What is freestyle in swimming? Swimming styles

Swimming, as such, originated a very long time ago. This is evidenced by ancient drawings and pictures that date back to periods before our era. At the end of the 19th century, this sport entered the Olympic program and to this day occupies an important place there.

Swimming styles

• Butterfly, aka dolphin. This method of swimming is considered the most technically difficult and tiring. This is due to the fact that the swimmer needs to synchronously coordinate the movements of the arms and legs, while breathing correctly. Due to a strong stroke with the arms, the athlete’s body rises above the water, while the pelvis needs to make wave-like movements. This swimming style is very fast and takes second place after front crawl;

• The back crawl is technically similar to the front crawl. The athlete must alternately make strokes with his arms, while simultaneously moving his legs up and down. At the same time, the swimmer’s body glides along the surface of the water. The back of the head is submerged in water. The main feature of this style is a low start, straight out of the water. Swimming on the back is inferior in speed to crawl and butterfly;

• Freestyle - swimming style (or front crawl); This means that an athlete can cover the distance in any style convenient for him and even change it during the distance. Over the many years of competitions, American athletes have managed to improve their crawl swimming technique so much that this particular style has supplanted the others during freestyle swimming;

• Breaststroke is one of the main swimming styles, in which symmetrical movements of the arms and legs are performed parallel to the surface of the water. When this style first appeared, the head was always on the surface of the water. It was later noted that if you immerse your head in the water during strokes, the speed increases significantly. Thus, in a modern brace, you only need to raise your head to inhale.

There are no easy or hard strokes in swimming. In order to achieve results in each swimming style, you need to master the technique. Only in this case the speed will become high. It takes an average of two to three years of active training with a trainer to establish the correct swimming and breathing technique, after which work begins on the result. You need to develop endurance, hone your movements until they become automatic, and work on your speed.

Basic swimming methods

• Crawl on chest
• Back crawl
• Breaststroke
• Butterfly (dolphin)

The four styles listed are the main swimming methods that are included in the Olympic competition program, as well as the World and European Championships.

Swimming is a very useful sport, since almost all muscle groups are involved in any style. Swimmers-athletes have beautiful figures.

You can start swimming from childhood, but it is better to start serious training in the pool no earlier than 6.5-7 years. This is due to the fact that a smaller child is distracted by the water, cannot concentrate on the learning process, and also, he cannot stay in the cool water in the pool for a long time.

A person who follows the instructions of a coach, practices conscientiously and has natural swimming abilities can repeat and break the records of such famous swimmers as Michael Phelps, Ian Thorpe, Yana Klochkova, Alexander Popov and many others.

Swimming styles (methods) differ from each other in the movements performed by the swimmer, speed and energy consumption, as well as start rules and turning techniques during competitions, as well as technical complexity and ease of mastery for most people. - Basic Swimming Styles:

Pay special attention to the exact order in which all of the above methods are located. - This order is not at all accidental, because... All of the above listed styles are specifically arranged in this way by us - strictly in order of increasing technical complexity and difficulty in mastering them for most people. That is why most Trainers in the world begin their initial training (for both children and adults!) with Front Crawl and Backstroke, and finish with Breaststroke.

Brief description of the main 4 Methods

• Breast crawl is a method of swimming on the front, in which the arms make alternate strokes and the legs make an alternating, continuous movement “like scissors.” This is the fastest way to travel in water. - Additionally, watch the Animation and Coaching VIDEO, which well illustrates the technique of professional swimmers, including such as: Alexander Popov, Michael Phelps, Ian Thorpe and many others.
• The back crawl is a way of swimming on the back, which is, to a certain extent, similar to the front crawl, because. in it, as in the front crawl, the arms make alternate strokes, and the legs make an alternating continuous movement “like scissors”, but the difference is that the swimmer swims on his back, and not on his stomach, as in the front crawl. The back crawl is considered the third fastest style. - Additionally, see Animation and VIDEO Selection
• Butterfly is a style of front swimming in which the left and right parts of the body make symmetrical and simultaneous movements: the Arms make a simultaneous stroke, while the Legs make a simultaneous wave-like movement. Butterfly is the most energy-consuming method. Butterfly is considered the second fastest style after front crawl. Butterfly - Animation and VIDEO
• Breaststroke is a style of breast swimming in which the arms simultaneously stroke and extend forward from the chest, and the legs bend at the knees and push. Although Breaststroke is the slowest style (method), it is, at the same time, the most complex from a technical point of view and, of course, therefore the most difficult to master. That is why most Coaches (both in our country and in the world) begin to study it with their students at the very last stage, when the Front Crawl and Back Crawl, as well as the primary dolphin (butterfly) skills are quite well mastered and the skills sufficiently secured. - Brass - Animation and VIDEO
• * Additionally, you can read an article written by our trainers in response to a question from a user who was interested in what is the most logical way to start training and master the technique for people who cannot swim, if the goal is to learn well and become a good swimmer.
• We also strongly recommend that you watch a 65-minute video film, filmed under the supervision of the World Trade Union, about initial classes with children, which shows the standard coaching methodology in sufficient detail. Of course, this same technique is extrapolated to adults who cannot swim, who are trained according to the same scheme, because the first steps (first exercises) are the same for both adults and children.

