Lap swimming is good exercise, but you need good technique and fitness to swim longer distances. The four basic swimming strokes are freestyle, breaststroke, backstroke and butterfly. You swim facing down in the water for every stroke except backstroke, which you swim facing upward. Each stroke has challenging elements to it and certain benefits over the other strokes.
Breaststroke
You might find the symmetrical kick and arm pull of breaststroke awkward unless you learned to swim the stroke as a child. The underwater pull of breaststroke takes energy because you "recover" your arm forward again under the water, instead of keeping it above water in the recovery phase, as in the other three competitive strokes. You also face the water broadside and your chest creates a large flat plane of resistance. The relative inefficiency of the breaststroke pull and body position makes you use more energy to swim the stroke. The frog-like kick of the breaststroke generates most of your propulsive force, and it requires strong leg muscles and excellent endurance. Even though breaststroke is the slowest of the competitive strokes, it also is one of the most tiring.
Freestyle
You swim with your face in the water most of the time when you swim freestyle or crawl, and getting breath timing and technique under control takes practice and confidence in the water. Lap swimmers who have poor breathing technique easily tire quickly and cannot swim continuous laps. Another challenge of freestyle is letting your upper body pull you along the pool, and keeping your kick slow and even. Frenetic kicking is fine for a sprint, but your large leg muscles eat up a lot of energy. Learning to glide and stay on the surface of the water without kicking hard, or letting your legs sink down also takes a lot of practice.
Backstroke
You cannot see where you are going swimming backstroke, and beginner lap swimmers tend to zigzag from one side of the lane to the other. The difficulty of backstroke is that your must keep a stable and steady head and body position in the water in order to keep on course. The less horizontal wiggling of your body, the more efficient you are moving in a straight line. Lap swimmers must work on their core abdominal strength to maintain high hips in the water. You also must rotate your body in the direction of the stroke you take, to prevent shoulder strain and injury.
Butterfly
Butterfly might be the hardest stroke for average lap swimmers. Learning butterfly when you are already an adult is especially difficult, as it requires excellent body and ankle flexibility. The stroke looks graceful and fluid when performed by seasoned butterfly swimmers. Most novice swimmers, though, struggle to get their "return" arms over the water instead digging through the surface as they fling their arms forward. Butterfly falls apart when you swim slowly; yet, swimming butterfly fast takes strength and good technique to achieve the speed you need. Few lap swimmers have the flexibility strength and technique needed to use this stroke for daily workouts in the pool.
References
- The Washington Post: The Development of the Modern Stroke
- U.S. Masters Swimming: Teaching Masters to Master the Butterfly: West Side Fly Progression
- U.S. Masters Swimming: Perfecting Your Breaststroke Glide: The Hanging Streamline Drill
- "Advanced swimming: Steps to Success"; David G. Thomas; 1990
- USA Swimming: Freestyle Breathing Mechanics
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