PATHFIT 3
AQUATICS (SWIMMING)
 CONCEPT
- Swimming, in recreation and sports, is the propulsion of the
body through water by combined arm and leg motions and
the natural flotation of the body. Swimming as an exercise is
popular as an all-around body developer and is particularly
useful in therapy and as exercise for physically handicapped
persons. It is also taught for lifesaving purposes. Since
swimming involves movement of almost all the parts of the
human body, its significance is very evident to physical
fitness development and maintenance.
 HISTORY
- Evidence shows swimming to have been practiced as early
as 2500 BCE in Egypt and thereafter in Assyrian, Greek,
and Roman civilizations.
- In Greece and Rome, swimming was a part of martial
training and was, with the alphabet, also part of elementary
education for males.
- In the Orient swimming dates back at least to the 1st
century BCE, there being some evidence of swimming races
then in Japan.
- By the 17th century an imperial edict had made the teaching
of swimming compulsory in the schools.
- Organized swimming events were held in the 19th century
before Japan was opened to the Western world.
- Among the preliterate maritime peoples of the Pacific,
swimming was evidently learned by children about the time
they walked, or even before.
- Among the ancient Greeks there was a note of occasional
races, and a famous boxer swam as part of his training.
- The Romans built swimming pools, distinct from their
baths.
- In the 1st century BCE the Roman Gaius Maecenas is said
to have built the first heated swimming pool.
- When the first swimming organization was formed there
in1837, London had six indoor pools with diving boards.
- The first swimming championship was a 440-yard (400-
metre) race, held in Australia in 1846 and annually
thereafter.
- The Metropolitan Swimming Clubs of London, founded in
1869, ultimately became the Amateur Swimming
Association, the governing body of British amateur
swimming.
- National swimming federations were formed in several
European countries from 1882 to 1889.
- In the United States, swimming was first nationally
organized as a sport by the Amateur Athletic Union (AAU)
on its founding in 1888.
- The Fédération Internationale de Natation Amateur (FINA)
was founded in 1909.
 COMPETITIVE SWIMMING
- Competitive swimming came into prominence with its
inclusion in the modern Olympic Games from their
inception in 1896.
- Olympic events were originally only for men, but women's
events were added in 1912.
- Under FINA regulations, for both Olympic and other world
competition, race lengths came increasingly to be measured
in meters, and in 1969 world records for yard-measured
races were abolished.
- Many nations have at one time or another dominated
Olympic and world competition, including one time or
another dominated Olympic and world competition,
including Hungary, Denmark, Australia, Germany, France,
Great Britain, Canada, Japan, and the United States
 INSTRUCTION AND TRAINING
- Began in Great Britain in the 19th Century, both for sport
and for lifesaving; then copied in the rest of Europe.
- In the US swimming instruction for lifesaving purpose
began under the auspices of American Red Cross in 1916.
- The early practice of simply swimming as much as possible
at every workout was replaced by interval training and
repeat training by the late 1950s. Interval training consists
of a series of swims of the same distance with controlled
rest periods.
- Slow interval training for endurance.
- Fast interval training is for speed.
 HEALTH BENEFITS
 Linked to better cognitive function
 Lower risk of type 2 diabetes
 Lower risk of high blood pressure
 Decrease the risk of chronic illnesses
 Reduces joint inflammation
 Improves memory function
 Helps combat obesity
 Improves coordination, flexibility, balance and posture
 Build endurances, muscle strength and cardiovascular
fitness
 Slow down aging
 Provides all over body workout
 Improves oxygen and blood flow to the brain
 Improves overall social well-being
 Healthy lungs
 Relaxed mind
 Lower risk of stroke
 Good for asthma
 Healthy weight
 SAFETY IN SWIMMING
Points to Remember
- Do not swim immediately after a meal, as this may cause
dangerous stomach cramps.
- Never swim alone. A companion or a lifeguard should
always be around.
- Never dive into dark water or shallow pools. It should be
clear and its bottom visible.
- Never swim in cold open water - you will run out of energy
amazingly quickly.
- Do not go out of the 'safe depth zone' until you are really
competent swimmer.
- Treat the water with respect - understand how easy it is to
stray out into deep waters.
Getting Started
-Anybody keep on learning how to swim; you can do so.
-Nobody is too old or too young to learn swimming.
-In fact, several studies have shown that even newborn can
swim, or at least stay afloat in water.
