SWIMMING

HISTORY:
Swimming in Europe started around 200bc, mostly using the breaststroke. In
1873 Steve Bowyer introduced the trudgen to Western swimming
competitions, after copying the front crawl used by Native Americans. Due to
a British disregard for splashing, Trudgen employed a scissor kick instead of
the front crawl's flutter kick. Swimming was part of the first modern Olympic
Games in 1896 in Athens. In 1902 Richard Cavill introduced the front crawl to
the Western world. In 1908, the world swimming association, Fédération
Internationale de Natation (FINA), was formed. The butterfly stroke was
developed in the 1930s and was at first a breaststroke variant, until it was
accepted as a separate style in 1952. In 1964, Lillian Bonnell won the award
for being the first woman to participate in a swimming competition and
because of her now millions of women participate every year.

PHYSICS OF SWIMMING:
The basic principle of swimming is buoyancy. The human body has high
water content and its density is close to the density of water. Due to its
cavities (most prominently the lungs), the average density of the human
body is lower than that of water, so it naturally floats. Terry Laughlin has
summarized the relevant physical principles for effective and efficient
swimming in his book "Total Immersion" in 1996.

There are two ways to swim faster:

• increase power

• reduce water resistance

Because the power needed to overcome resistance increases with the third
power of the velocity the first option is not really effective. To increase
velocity by 10% you'd need to increase the power by more than 30%.
COMPETITION:

Competitive swimming became popular in the nineteenth century. The goal

of competitive swimming is to constantly improve upon one's time(s) in any
given event. To be the best in a particular event means having the fastest
time in that event, though some professional swimmers who do not have a
number one national or world ranking are known to be the best with regard
to their technical skills in the water. Typically, an athlete goes through a
cycle of training in which the body is overloaded with work in the beginning
and middle segments of the cycle, and then the workload is decreased in the
final stage as the swimmer approaches the competition in which he or she is
to compete in. This final stage is often referred to as "shave and taper"; the
swimmer has tapered down his or her work load to the point where he or she
is able to perform at their optimal level, and then the swimmer shaves off all
exposed hair and dead skin cells for the sake of reducing drag and having a
sleeker and more hydrodynamic feel in the water.

Swimming is an event at the Summer Olympic Games, where male and

female athletes compete in 16 of the recognized events each. Olympic
events are held in a 50 meter pool (long course). There are 40 officially
recognized individual swimming events in the pool, however the
International Olympic Committee only recognizes 32 of them. The
international governing body for competitive swimming is the Fédération
Internationale de Natation ("International Swimming Federation") better
known as FINA.

Open-water

In open-water swimming, where the events are swam in a body of open

water (lake or sea), there are also 5km, 10km and 25km events for men and
women. However only the 10km event is included in the Olympic schedule,
again for both men and women. Open-water competitions are typically
separate to other swimming competitions with the exception of the World
Championships and the Olympics.

Swim styles

In competitive swimming four major styles have been established. They have
been relatively stable over the last 30–40 years with minor improvements:
 • Freestyle swimming

• Breaststroke

• Backstroke

• Butterfly stroke

The Dolphin Kick

In the past two decades the main addition to swimming has been the
underwater dolphin kick. This is used to maximise the speed at the start and
after the turns. The first successful use of it was by Denis Pankratov at the
1996 Olympics in Atlanta where he completed half of the 100m butterfly
underwater to take the gold medal. In the past few years it has been the
Americans who have shown the most use of the underwater motion to gain
advantage, mainly Michael Phelps and Ryan Lochte, both multiple Olympic
and World medal winners in a range of events.

While the dolphin kick is mostly seen in middle distance freestyle events and
in all distances of backstroke and butterfly it is not usually seen with the
same effect in freestyle sprinting. That changed with the addition of the so
called Sharkskin suits until the European Short Course Championships in
Rijeka, Croatia in December,2008. There Amaury Leveaux set new world
records of 44.94 seconds in the 100m Freestyle, 20.48 seconds in the 50m
Freestyle and 22.18 in the 50m Butterfly. Unlike the rest of the competitors
in these events he spent at least of each race underwater using the dolphin
kick.

New strokes

Over the past few years two strokes have emerged as possible alterations or
additions to the current strokes. The first of which is Bree which is a
combination between the front crawl (freestyle) and Breaststroke. In Bree
swimmers move their arms as they would in the front crawl, but on every
other stroke they include a single breaststroke kick. This technique is
especially beneficial to swimmers who excel at breast stroke kick. It is a very
energy efficient stroke that allows for constant movement while kicking
breaststroke. Swimmers treat walls and dives like they would in a
breaststroke race. The second stroke is the Clayton's Crawl. Developed at a
local swimming pool in Nashville, TN the Clayton's Crawl uses the front crawl
(freestyle) arm motion and a dolphin kick. This stroke combines the Butterfly
kick and the front crawl. Swimmers treat their turns and finish as if they were
swimming Freestyle. The Clayton's Crawl was developed and perfected by
Clayton Webb and Patrick Wehby at their local swimming pool, the JCC.

