Breaststroke

Freestyle

Characterized by its long overhead stroke and vigorous flutter kick, the freestyle is the fastest and most powerful of the swimming strokes.
The competitions of the 1800s were tame affairs, with swimmers limited to the breast and side strokes to keep their heads above water. But the appearance of two North American Indians at a swim meet in London and the travels to South America of an Englishman revolutionized the sport forever.

The North Americans shocked the British in 1844 with their dramatic over-arm stroke. Their arm motions were likened to windmills on the water. This flailing stroke that the Indians introduced to England was in fact centuries old. The inhabitants of the Americas, West Africa and some Pacific islands had been using an over-arm stroke for generations.

The sidestroke, in which the swimmer lies on one side, was soon modified to become the over-arm sidestroke. One arm was recovered above the water for increased arm speed. The legs were squeezed together in an uncoordinated action.

John Trudgen developed the hand-over-hand stroke, then named the Trudgen. He copied the stroke from South American Indians and introduced it in England in 1873. Each arm recovered out of the water as the body rolled from side to side. The swimmer did a scissors kick with every two arm strokes. This stroke was the forerunner of the front crawl. Kick variations included different multiples of scissors kicks or alternating scissors and flutter kicks.

The inefficiency of the early Trudgen kick led Australian Richard Cavill to try new methods. He used a stroke he observed natives of the Solomon Islands using, which combined an up-and-down kick with an alternating over-arm stroke. Cavill taught the new technique to his six sons, who all went on to be championship swimmers. This new style was first used in competition in 1902 at the International Championships. When asked to describe the new style, one of Cavill's sons said it was "like crawling through the water." It became known as the Australian crawl, the stroke that's now known as the front crawl or freestyle

 

Breaststroke

The breaststroke is the most difficult swimming stroke to master. All leg and arm movements must be made simultaneously. Only the backward and out frog-leg kick is allowed. Alternating movements are not allowed. Except for the start and the first stroke and kick after each turn, a part of the head must break the surface of the water during each stroke and kick cycle. The arm pull is a heart-shaped pattern in the front of the body. It's not a big pull like the other strokes, which is why the times in the breaststroke are comparatively slower than other strokes.

History
Until the l950s, the breaststroke was the only stroke with a required style. The underwater recovery of both arms and legs in the breaststroke is a natural barrier to speed.

The breaststroke has always been the most controversial stroke because of ongoing arguments over what constitutes legal or illegal technique. The Berlin Olympics in 1936 saw one of the first attempts at incorporating the then-controversial butterfly stroke into the women's 200 metres breaststroke event, as a few swimmers were recovering their arms above the water rather than under to save time and energy. In 1952, this new stroke, named the butterfly, was given its own rules and competitions outside the breaststroke.

Even having a separate stroke didn't end the controversy between the breaststroke and butterfly. Six swimmers were disqualified in breaststroke competition in the Melbourne Games because of different interpretations of what was a breaststroke and what wasn't. One Japanese swimmer found another loophole in the breaststroke by swimming underwater. He found that swimming below the surface of the water was faster than swimming on its surface; so after 1956 underwater swimming was banned from the breaststroke competition

ButterFly

Nicknamed "the fly", the butterfly is the most physically demanding of the strokes, but is also the most beautiful to watch. The butterfly features the simultaneous overhead stroke of the arms combined with the dolphin kick, in which both legs move up and down together. No flutter kicking is allowed.

History

The butterfly was developed in the 1930s and evolved from the breaststroke. However, the butterfly didn't become an official Olympic stroke until the 1956 Summer Games.

In 1934, David Armbruster, coach at the University of Iowa, devised a double over-arm recovery out of the water. This "butterfly" arm action gave more speed but required greater training and conditioning. Controversy followed and while not everyone was doing this quasi-breaststroke, those swimmers that did, were winning races with good times.

Then in 1935, Jack Sieg, a University of Iowa swimmer, developed the skill of swimming on his side and beating his legs in unison like a fish's tail. He then developed the leg action face down. Armbruster and Sieg combined the butterfly arm action with this leg action and learned to coordinate the two efficiently. With two kicks to each butterfly arm action, this kick was eventually known as the dolphin fishtail kick. Even though the butterfly breaststroke, as it was called, was faster than the breaststroke, the dolphin fishtail kick was declared a violation of competitive rules. For the next 20 years, champion breaststrokers used an out-of-water arm recovery (butterfly) with a shortened breaststroke kick. In the late 1950s, the butterfly stroke with the dolphin kick was legalized as a separate stroke for competition. Many swimmers say the "wiggle" is the key to the stroke and that a swimmer who can undulate through the water naturally can more easily learn the butterfly.

Diving

There is little historical data on the sport of diving prior to the first modern-day diving competition held in England around 1880. While swimming and diving are commonly linked, contemporary diving has more similarities with gymnastics. In the early 1800s, Swedish and German gymnasts practiced their somersaults and twists over water. Their practices became known as "Fancy Diving", a term that stuck until the early 1900s.

