The Butterfly

In swimming there are four strokes; backstroke (a.k.a. back), breaststroke (a.k.a. breast), butterfly (a.k.a. fly), and freestyle (a.k.a. front crawl/free).  Each stroke has its own technique and rules for each race. Each swimmer has his/her own preference of which stroke they like best.  

 My personal favorite is the butterfly. A lot of swimmers think this is THE hardest stroke, I beg to differ. A swimmers’ hardest stroke depends on their style of swimming, coordination, and just in general, how long that swimmer has been swimming that stroke (personally, my worst stroke is by far back).

One of the most famous butterfly swimmers is none other than Michael Phelps. He won 8 Gold Medals in the Beijing Olympics, and more in the Athens Olympics as well.  

Anyway, back to fly. Fly is one of the harder strokes because it takes a lot of shoulder strength and coordination. It requires both arms to move forward at the same time and both legs to kick together while staying side by side. While swimming fly, the swimmer must keep both legs together at all times and both arms but come out of the water at the same time. While doing a turn for fly, the swimmer MUST touch the wall with both hands at the same time.

Butterfly is in many events. These events include; all of the medley relays, the 50, 100, and 200 meter (or yard, depending on the pool) fly, and the 100, 200, and 400 meter/yard individual medley (a.k.a. the IM).

Of all the strokes, fly is my favorite. I feel powerful and strong and accomplished. I feel proud to say that I am a butterflier.

History of Swimming

Ever since the stone ages, swimming has been around as a past time and a competitive activity. With multiple accomplishments and advances in stroke technique and suit technology, swimming has come very far since the cavemen. 

Some of the earliest references to swimming were in 2000 B.C. In 1800, competitive swimming began in Europe (swimming mainly breaststroke). In 1896, swimming was a part of the first Olympic Games in Athens (men only).  In 1912, women were first allowed to swim in the Olympic Games. Jump ahead to the 2008 Olympics in Beijing; Michael Phelps took home 8 gold medals in swimming. As you can see, the sport of swimming has had a long, proud history. (P.S. this is NOT a history lesson!!)

Each stroke and technique in itself has changed and evolved over time. The freestyle kick for example was created due to the British dislike of splashing. Butterfly, a variation of breaststroke, was developed by a University of Iowa swimmer, Jack Sieg, in 1935.

Stroke turns have been another large part of history in swimming. Each turn can affect whether you win the race, or lose the race. Turns have been modified and tweaked so that each swimmer can get on the wall and off the wall in less than 2 seconds.

Swimming is a not a sport that was invented recently. This sport has continued to grow and change for thousands of years.

The Time Commitment

For any athlete in all sports, there is a rather large time commitment.  Whether it is just afternoon practices or 2-a-days (practice in both the morning and afternoon), all athletes must commit to practice during certain time periods.

A high school varsity swimmer at East will swim 2-a-day practices, a total of 22.5 hours in a week. Varsity swimmers will swim 5:30 a.m. practices and 2.5 hour practices after school every day. Being a swimmer myself, I know what it is like to swim on the varsity schedule. It means late nights trying to keep up on homework and making time for friends (and work if you have a job) and early mornings, setting your alarm clock for 4:50 a.m. to make sure you leave the house by 4:10. In many of my classes I would end up falling asleep if we had to do any reading activities or bookwork because of the schedule.

 

Swimmers who swim at the USA level will swim anywhere from 12-24 hours in a week. For an elementary, middle, or high school student, this is a huge commitment. But being in the water sometimes 4 hours a day is what it takes. If your goal is to be the best in your school, state, or nationally, a large time commitment and making sacrifices like TV, and computer time is what it takes to be the best of the best.

USA Teams

All of the Olympic and nationally ranked swimmers started out the same way: swim lessons every summer until they joined a swim club. After a couple years only swimming in the summer, they began to swim year round. After even more years of this, they joined a USA Swim Club that costs hundreds a month. Swimming for 10-12 months out of a year, that’s what the best of the best do.

Central Iowa Aquatics (CIA) is one of the few USA Swimming Teams in Iowa. With hundreds of members, CIA is consistently one of the best teams in the state. With multiple practices a day to ensure everyone has the opportunity to practice; CIA is always working to help their swimmers.

Another rather large USA team in Iowa is the Iowa Flyers Swim Club, or IFly. This team is located in Iowa City, Iowa. They are another large team on the swimming scene when it comes to state competitions.

USA swimmers don’t just swim. They have dry land workouts as well.  Dry land workouts normally consist of crunches, push-ups, planks, stairs, and other activities to strengthen core muscle and upper body strength.  USA swimmers spend a great deal of time doing whatever they can to help their swimming.

USA swimmers are like gymnasts at the elite level; completely devoted and always working to improve themselves or their team, coach and their selves.

 

Chlorine

In every swimming pool, you can find one thing that is the same. That “thing” is the chemical of chlorine. Now if you have taken chemistry, I’m sure you now all about the chemical. For those of us who have not here are some basic facts:

On the Periodic Table:

·         Symbol: Cl

·         Atomic Number: 17

·         Color: Green

·         Number of Energy Levels: 3

All of this information about chlorine was found at this peridodic table website.

Anyway, I am NOT here to give you a chemistry lesson. That would be boring! No, no. I am here to talk to you about so cool it will blow your mind! I am going to talk to you about the effects chlorine has on swimmers.

You may think that it just makes us smell and keeps us clean in the pool while we swim multiple laps. But that does not even begin to cover what it does to us swimmers.

One thing this lovely chemical does to us aquatic athletes is make us smell like it... forever! “You know you are a swimmer when you take an hour long shower and still smell like chlorine!” said current swimmer Janelle Galang.  It is said that chlorine is a swimmers permanent perfume.

Another thing chlorine does to swimmers is change their hair color. For me, being blonde, I must be very careful that I wash my hair after EVERY practice. Otherwise my hair will turn a light shade of green. I made this mistake when I was younger because I never wore a swim cap. Even girls with brown hair see a change in hair color. “It [her hair] was starting to look like a peach or very light brown color because I am in the water so often,” said swimmer, Grace Anschutz.

One other of the various things chlorine does to a swimmer is dry out the skin. Swimmers go through bottle after bottle of lotion because on many swimmers, chlorine dries out certain areas of your skin. The most common area is the face and arms. 

So, although chlorine seems to be a huge help when it comes to a pool, it still has a rather large effect on swimmers.

Swimming: the Sport for All

        No matter what people think, swimming is not the easiest sport ever. Swimming can be and most of the time is, just as hard as football, basketball, and soccer.

Swimmers use every muscle they have to swim in every stroke. We may not have to hit each other in shoulder pads, or run back and forth kicking or dribbling a ball, but we swimmers, we go above and beyond. It is said that swimming is a good workout no matter how old you are. Because it works all of the muscles and you don’t necessarily have to be in the best shape of your life to swim a couple of laps at your local pool, swimming is the sport for all. According to this website, swimming is the third most popular activity in the U.S. after walking and exercising with equipment.

Also, according to this Iowa State University paper, swimming does the best for one’s body and can be done year round, no matter what the weather.

With swimming, injuries are very minimal. If a swimmer does get injured, it is from lack of stretching or hitting your heel on the gutter during a flip turn. You may have heard of swimmers ear and how it is considered an injury. This is a false fact. Swimmers ear only comes up once in a while and doesn’t affect your swimming in any way.

So back to my point: swimming is the sport for all. Injuries are minimal, it is a great workout and it can be done year round.