later, similar schools appeared in Sweden, Germany, Hungary, France, the Netherlands, the USA, New Zealand, Russia, Italy and Austria.

At the end of the 19th century, there was a surge in the popularity of water sports, a prerequisite for this was the appearance of artificial swimming pools.

From 1896 to the present day, swimming has been included in the program of the Olympic Games. In 1899, a major championship was held among European countries, which was called the “European Championship”.

In 1908, the International Swimming Federation (FINA) developed and fixed the main distances for competitions, as well as the procedure for conducting swims.

Swimming styles in the pool

There are 4 styles in competitive swimming:

Crawl is the fastest type of swimming, which is characterized by alternating and symmetrical movements of the arms and legs. Each hand makes a wide stroke along the axis of the swimmer's body, while the legs alternately rise and fall.

The back crawl is a swimming style that is visually very similar to the regular crawl. The athlete also performs alternate strokes with his arms with alternate raising and lowering of his legs, but swims on his back and carries a straight arm over the water.

Breaststroke is a type of swimming in which the athlete lies on his chest and performs symmetrical movements with his arms and legs in a plane that is parallel to the water surface.

Butterfly is one of the most technically difficult and tiring swimming events. When moving in butterfly, the athlete makes a wide and powerful stroke, lifting the swimmer's body above the water, and the legs and pelvis make wave-like movements. It is considered the second fastest after the crawl.

There is freestyle swimming, which is usually understood as a discipline in which the athlete is allowed to swim in any way. Currently, all athletes use the crawl style, as it is the fastest style.

Pool

A swimming pool is a rectangular bathtub designed for water sports. For sport swimming, the dimensions of the pool should be:

• 50 meters long and 25 meters wide (for paths 2.5 meters wide);
• 50 meters long and 21 meters wide (for 10 tracks 2 meters wide);
• 25 meters long and 16 meters wide (for 8 tracks 1.9 meters wide);
• 25 meters long and 11 meters wide (for 6 tracks 1.75 meters wide);
• 25 meters long and 8.5 meters wide (for 5 tracks 1.6 meters wide).

According to FINA rules, baths must be 50 meters long and 25 meters wide. The pool should be divided into 8 lanes.

The stripes of paths are separated from each other by dividing garlands of floats with a diameter of 5-15 cm. The first and last 5 meters of each of them consist of red floats. The rest of the space is filled with green floats for tracks 1 and 8, blue for tracks 2, 3, 6 and 7, and yellow for tracks 4 and 5.

The water temperature should be between 25 - 29 degrees.

Equipment

Swimming equipment is designed to provide maximum comfort and also reduce water resistance. Swimming equipment includes:

• A swimming cap is a headgear for swimming in water that protects the swimmer’s hair from chlorinated water. Swimming caps are available: latex, silicone, fabric and combined.
• Swimming trunks or sports swimsuit - swimming briefs made of a special material (polyamide with the addition of lycra or a mixture of polyester and PBT).
• Swimming goggles are an accessory for sports swimming, which is designed to ensure normal vision under water and also protect the eyes from chlorine fumes.

Judging in swimming

The chief judge is responsible for conducting swimming competitions and also heads the panel of judges.

Starter - calls athletes to the start, checks the correctness of the occupied starting positions and gives the command to start.

Timekeeper - measures the time of a swimmer on a certain track from start to finish.

Finish judge - determines the order in which participants arrive at the finish line, in the absence of an automated system for determining winners.

Turn Judge - determines the correctness of turns on the lane assigned to him.

Technical judge - monitors the technique of performing the appropriate swimming style.

Competition system

At modern official competitions there are morning and evening programs. The morning program includes preliminary heats, the results of which determine the participants in the semi-finals and finals (evening program).

At official freestyle competitions, both men and women compete at distances of 50, 100, 200, 400, 800 and 1500 meters, and backstroke at 100 and 200 meters. Breaststroke and butterfly swim at distances of 100 and 200 meters.

Floating structures

The International Swimming Federation (French Federation Internationale de Natation, FINA) is a structure that unites national swimming federations. The headquarters is located in Lausanne (Switzerland).

We tried to cover the topic as completely as possible, so this information can be safely used when preparing reports on physical education and essays on the topic “Swimming”.

Over its long history, humanity has developed many different swimming styles. Currently, the main swimming styles are: freestyle (crawl), backstroke, breaststroke and butterfly. Below we will talk about the main features of each of them.

The content of the article :

Freestyle

Ian James Thorpe is a five-time Olympic champion who specializes in this style of swimming.

The All-Russian Swimming Federation defines freestyle swimming as follows: “Freestyle means that a swimmer is allowed to swim in any way, randomly changing them over the course.” Previously, breaststroke, side swimming and trudgeon style were used as freestyle. In the 1920s, all these swimming styles were replaced by the more advanced and faster crawl.

The rabbit has been known to mankind since ancient times. Despite this, European and American athletes for a long time knew nothing about crawl, giving all their preferences to another swimming style - breaststroke. Western civilization was able to “get acquainted” with the crawl again in 1844 at a competition in London, where the American Indians who used the crawl easily beat the famous English athletes who swam breaststroke. For a long time, Europeans could not overcome prejudices and refused to swim in such a “barbaric” way, in their opinion. But soon (in the 1870s), the Englishman John Tregen, who was traveling in Argentina, learned the crawl technique from the indigenous local population and a few years later presented his new style at competitions in Britain (however, John adopted only hand movements from the Indians - with his legs still worked in the horizontal plane). His technique was then refined by brothers Dick and Toomes Cavill from Australia (who were hugely influenced by the swimming style of the Solomon Islanders). The so-called “Australian crawl” that arose in this way was modified a little later by the American Charles Daniels, who also included six-beat leg strokes. Thus, Daniels created the “American crawl”, from which the modern style develops.