- A child (Babies & Toddlers) can be taken to the pool as
early in life as you wish.
- Some run a special 'Mother and baby' swimming classes.
The object, at this early age, is simply to familiarize the
baby with the water.
 TERMINOLOGIES
 AMMONIA (NH3)
- nitrogen-containing compound that combines with free
chlorine to form chloramines; chloramines have a strong
chlorine odor and can cause skin and eye irritation
introduced into the water by swimmers as waste
(perspiration or urine) or by other means; quickly forms
foul-smelling, body-irritating chloramine - a disabled, less-
effective form of chlorine.
 ALKALINITY
- amount of carbonate, bicarbonate and hydroxide compounds
in pool water more commonly called total alkalinity
measure of the pH-buffering capacity of water also called
the water's resistance to change in pH one of the basic water
tests necessary to determine water balance.
 ALGAE
- microscopic plants deposited in pool or spa water by wind,
rain and dust, they thriven in sunlight and warm water,
clogging pool equipment and causing slippery surfaces and
green water; there are 21,000 known species of algae are not
disease causing, but can harbor bacteria, and it is slippery
most common pool types are black, blue-green, green and
mustard (yellow or drawn) pink or red-colored algae-like
organisms exist but are bacteria and not algae; maintaining
proper sanitizer levels, shocking and super chlorination will
help prevent algae occurrence
 AUTOMATIC POOL CLEANER
- device, which agitates or vacuum debris from the walls and
floor of the pool automatically.
 BYPASS
- arrangement of pipes, gates and valves by which the flow of
water may be passed around a piece of equipment or
diverted to another piece of equipment a controlled
diversion.
 BLUE FINGERNAILS
- condition caused by too much copper not chlorine in the
pool water; the copper may get into the water by the bad
practice of placing trichloro tabs in the skimmer; this acidic
product will cause low-pH water, which will in turn dissolve
metals in the equipment; the dissolved metal (usually
copper) then stains hair, fingernails and, eventually, pool
walls can also be caused by keeping the pH too low or
misusing acid.
 BREAKPOINT CHLORINATION
- process of adding sufficient free available chlorine to
completely oxidize all organic matter and ammonia or
nitrogen compounds; all chlorine added after that point is
free available chlorine.
 BLOWER
- electrical device that produces a continuous rush of air to
create the optimal bubbling effect in a spa, hot tub or
whirlpool; it is usually plumbed with the hydrotherapy jets
or to a separate bubbler ring.
 BACKWASH
- reversing flow of water through the filter to clean the
elements and filter medium.
 BACKWASH CYCLE
- time needed to backwash (clean) the filter and its
components using a reverse flow of water.
 BACKFLOW
- backing up of water through a pipe in the direction opposite
to normal flow.
 BACKSTROKE FLAGS
- colorful vinyl pennants spaced and sized to meet
competitive swimming requirements; generally placed five
yards (short course) or five meters (long course) from the
end of the pool; they enable back strokers to execute a
backstroke turn more efficiently by counting their strokes.
 BLOCK
- starting platform.
 CHLORINE NEUTRALIZER
- chemical used to make chlorine harmless; used in test kits to
counteract the bleaching effect of the chlorine or bromine in
order to increase the accuracy of pool water tests sold as
chlorine and bromine neutralizer, it is used to destroy
excessive amounts of chlorine or bromine, so the high levels
will not affect swimmers,
 CHLORINE GENERATOR
- electrical device that generates chlorine from a salt solution
in a tank or from salt added to the pool water.
 CARTRIDGE FILTER
- pool or spa water filter that uses a replaceable porous
element made of paper or polyester.
 DISINFECTANT
- chemicals or processes, which work to destroy vegetative
forms of microorganisms and other contaminants; examples
are chlorine, bromine, Soft-Swim, ionizers and copper and
silver algaecides.
 DRILL
- an exercise involving a portion or part of a stroke, used to
improve technique
 DIVING BOARD
- recreational mechanism for entering a swimming pool,
consisting of a semi-rigid board that derives its spring from
a fulcrum mounted below the board and attached to the
deck.
 ELECTROLYSIS
- electrochemical reaction causing a black stain normally
found around metal fixtures or on the plaster; caused by two
dissimilar metals being plumbed together or from an
improper electrical grounding of pool equipment or lights
decomposition of water and other inorganic compounds in
aqueous solution by means of electricity; chlorine
generators use this principle to produce chlorine from salt in
the water.