A swimming pool is a place where a person can get acquainted with a special element - water. It is unusual for us, but getting to know it is interesting. In water, the human body feels completely different than on land: weightlessness appears, all movements are easier. Thanks to this effect, you can perfectly train all muscle groups in water without putting in much effort. Such training in water is suitable even for those people for whom such exercise in the air is contraindicated. Various workouts develop speed, strength, and endurance. What do you want to achieve?

Benefits of Swimming

The water element is accessible to absolutely everyone. You can teach anyone to swim: from the smallest child to a pensioner. Various swimming methods have a great effect on the circulatory system, cardiac activity, respiratory system, spine, bone tissue, and even treat some diseases associated with the musculoskeletal system. You need to visit the pool at least 2 times, and the workout should last about 45 minutes. Experts consider this time optimal for our body. The number of visits can be increased to 4, but do not be too zealous. Remember that swimming is the same training, a way to train the muscles of the whole body, and they also need rest. For children, training should be limited to 2 times for 30-40 minutes or 45 minutes, but with a break of 5 minutes.

Existing Styles

To begin with, it’s worth understanding what the concept of style means. It can be defined as coordinated work of arms and legs, thanks to which the swimmer actively moves through the water in the direction he needs. Some of the most popular are:

• Freestyle;
• Butterfly;
• Crawl.

Freestyle

This method of swimming is called so because it does not have clear rules and requirements.

An athlete can create his own execution technique and use it successfully.

Butterfly

Butterfly is the youngest swimming method, but today it is one of the most popular.

The Dolphin was a faster modernization of the butterfly. Its difference is the movements of the swimmer’s legs under water: kicking in a vertical plane up and down. This distinguishes it from butterfly, where the movement of the legs is adopted from breaststroke.

Crawl

In the classic version, crawl is a style of swimming on the front. As already mentioned, it is the fastest and most effective way to swim. With its help, you can effectively cover both short and long distances. How does the crawl allow you to develop such speed? It's all about the characteristic alternating movements of the arms, the swing of which is made over the water to make a powerful jerk forward. Due to the fact that the hands are not immersed in the water at this moment, the braking force of the water does not act on them.

Swimming on your chest while moving your arms underwater is much slower, since more time and effort are spent on the swing. The special position of the hands became an advantage that allowed the crawl to be included in the list of styles for competitions. The breast swimming style also involves the active participation of the legs. They should be fully extended and make powerful, quick, elastic movements so that their feet reach the surface of the water. Then the legs will provide active assistance to the arms, which are responsible for the driving force.

The “backstroke” option is used in competitions as an opportunity to rest over a long distance.

Swimming on your back involves special movements of the legs - they make frequent movements-strikes from top to bottom and vice versa. The hands are also responsible for the speed of movement, which depends on the force applied. Fully straightened arms alternately swing through the air on both sides and plunge into the water at a distance greater than shoulder width. Bringing your palm closer to the water, you need to turn it edgewise so that the little finger is first in the water. This position of the hand ensures a faster and more efficient entry of the hand into the water.

Anyone can learn to swim in any of these styles. Every professional coach will provide you with freestyle swimming lessons or advise you on other swimming styles in the pool. Freestyle will become the basis for you, which will allow you to successfully develop in your chosen direction. All that is required of you is patience and perseverance, because hard work awaits you. But the results you can achieve are undoubtedly worth the effort.

Ask yourself, when was the last time you went to the pool? I'm sure most won't even remember. But in vain, swimming is a very pleasant pastime, and it is difficult to describe how much benefit it brings. A visit to the pool after a hard day at work will perfectly relieve all fatigue, receive many positive emotions, so that not a trace of stress will remain, and with regular visiting, you can get yourself into good physical shape. While for us this is a time for rest, for an athlete it is a hard workout, spending a lot of time on it and honing the technique of different swimming styles. We will look at what types of swimming there are in this article.

Krol (from the English “crawl”), which translates as “crawling”. This is the fastest type of swimming of all existing ones, despite the “slow” name. Due to the speed of this style, it has become the traditional freestyle choice for most athletes.