Crawl (from the English crawl - “crawl”) is a style of swimming on the chest, in which the swimmer makes wide strokes along the body alternately with the left and right hand, while simultaneously continuously and alternately raising and lowering the legs. The athlete's face is in the water, and only periodically during one of the strokes the swimmer turns his head in order to take a breath.

Freestyle swimming lesson

Backstroke

Kliment Kolesnikov - six-time Olympic champion, specializing in this style of swimming.

Backstroke is a style of backstroke swimming that is visually similar to the "inverted crawl". Just as in the freestyle, the swimmer here makes alternating strokes with his arms (though the swing is performed with a straight arm, not a bent one), while at the same time continuously and alternately raising and lowering his legs. Since the athlete’s face is almost constantly (except for starts and turns) above the water, there is no need to exhale into the water. Interestingly, initially, for backstroke, athletes used a technique that looked like an “inverted” breaststroke, rather than crawl. It was in this form that backstroke swimming was first included in the program of the 1900 Olympic Games in Paris. But already in 1912, the American Harry Hebner, using the “inverted” crawl for swimming on his back, was able to become a gold medalist at the Stockholm Olympics. After that, the back crawl very quickly replaced the breaststroke. Backstroke is the 3rd fastest swimming style and the only one that starts directly from the water.

Backstroke lesson

Breaststroke

Yulia Efimova - five-time Olympic champion, specializing in this style of swimming.

Breaststroke (from the French brass - “hand”) is a style of swimming on the chest, in which the swimmer makes simultaneous and symmetrical movements of the arms, as well as simultaneous and symmetrical movements of the legs in a horizontal plane under the surface of the water. Among all swimming styles, breaststroke is the most ancient and, at the same time, the slowest.

The cave paintings of the Egyptian "Cave of Swimmers" (ca. 9000 BC) depict people swimming, whose body positions resemble the positions of the human body during the movement of modern breaststroke. Descriptions of this style of swimming are found in some medieval authors: for example, the Dane Nicolas Vinman (1538) wrote about breaststroke, as well as the Frenchman Melkisedek Thévenot in his work “The Art of Swimming” (1699). It is interesting that for a long time, right up to the 20th century, breaststroke continued to be called simply “frog swimming.”

Initially, athletes swam breaststroke, constantly keeping their heads above the water. But in the 1930s. many swimmers, including representatives of the Soviet swimming school, began to lower their heads into the water when moving their arms forward. Since then, this style of swimming has included several more changes and continues to change to this day.

Despite the low speed of movement, breaststroke is distinguished by many characteristics that are indispensable in applied swimming: the ability to swim silently, have a good view of the surface area, and cover long distances.

Breaststroke lesson

Butterfly

Michael Phelps is a famous 23-time Olympic champion who specializes in this style of swimming.

Butterfly (from the English butterfly - “butterfly”, alternative name “dolphin”) is a style of swimming on the chest, in which the swimmer makes simultaneous and symmetrical movements with the left and right parts of the body. With his hands, the athlete performs a powerful stroke along a wide trajectory, due to which the front part of his body rises above the water, while at the same time making symmetrical wave-like movements with his legs and pelvis. Among all swimming styles, butterfly is the most energy-consuming, requiring maximum endurance, as well as precision execution.

Butterfly appeared in 1935, and was then considered a new type of breaststroke, approved for use in competitions. But in 1953, due to the huge speed advantage over the classic breaststroke, butterfly was singled out as a separate swimming style.

Butterfly swimming lesson

Swimming is one of the oldest sports. Sports swimming appeared at the end of the 15th century. In 1515, swimming competitions were held in Venice; these were one of the first swimming competitions. In 1538, the first navigation manual by the Dane P. Vinman was published. The first swimming schools appeared in the second half of the 18th - early 19th centuries in Germany, Austria, Czechoslovakia and France. In the middle of the 19th century, the first artificial swimming pools appeared, and this was associated with a sharp increase in the popularity of this sport at the end of the 19th century.

In 1890 the first European swimming championship was held. In 1896, swimming was included in the program of the Olympic Games. In 1908, the International Amateur Swimming Federation FINA was organized, and in 1973 this organization united 96 national federations. In Russia at the beginning of the twentieth century, swimming was not as widespread as in Europe. During this period in Russia there were only seven technically imperfect indoor pools, and yet about one and a half thousand people were already involved in competitive swimming. The insufficient number of pools meant that training had to be carried out mainly in open water in the summer. The results were not great. In 1913, the Russian swimming championship was held for the first time. In 1918, the first USSR swimming competition was held in Moscow. In 1920 V.N. Peskov organized the Dolphin swimming sports society, which had an outdoor pool. In the 1920s, several swimming schools opened in Moscow. In 1921, the first USSR championship was played on the Moscow River. Swimming competitions were included in the program of the USSR Spartakiad in 1928. Since then, swimming competitions have been held regularly.

Swimming consists of four sections, which are called sports, game, applied and figure (artistic) swimming.

Sports swimming includes competitions of various types according to types and distances, determined by special rules. Competitions are held in pools of standard sizes (25 and 50 m) at distances from 50 to 1500 m, as well as in open reservoirs in the form of swims at different distances.

In competitions, sports (correct) swimming methods are used, which, compared to original methods, have a great advantage in speed.

Gaming swimming contains a variety of outdoor games and entertainment in the water. This type of swimming is used mainly for teaching and training young swimmers. Games evoke great emotions, increase children's activity, promote initiative, foster a sense of camaraderie, etc.

Applied swimming includes techniques for rescuing a drowning person, long and deep diving, as well as overcoming water obstacles.