Splish! Splash! The exciting sport
of Swim Team is occurring right in front of us! But, how can we enjoy the
sport if we don’t even know what the swimmers are doing, and what the
basic rules are? Get on you bathing suit because we are about to plunge in
to Swim Team procedures! There are four classified strokes,
1) Freestyle – A simple stroke
where you are on your stomach and put one arm out in front of you at a time
and bring it back with your hand in a “scooping” position. You just kick
your legs one at a time. When you get to the wall, you must touch it with
only one hand.
2) Breaststroke – This stroke has
more complicated arm and leg movements. Your hands go together on your
chest (like you were clapping) and then push out, come apart, flip so that
the backs are facing out, and scoop in a mini rotation back to the
position on your chest. Your legs are bent as if you were sitting in a
chair. They then go outward (they get straight) and spread far away from
each other. After this motion, your legs clap back together, and you
restart the rotation. When you get to the wall, you must touch with two
hands.
3) Backstroke – This stroke – my
favorite stroke – is very simple like freestyle. It is basically freestyle
on your back. Just in case you are still confused, I will explain how to
do backstroke. So first, you are on your back. Your arms reach up and
beside your head in a circle-like rotation. It comes back to your side
through the water. Then, your second arm does the same thing. You repeat
these motions. You’re legs just kick up and down one at a time. You must
touch the wall with one hand.
4) Butterfly – A tiring stroke
that has kind of complicated strokes. Your arms are always in sync. Your
arms come down by your sides, go back, come up, loop back in front of you,
and come back down to your sides. Your legs come together, and basically
kick up and down, but remain stuck to each other.
Now that you know what strokes
swimmers are swimming, you can really enjoy yourself at the next Swim Team
meet you go to. Who knows, you might even join in on the fun!
Girls' Gazette 