 FINALS
- championship heat of an event in which the top six or eight
swimmers from the preliminaries compete.
 FLAGS
- colorful vinyl pennants spaced and sized to meet
competitive swimming requirements; generally placed five
yards (short course) or five meters (long course) from the
end of the pool enables backstroke swimmers to execute a
backstroke turn more efficiently by counting their strokes
 FAILED SWIM
- where a meet calls for proof of a time standard and the
swimmer fails to meet that standard in a particular race.
 FALSE START
- swimmer moving before the start of a race.
 HYDROGEN
- lightest chemical element component of water frequent
product of many chemical reactions; pH is a measure of
hydrogen in its ionic form in water.
 INFLUENT
- water flowing into a filter, pipe, pool, chemical feeder or
other space; water going into the pump is called in influent,
while water leaving the pump is called the effluent the water
coming into and up to the impeller from the suction lines;
these pipes are under vacuum pressure.
 IM
- individual medley event in which the swimmer uses all four
strokes
 JET PUMP
- used in spas to provide additional thrust into the
hydrotherapy jets.
 LONG DISTANCE
- any freestyle event over 1500 meters, normally conducted in
a natural body of water, such as a lake, river or ocean also
known as marathon swimming
 LAP SWIMMING
- designated time when swimmers may use the distance of the
pool at their own pace.
 LANE
- specific area in which the swimmer is assigned to swim
 LAP COUNTER
- set of plastic display numbers used to keep track of laps
during a distance race the person who counts for the
swimmer stationed at the opposite end from the start.
 MINERAL
- any substance that is neither animal nor vegetable; such as
calcium, manganese, magnesium nickel, copper, silver, iron,
cobalt or aluminum; their presence in high non-chelated
concentrations can lead to stains and scale when conditions
are right.
 MIDDLE DISTANCE
- events 200-400 yards/meter in length.
 PH
- indicates the acidity or alkalinity of pool water: on a scale of
0 to 14, values below 7 are acidic, while values above 7 are
alkaline; ideal pool pH is a reading of 7.4 - 7.6.
 PRELIMS
- preliminaries, also called heats or trial races in which
swimmers qualify for the championship and consolation
finals in events.
 REFEREE
- official who has the authority over all other officials at a
meet makes all final decisions and sees to the efficient
running of the meet.
 RELAY
- an event in which four swimmers compete together as a
team to achieve one time.
 RECREATIONAL SWIM TEAM
- swim team run by a club, or municipality or county
 RECREATIONAL SWIMMING
- also called open swimming set time when swimmers of all
ages may come to the pool; no lane lines are in the water:
the water is "open"
 STARTER
- the official at a meet responsible for starting each heat and
calling the next heat to the blocks
 SPLIT
- swimmer's intermediate time in a race; splits are registered
every 50 vards or meters and are used to determine if a
swimmer is on record pace under certain conditions, splits
may also be used as official times
 SPRINT
- describes the shorter events (50 and 100) in training, to
swim as fast as possible for a short distance
 SHORT COURSE
- a pool 25 yards or 25 meters in length.
 SEED
- to distribute the swimmers among the heats and lanes
according to their times; in most cases, the fastest swimmers
are in the final heat of an event.
 SEEDING TIMES
- time a swimmer uses to enter a meet; this time, which is
written on the entry card, determines one's position and lane
in a particular meet.
 TURNOVER
- also called turnover rate number of times a quantity of water
equal to the total capacity of the pool passes through the
filters in a stated time; usually in turnovers per day; pool
capacity in gallons,divided by pump flow rate in gallons per
minute (gpm), divided by 60 minutes in 1 hour, will give
hours for 1 turnover.
 WATER POLO
- high endurance sport with soccer-like strategy played in the
pool; forward, backs and goalies try to throw a ball into the
opponent's net; players are not allowed to touch the bottom
of the pool while playing.
 WATER BALLET
- see synchronized swimming.
 WATER EXERCISE
- also called water aerobics. an exercise routine in the water.
 WARM DOWN
- low intensity swimming used by swimmers after a race or
main practice; it rids the body of excess lactic acid and
gradually reduces heart rate and respiration.
 WARM UP
- used by a swimmer prior to a main practice, set or race;
loosens and warms muscles and gradually increases heart
rate and respiration.
 ZONE
- specific area of protection. portion of a large protected area.