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. |