Me! I swim as much as possible. Lots of laps. Great stress reliever, great cardio.
2006-08-07 15:21:35
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answer #1
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answered by mistress_piper 5
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Swimming, a common ability among mammals including many primates, has been known since prehistoric humanoids. Drawings from the stone age were found in "the cave of swimmers" near Wadi Sora (or Sura) in the southwestern part of Egypt. Written references date back up to 2000 B.C., including Gilgamesh, the Iliad, the Odyssey, the Bible (Ezekiel 47:5, Acts 27:42, Isaiah 25:11), Beowulf, and other sagas. In 1538 Nicolas Wynman, German professor of languages, wrote the first swimming book "Colymbetes". Competitive swimming in Europe started around 1800, mostly using breaststroke. The front crawl, then called the trudgen was introduced in 1873 by John Arthur Trudgen, copying it from Native Americans.
Swimming was part of the first modern Olympic games in 1896 in Athens. In 1900 backstroke was included as an Olympic Event. In 1902 the trudgen was improved by Richard Cavill, using the flutter kick. In 1908, the world swimming association Federation Internationale de Natation (FINA) was formed. Butterfly was first a variant of Breaststroke, until it was accepted as a separate style in 1952.
Technique
The human body is composed primarily of water, and thus has a very similar density to water. Since only roughly 70% of the body is water, it is slightly less dense than the surrounding water, which exerts a buoyant force on it. Thus staying afloat requires only a slight propelling of water downward relative to the body, and transverse motion only a slight propelling of water in a direction opposite to the direction of intended motion. This propelling is accomplished by cupping the hands and using them as paddles, and by kicking the legs to push water away from the body.
A number of swimming styles have been developed based on the implementation of some or all of the following principles:
The torso and the legs should be kept as parallel as possible to the surface of the water. Dropped legs or a slanted torso dramatically increase drag. The hand should be extended forward of the head as much as possible. This increases the average length at the water-line, substantially increasing speed.
The time spent on the side should be maximized because the torso is narrower front-to-back than side-to-side on most swimmers. This reduces the frontal cross-section, reducing drag further, and also increasing the ratio between the body's water-line-length and width. Similar improvements are possible by orienting the narrowest direction of head, hands, legs and arms into the water. The torso is by far the most critical. The motion of the hand, arm, and leg from the back to the front should be in the air for as much as possible, and in the water, oriented as perfectly as possible, because the returning appendage has to move at least twice as fast as the swimmer, and in the water generates eight times the drag (which increases with the cube of the speed) of an equal amount of torso frontal area.
The basic "catch" of the water is not nearly as critical as the above items. Most swimmers simply grab water with their hand flat, or the fingers slightly spread, and then draw it smoothly down their body. None of the above techniques require improved strength. With strength training, the hands and feet can be extended further into the water, gaining more propulsion. For beginners, increased strength brings only small improvements if the above strategies (minimising drag and lengthening water-line) are not optimal.
2006-08-07 22:20:28
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answer #2
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answered by TruthIsRelative 4
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