The Strokes

• Backstroke
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The backstroke developed in the early 20th century. It is sometimes referred to as the back crawl. To perform this stroke, you must hold your body as flat as possible on your back and streamline as much as possible to get the greastest distance in each stroke. Your arms reach alternately above your head, and enter the water directly in line with your shoulders. Your palm is outward, and your little finger enters the water first. Then the arm is pulled back to the thigh as the body rolls slightly. Once your arm has entered the water, the movement does not stop, but continues to your thigh, then you start the movement over again. Your legs kick in an up and down motion in ady flutter kick just like the crawl, but never come above the water line. You should kick just enough to give you a slight forward movement, and let your arms do the rest. The backstroke is used mostly in competitive swimming, but is also used in recreational swimming. It is also a good warm-up stroke.

• Breaststroke

The Breaststroke is believed to bo the oldest of strokes. It is mainly used in lifesaving, competitive swimming, and recreational swimming. Breastroke is very useful in rough water. This is also referred to as a frog kick, because it consists of a wide pull of the arms, and a frog-like kicking of the legs. To perform this stroke, you lay face down in the water, keeping your arms under water. You breath at the end of your arm movement, where as you would have breathed at the beginning of the arm movement many years ago. You push both arms out sideways from a position starting in front of their head while the legs are drawn up and kicked back. It looks like you are almost gliding across the water.
Everybody swims the breastroke a little differently. Some people have a long glide at the completion of the frog kick, some have a short glide, and some even have no glide. Also, some people breathe at the beginning of the arm pull and some breathe more towards the end.This stroke is very popular today, as it was many years ago, and has always been performed in the Olympics.

• Butterfly
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The butterfly.In this stroke, the arms are brought forward above the water while the legs kick with both feet together. There are two dolphin kicks to every arm pull. A breath is taken about every two strokes either at the beginning of the arm pull or at the end. Unlike the breaststroke, the butterfly was not really recognized until 1933. This was in a race involving Henry Myers. He was the one who performed the stroke. He insisted that his stroke fall under the category of the breaststroke, as it was very similar, and he was supposed to be performing the breaststroke. After a bit of argument, the butterfly became a distinct competitive stroke in 1953. The butterfly was not known as the frog kick(breaststroke), even though it was called after the breaststroke, but instead it was called the fishtail(dolphin) kick. It was called this, because it consisted of up and down movements of the legs. Also, to breath during this stroke, you would raise your head slightly above the water every second or third stroke. Now, the butterfly has risen to fame almost as much as the breaststroke.

• Freestyle
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Freestlye is a type of swimming where any stroke can be used, but the crawl is almost always used. It is used in competitive swimming as well as recreational swimming. The crawl is the fastest swimming stroke. It is also the best stroke to choose when swimming any distance events.
The freestyle is also known as the crawl. This stroke is mainly used in competition, and it has become the fastest known stroke ever. When using this stroke, it consists of many strokes, and any amount of distance. This stroke was first widely known when it was performed in the Pacific Ocean at the end of the 19th century(1893), by an Australian swimmer named Henry Wickham. Two brothers, Syd and Charles Cavill, also from Australia, made this stroke popular in Europe in 1902, and in the United States in 1903. To perform this stroke, you combine many of the other strokes, so you come up with this: You flutter your legs up and down, and move your arms in a circular motion, timing it just right, so that the other arm comes up just before the first arms goes down. You do this while laying flat on the surface of the water, but keep your legs under the surface. You breathe by turning your head to either side during recovery of the arm for that side. This is just one of the most popular kind of freestyle strokes, but there are also many others. You can even create your own. This stroke is also now very popular, in fact, it has been used in more races than any other stroke since 1896.

• Individual Medley

The Individual Medley, also known as I.M., is an event where a combination of every stroke is swum. The order of the strokes go as followed: butterfly, backstroke, breastroke, and freestyle. Equal amounts of each of these strokes are swum. The Individual Medley events are 100 Individual Medley, 200 Individual Medley, and 400 Individual Medley.