The crawl technique is quite simple. Swimming on your stomach, face down, alternate strokes are made with half-bent arms, helping your legs by moving them alternately up and down. Inhalation is done as you turn your head to the side during the stroke.

Butterfly (from English “butterfly”). Probably the most difficult type of swimming. However, it is almost as fast as the crawl.

With this style, the arms make a fairly strong and wide stroke, similar to the flapping of the wings of a butterfly, due to which the body should rise strongly above the water, and at the same time make a wave-like movement with the legs.

Breaststroke ranks last in speed among all swimming styles. But despite this, from a technical point of view it is one of the most complex styles. Quite little energy is expended using breaststroke, which allows you to swim long distances. This style is also used for silent swimming and swimming underwater. The movements of this style are similar to those of a frog. You need to swim on your stomach, move your arms forward from your chest at the same time, bend your knees, make a simultaneous push, and then straighten.

It is similar to a regular crawl, but it also has differences. As the name suggests, you need to swim on your back, not on your stomach. When moving your arms above the water, you do not need to bend them. And a significant advantage over all other styles is that there is no need to exhale into the water, since the swimmer’s face is on the surface, which allows him to breathe calmly.

So we figured out what types of swimming there are, I just want to note that this is not a complete list, but only the main styles.

The following types of swimming are considered sports disciplines: front crawl/backstroke, breaststroke, butterfly. They appear in competitions; they set records. But fans of swimming and simply people who know how to do it know very well that there are other ways to move in the water. They are not sports, but are often used in everyday life. Let's start with what swimming styles are sports.

Crawl

When they describe sports swimming in the pool and say the word “crawl,” they usually mean the front crawl (or stomach crawl). This is the fastest and most effective way of moving in water. It was on it that the most significant speed record was set.

For comparison, you can use the 2015 data based on the results of competitions in a 50-meter pool (distance - 100 m):

• first place - crawl - completing the distance in 46.91 seconds;
• second place - butterfly - 49.82 seconds;
• bronze - back crawl - 51.85 sec.;
• breaststroke with an indicator of 57.13 seconds. did not make it into the top three winners.

The last figure does not mean at all that breaststroke is worse than other types of sports swimming. It's just that his technique is much more complex than others. But first you should stop at the rabbit.

Crawl technique

It has many advantages. This is the fastest type of sports swimming, the most dynamic and therefore extremely spectacular. Front crawl is also called freestyle (the swimmer is allowed to move in several ways convenient for him). The basic movement looks like this:

• The hands of the crawler perform alternating strokes along the body;
• legs work quickly, moving in a vertical plane like scissors;
• inhalation occurs above the surface of the water, first in one direction, then in the other, depending on which hand is making the stroke;
• the athlete exhales at the moment when he dives and moves under the surface of the water.

This basic movement is allowed to periodically alternate with wave-like movements of the body (“dolphin”) and other elements. Actually, for this reason the style is called “free”.

Back crawl

If we mention the technically easiest swimming methods, then we should start with the back crawl. But this ease lies only in the fact that the swimmer does not need to continuously control his breathing. His face is above the water the entire way. Breathing during a backstroke is much easier than during the same classic crawl or breaststroke.

The name “crawl” itself comes from the English verb crawl, which translates as “crawl”. But if the movement on the stomach can somehow be compared with this action, then the crawl on the back is something completely different. When moving slowly, it gives the impression of the most relaxed gliding on the water. Athletes often use similar methods of swimming in the pool to relax after an intense and exhausting workout.

Execution technique

While moving in this style, the athlete “lies” on his back the entire time. His face is turned upward, and his hands perform wide strokes (alternately right and left). Only during the start and turns the face is immersed in the water. The legs perform short up-and-down strokes, reminiscent of scissor movements.

Interestingly, the “inverted” crawl is the only style in which the athlete starts directly from the water. All other swimming styles in the pool involve starting from a stand.

Another interesting fact is related to the history of its formation as a sport type of swimming. Until 1912, the last one was the backstroke. But in the mentioned year, during the Olympics in Stockholm, American swimmer Harry Hebner overcame the required distance with an “inverted” crawl. And he didn’t just swim, he won gold. After that, the backstroke was doomed.

Breaststroke

When answering the question which style of competitive swimming is the slowest, one always thinks of breaststroke. We already found out why earlier. The species got its name from the French noun brass, which literally translates as “hand”.

For breaststroke, the arms are really important. They make wide and energetic strokes, “pushing” the athlete’s body forward. You may get the impression that the breaststroker seems to be pulling himself up with his arms or, on the contrary, pushing off with them from an invisible support.

Execution technique

During the movement, the breaststroke's arms work simultaneously, making the same movements forward and downward through the sides. Under the chest, the swimmer turns his palms over and throws them forward, which begins a new cycle of movements.

