Swimming

Swimming is very popular in our country. The evolution and development of modern
swimming techniques make a fascinating story. Swimming is enjoyed by a great many people,
firstly because it is a recreational sport and secondly because it keeps one fit. But it is all the
more enjoyable if one masters the various techniques of swimming.
The common strokes used in swimming are: the breaststroke, the butterfly stroke, and the
dolphin stroke, being its variety, the backstroke, and the front crawl stroke. But we know other
strokes such as: competitive swimming, one style swimming, swimming of duration, medley
swim, etc.
Swimmers are called accordingly: a breaststroke swimmer, a crawl stroke swimmer, a long
distance swimmer, a short – distance swimmer, a medium – distance swimmer, a first relay
swimmer, a last relay swimmer, etc. Swimming makes people strong and healthy, in good form
and develops all parts of the body.
The breaststroke being easy to master, coaches often begin to teach it beginners.
Backstroke is the fastest of all strokes on the back. In free-style swimming many records were
set with the front crawl stroke, which proved to be the fastest of all swimming strokes.
As a rule swimmers practise in swimming – pools. But in summer they prefer to do it in the
river or sea. There are some kinds of swimming – pools: pools for teaching and sporting pools,
which may be indoor and outdoor ones.
There are some rules about swimming that are essential for all. The main elements in
swimming are: body position, arm action, leg action, breathing, pull, push etc. In a breaststroke
breathing is closely connected with arm action. Inhalation takes place above water through the
open mouth, but exhalation takes place under water or on the surface through both nose and
mouth. To meet the needs of our sportsmen the government has built a great number of artificial
indoor and open – air pools, the number of swimmers increasing from year to year. Now
swimmers can train and compete all year round.