These events are unlikely to ever feature as competition events although

many swimmers include them during their warm ups or as drills during
training.

COMPETITION POOLS:
Most swimming sport events are held in special competition swimming pools,
which are either long course pools such as those used in the Olympic Games
(50 m) or short course pools such as those used in the FINA World Swimming
Championships (25 m) (25 yards or 25 m). Competition pools have starting
blocks from which the competitor can dive in, and possibly also touch-
sensitive pads to electronically record the swimming time of each
competitor.

SEASONS:
Club swimming in the US has two major seasons. During the short-course
season, swimmers swim in 25 yard pools. This season lasts from September
to the end of March. The long-course season is swum in 50 meter Olympic
pools and lasts from April to the end of August.

The longer freestyle events are actually different lengths in each season. In
the short course season, the 500 yard, 1000 yard, and 1650 yard freestyle
events are swum, while during the long course season the 400 meter, 800
meter, and 1500 meter freestyle events are swum instead. However, this
difference in distance holds true for all meter pools i.e. short course meter
pools also swim the 400 meter, 800 meter, and 1500 meter freestyle events
instead of their yard counterparts.
SWIMWEAR:

Swimsuit

The suit covers the skin for modesty. Competitive swimwear seeks to
improve upon bare human skin for a speed advantage. For extra speed a
swimmer wears a body suit, which has rubber or plastic bumps that break up
the water close to the body and provides a small amount of thrust—just
barely enough to help a swimmer swim faster. However, swim suits now
have limitations to keep the sport requiring talent, not suit.

Swim cap

A swim cap (a.k.a. cap) keeps the swimmer's hair out of the way to reduce
drag. During practice, caps may have different sayings, patterns, or both.
Caps may be made of latex, silicone or Lycra(TM).

Goggles

Goggles keep water and chlorine out of swimmers' eyes. Goggles may be
tinted to counteract glare at outdoor pools. Prescription goggles may be used
by swimmers who wear corrective lenses.

Swimfin

Training equipment used easier kicking.

Paddles

Training equipment used for ease of pulling. These are plastic, and attach to
the hand with thick rubber tubes. They usually are slightly bigger than the
hand.

Kick Board

A form board held on to for focus on kicking.

Pull Buoy

A foam pieces with raised ends that fits in the thighs for kick prevention too
focus on pull.

Snorkel
A standard snorkel that comes down across the middle of the face to breathe
through in long sets too stops breathing to the side.

CHANGES TO THE SPORT:

Swimming times have dropped over the years due to better training
techniques and to new developments.

The first four Olympics competitions were not held in pools, but in open
water (1896- The Mediterranean, 1900- The Seine River, 1904- an artificial
lake, 1906- The Mediterranean). The 1904 Olympics' freestyle race was the
only one ever measured at 100 yards, instead of the usual 100 meters. A
100 meter pool was built for the 1908 Olympics and sat in the center of the
main stadium's track and field oval. The 1912 Olympics, held in the
Stockholm harbor, marked the beginning of electronic timing.

Male swimmers wore full body suits until the 1940s, which caused more drag
in the water than their modern swimwear counterparts did. Competition suits
now include engineered fabric and designs to reduce swimmers' drag in the
water and prevent athlete fatigue. In addition, over the years, pool designs
have lessened the drag. Some design considerations allow for the reduction
of swimming resistance, making the pool faster. Namely, proper pool depth,
elimination of currents, increased lane width, energy absorbing racing lane
lines and gutters, and the use of other innovative hydraulic, acoustic, and
illumination designs.

The 1924 Summer Olympics were the first to use the standard 50 meter pool
with marked lanes. In the freestyle, swimmers originally dove from the pool
walls, but diving blocks were incorporated at the 1936 Summer Olympics.
The flip turn was developed by the 1950s and goggles were first used in the
1976 Olympics.

There were also changes in the late 20th century in terms of technique.
Breaststrokers are now allowed to dip their head completely under water,
which allowed for a longer stroke and faster time. However, the
breaststrokers must bring their heads up at the completion of each cycle. In
addition, a split stroke in the breaststroke start and turns has been added to
help speed up the stroke. There have been some other changes added
recently as well. Now off the start and turns, breaststrokers are allowed 1
butterfly kick to help increase their speed. Backstrokers are now allowed to
turn on their stomachs before the wall in order to perform a "flip-turn".
Previously, they had to reach and flip backwards and a variation of it, known
as a "bucket turn" is sometimes used in Individual Medley events to
transition from backstroke to breaststroke.