The athlete's legs perform movements similar to how a frog pushes off from water. His knees are close. Mainly only the legs and feet work. The shins perform twisting movements in different directions, as if scooping up water and then pushing off from it.

The difficulty of breaststroke is that the strokes with arms and legs need to be clearly coordinated. Then the movement of the body will be smooth, and the speed will be quite decent. It is also important for breaststroke swimmers to coordinate their breathing with other actions. Inhalation, as in the crawl, is performed above the surface, exhalation - in the water column.

Beginning athletes sometimes swim while keeping their heads above the surface at all times. It’s easier to breathe this way, but according to sports standards it’s not considered correct. Naturally, you can’t swim like that in competitions.

The advantage of breaststroke is that it is almost completely silent. This style was once used during military operations in the coastal zone. Breaststroke is the oldest of all known methods of human transportation on water. Evidence of this was discovered in the “Cave of Swimmers” (Egypt). The 9,000-year-old rock paintings decorating its vaults depict people swimming breaststroke.

Butterfly

The name of this method is translated from English as “butterfly”. Sometimes it is also called "dolphin". If we mention the most technically complex and time-consuming types of sports swimming, butterfly will take an honorable first place in this list. Compared to the styles described above, it is exceptionally young. It arose only in 1935, which in the entire history of sports is simply a child’s age.

Initially, butterfly was perceived as a kind of breaststroke. They indeed have some similar features (the same wave-like movements of the body, etc.), but otherwise these types of swimming are quite different from each other.

The first difference is that the butterfly is much faster and more powerful. In terms of speed, it ranks second in the overall list. Another nuance concerns energy costs. To swim butterfly, you need to be a truly strong and resilient person. Why this is so can be understood by analyzing the butterfly technique.

Execution technique

The style was called “butterfly” for its wide hand strokes, reminiscent of the flapping of a moth’s wings. “Dolphin” - for the wave-like movements of the body.

During movement, the swimmer emerges from the water with his entire body, as dolphins do. Together it looks like this:

• hands make wide synchronized strokes along the entire body, as if pushing it forward;
• lifting the body above the plane of the water, the athlete takes a breath and goes for a dive;
• simultaneously with the swings of the arms, the whole body performs an energetic wave.

It is considered a big mistake to “dolph” with just your legs. The wave-like movements should come from the body, gradually move to the hips and end with the feet.

It is extremely important for a person swimming in this technique to have excellent control of his body and be flexible. Every muscle of his must work for the result. That's why the butterfly is considered the hardest.

This completes the classification of swimming by so-called sports styles.

Something you don't see at competitions

Like a dog

When asked what method of swimming is not sportive, the legendary “doggy style” immediately comes to mind. This way you can also move in the water. Especially if other types of swimming have not yet been mastered.

Many animals, small children and beginners who have just learned to stay in the water swim like a dog. This method is mastered on an intuitive level. The body itself tells you what to do.

During the swim, a person lies face down. The arms make quick raking movements under the body, the legs make short vertical strokes, reminiscent of the clicks of scissors. This is a simple and low-cost method, which is often used by weakened or injured people.

Frog

Another non-sports option is the “frog”. It resembles the most simplified breaststroke. The swimmer's head is above the water, his face is turned down. The arms and legs make rounded strokes, similar to the movements of the limbs of a swimming frog. The method is as simple as possible. Great for beginners.

Colchis-Iberian method

Another unsportsmanlike and little-known option for overcoming water is the Colchian-Iberian (or Georgian) style of swimming. The name comes from the name of the area where it originated and until recently was popular.

This style is unique in that the swimmer performs an undulating motion of the pelvis while keeping the arms close to the body and the legs brought together. Once upon a time, the Colchian-Iberian style was a military training method of practicing swimming with tied hands and feet. Now it is used for deep diving.

As in the butterfly, the endurance and strength of the swimmer are important here. Previously, the Colchian-Iberian method of swimming was used to instill the fighting spirit of soldiers. A man tied up and thrown into the water begins to panic and therefore drowns. Warriors were taught to overcome this fear and, using the acquired skills, save their lives in the most hopeless situation.

Synchronized swimming

It cannot be called a type or method of swimming. It is rather a separate discipline that combines many characteristics. It is considered a traditionally female sport and requires athletes to have colossal endurance, excellent control of their body, as well as grace and a sense of rhythm.

Synchronized swimming is a dance in the water, in some in the sense of aerobatics. No speed records are set here, but the main emphasis is on the technical skills and synchronization of movements of all the girls in the group.

Now, having become acquainted with different types of swimming, it will be a little easier for beginning athletes to make a choice and decide on which path to develop next.