When you watch an Olympic athlete swim, you're looking at years and years of stroke development. The fine-tuning of hand movements, kicking style and body position enable swimmers to swim fast, efficiently and with little worry about injury. A swim stroke develops slowly and typically in a determined order because some strokes are more easily understood and have easier body mechanics than other strokes.
Types
Stroke development is possible in four strokes: freestyle, also called the front or Australian crawl; backstroke; breaststroke; and butterfly. However, a fully developed stroke is more than the movement of the arms and legs during the stroke itself. Instead, a fully developed stroke includes starts and turns. You don't stay still when swimming, you move from one end of the pool to the other, and need to know how to swim a full lap with proper technique.
Benefits
A well-developed stroke is faster and avoids injury. Swimmer's shoulder is an all-encompassing term common in the sport. It's caused by poor body mechanics when swimming. With proper stroke development, you'll learn the correct placement of your arms, movement of your core in conjunction with you arms and legs, and bilateral breathing techniques to ensure that you avoid overuse injuries such as swimmer's shoulder.
Identification
Most swimmers start with developing a flutter kick and basic arm movements, graduating to a full freestyle as they begin to better understand the mechanics of swimming. Because the backstroke is similar in kick and arm movements to freestyle, it's typically the stroke that develops next. Breaststroke and butterfly are both technical strokes that require finesse. These strokes tend to be the last strokes developed by swimmers. Sidestroke, which was an early competitive stroke, is no longer taught unless as part of learning freestyle technique.
Features
A stroke that is properly developed is efficient and smooth, with arms that glide through the water. The swimmer breathes as a natural part of the motion, without lurching or raising her head. In addition, the entire workout is smooth and seemingly effortless as the swimmer knows how to execute a proper turn at the end of lap and start each lap with appropriate technique.
Considerations
While many swimmers swim lap after lap of a well-developed freestyle stroke, it's key to develop all aspects of all of your strokes. Fully developing alternate strokes helps minimize overuse injuries. It also enhances your workout by working other muscles. In addition, developing alternate strokes alleviates boredom that can set back your training.
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