Diving has been an Olympic event, for men, since 1904 and for women, since 1912. The 1908 Olympics in London included a full competition in "Fancy Diving" from both platform and "elastic board". Women's "Plain Diving" was added in the 1912 Olympics and "Spring-board" in 1920. When diving debuted at the 1904 Olympics, one of the two events was a plunge for distance, the goal being to swim the furthest underwater after a dive. The event was dropped immediately because it was not well received by the audience - not really a spectator sport. At the 1908 Games in London, the pool was 100 metres long and the diving tower was removable. In 1908, springboard diving was added to the original platform diving event. At the 1912 Stockholm Games "Fancy High Diving" was introduced and it was the first time women were allowed to compete in their own platform event. Women had a springboard event beginning in 1920. The first concrete diving tower was built in 1924 at the Swimming Stadium Tourelles in Paris.

In the 1920s, divers grew tired of the slow rotation from rigid take-offs starting with a straight position. They became fancier as the pike and tuck positions began to dominate, making multiple somersaults possible. Around that time the United States began to dominate diving, replacing Sweden and Germany. In 1924, the United States won all but the bronze in women's platform. In 1932, American divers occupied every space on the podium in both the men's and women's events.

Diving Today

Diving today is one of the world's most popular sports. Thousands of people dive every day in some form in almost all of the world's countries. Hundreds of pools across Canada and the United States have diving clubs or school teams. In China, diving ranks as the most practiced sport next to riding bicycles and draws more spectators than any other activity. Many Chinese divers actually go to Diving school when they

are very young, where training and study are of equal importance. In the Olympic games, diving is always one of the most popular events for its excitement, beauty and drama.
Amateur diving is the organized sport which athletes compete in at swimming pools around the world. There are many types of amateur competitions; some at local pools, some city or state championships, some are university meets, many are invitational meets, and the most prestigious are championships at the national and international level. The 3 most important international diving championships are:

1.Olympic Games
2.World Swimming and Diving Championships
3.World Cup of Diving

As with all amateur aquatic sports, the rules for diving are defined and governed by FINA. Each year FINA oversees the diving Grand Prix Circuit. This is a group of diving competitions hosted in many different countries around the world. Divers compete representing their country and vie for standings in the world rankings.

In Amateur competitions (or meets), divers compete always against members of their same sex. There are junior competitions where age is taken into considerations, and senior competitions which are open to all age groups. In most cases divers all perform a list of dives. These lists are made up of easier dives called compulsories, and harder dives called optional dives. The group of compulsory dives has a limit of combined difficulty and must cover all groups of dives. The optional dives must also cover all groups of dives, but has no difficulty limit. Some competitions only have optional dives.

Synchronized Swimming

Back in the late 19th century, synchronized swimming was known under different names such as artistic, ornamental, scientific, figure or pattern swimming as well as water ballet, and the first "artistic swimmers" were male actors who staged dancing displays in water as a form of entertainment. The first record of competition was a men's event in Berlin in 1891. But by the turn of the century, women had moved toward the forefront of synchronized swimming.

The origins of synchronized swimming as we know it today are rooted in the swimming safety courses at the Royal Life Saving Society. In 1924, a group of Canadian women, led by national-calibre water polo player and diver Margaret "Peg" Seller, developed what they called "ornamental swimming" from lifesaving and swimming techniques. Within a year, rules were established and the first competitions were organized. The world 's first provincial championship was held in Montreal where Seller was crowned champion. From that point, synchronized swimming's popularity continued to grow, especially in the United States.

International competitions would soon follow. Synchro was a demonstration sport at the 1951 Pan American Games in Buenos Aires and at the 1952 Olympic Games in Helsinki. FINA, the international federation for aquatic sports embraced synchro in 1954. It was featured at the inaugural World Swimming Championships in 1973 in Belgrade and was accepted into the official Olympic program as a woman's event in 1984.

Synchronized Swimming Today

Today's synchronized swimming events consist of duet and team events for women only. The duets compete in a preliminary phase, where they perform a technical routine and a free routine. The top 12 duets after the preliminary phase progress to the final, where they swim their free routine again. In the team event, there is no preliminary phase of competition. The eight teams go straight into a final competition where they perform a technical routine and a free routine.

Water Polo

Water Polo was adapted to swimming pools in 1870 by the London Swimming Club, and the first official game was played at the Crystal Palace Plunge in London. The game became a version of rugby on water, based more on brute strength than athletic skill.

A common trick players used then was to place the small ball in their oversized swimming trunks and swim underwater towards the goal, where they would score by using both hands to place the ball on the pool's deck.

By 1880, the modern version of the sport began to evolve in Scotland. Rule changes included scoring on a net 10 feet long by three feet high (roughly three-metres by one-metre), and using a leather ball similar to the size of a soccer ball. Players could only be tackled when holding the ball and could only touch the ball with one hand - rules that still apply today.

The Scottish rules were adopted throughout Great Britain, and then the game spread beyond the island. Nations like Hungary, Belgium, Austria, Germany and France, began playing the sport by the late 1800s. By 1889, America was introduced to the sport by an English swimming instructor, John Robinson.

Water polo made its Olympic debut in 1900 and has remained an Olympic sport ever since. Great Britain won gold at four of the first five Games. The only hiccup was in 1904, when the US won. The Americans also won silver and bronze because they were the only country to enter teams. Other nations refused to play with the soft, under-inflated ball that was common in American competition.

Women's water polo made its debut during the 2000 Sydney Olympic Games. The first FINA World Cup for women was held in 1979 and the first World Championships took place in 1986.