Onekama Members of the Manistee Co-op Swim Team

Swim Summary
by Kiara Bromley

      I love swimming; it's my favorite sport! Swimming is really good for you and it is a lot of fun.
     Competitive swimming involves four strokes. They are: butterfly, backstroke, breaststroke, and freestyle, also called the front crawl. It is so important that you do every stroke correctly in a race; if you don't, you might get disqualified.
     Swim meets are my favorite part of swimming! I love to race. My personal favorites are the 50 yard butterfly and the 100 yard backstroke.
     There are so many things you can race in. In the middle school level, there are three different race lengths you can do. There are 50, 100, and 200 yard races. 100 and 200 yard races are long distance races. If you're looking for a 200 yard race, your only stroke option is the freestyle. A 100 yard race has the most stroke variety in the middle school level. You can pick from freestyle, breaststroke, backstroke, and an IM. An IM is swimmer talk for individual medley, which means you do a length of each stroke. If you want to swim a 50 yard race, you can pick from either the freestyle or butterfly.

     In middle school swimming, there are also two types of relays you can swim in. One is the 200 yard medley relay, which means everyone in the relay swims 50 yards of a different stroke. The order you swim in is backstroke, breaststroke, butterfly, and freestyle. The other relay you can swim is a 200 yard freestyle relay, where everyone swims 50 yards. Usually in a freestyle relay, the fastest swimmer is the anchor, which is the last person to go.
     At practice, there are three things you need to bring. A swimsuit (obviously), a pair of goggles, and a swim cap. You don't really need a swim cap, but I would get one, because if you don't wear one it makes your hair really dry, and the chlorine can turn it an ugly shade of green (I've seen it before-not pretty). Plus, wearing one makes you faster.
     Also, make sure you get to practice on time, because if you don't, chances are all the flippers in your size will be gone, which is not good. You really don't want to be kicking super slow when it's time to use them. And don't ever skip practice if you don't have to!  It only hurts you, and every stroke in the pool is going to make you better.

 

Emily

Kiara

Madison

Katie

Katie

Madison

Sydnee

Madison, Kiara, Emily

 

     

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