HOPE IV-SWIMMING

• Swimming is a popular recreational activity and competitive sport that involves moving through water using various techniques. It offers numerous health benefits such as strengthened cardiovascular health, muscle strength, and increased flexibility. It is suitable for people of all ages and fitness levels
• Water Comfort- The most basic and essential swimming skill is simply becoming comfortable in the water.
• Breath Control - simple exercises such as drawing a breath, submerging, blowing bubbles and then resurfacing for another breath.
• Floating- a horizontal position in the water, is a basic water skill.
• Kicking- provides propulsion through the water.
• Strokes - are the arm movements used to pull the bod through the water
• Freestyle - The freestyle stroke is typically used for speed, as it allows for a streamlined movement that helps the body glide through the water.
• Backstroke - uses alternating and opposite arm movements. As one arm pulls through the water from an overhead position to the hip, the other arm recovers above the water from the hip to the overhead position and vice versa. The legs perform a flutter kick, similar to the one used in the front crawl.
• Breast Stroke - the body facing down. The arms perform semicircular movements, and the legs perform a frog kick. The breaststroke is done on the stomach, with both arms in the water while the body is pulled backward.
• Butterfly Stroke - stomach- position stroke, in which the arms move forward in a circle motion going above the head and directly into the water.
• Goggles - protect your eyes from chlorine (and anything else that may bein the water), and they help you keep your eyes open while you swim so that you can see where you're going
• Nose Clip - are little devices made of bent wire padded with rubber. They are designed to keep the water out of your nose.
• Kickboards - are devices made of foam or other materials that float, and they come in a variety of shapes and sizes.
• Swimming Attire - This is an item of clothing designed to be worn by people engaging in weather-based activity or water sports, such as swimming, diving, and surfing, or sun-orientated activities, such as sunbathing.
• Bathing Caps - can serve several purposes. Some pool managers will require individuals with long hair to wear caps to keep hair from getting into the pool, and some people just like to protect their hair from the chlorine in the water.
• Long before Michael Phelps dominated the pool, humans were swimming
• Earliest evidence of swimming from the Cave of Swimmers in Egypt

  10,000 years ago
• Depictions of swimming found in Egyptian tombs

  2,000 BC
• Swimming started showing up in written records

  Around 2,000 BC
• Early written records mentioning swimming

  • The Iliad, the Odyssey, The Epic of Gilgamesh, Beowulf
• Various stone carvings from Babylon and Assyria show people doing a form of modern-day breaststroke
• The Japanese are credited with holding some of the first swimming races

  As early as 36 BC
• Swimming in ancient Greece and Rome

  • Part of military training
  • Included in elementary education for young boys
• Plato: 'Failing to know either letters or swimming was a sure sign of ignorance'
• The Romans built larger swimming pools for leisure, and the first known heated swimming pool was built in Rome in the first century BC
• Julius Caesar was known for being a good swimmer and famously escaped from a battle in Alexandria by diving into the water and swimming away from his attackers
• There's extensive evidence from around 300 BC showing that the Mayans were skilled fishermen
• Mayan swimming


  • The famous El Mirador Swimming Panels show Mayan heroes swimming among gods and monsters
• Conquistadors exploring South America reported that the Aztec people were excellent swimmers
• Native Americans who lived close to large bodies of water also took part in swimming
• The Bajau people in Southeast Asia


  • They've lived on the water for 1,000 years and have genetically adapted to a life of intense swimming
  • They're extremely skilled at spearfishing, with some spending up to five hours a day underwater and able to hold their breaths for up to 13 minutes, diving 200 feet deep without using fins
• In the 17th century, the Japanese emperor decreed that swimming was to be required in schools
• The National Swimming Society was hosting regular swimming competitions in six pools around London


  By 1837
• There's some evidence of an over-arm, freestyle-like stroke being used by ancient Greeks, Assyrians, and Aboriginal Australians
• The use of front crawl-like strokes was also well documented among Native Americans, Pacific Island tribes, and various African peoples
• Sidestroke


  Freestyle's older brother, which some swimmers started to adopt in the 1840s
• A race cemented freestyle in the back of swimmers' minds everywhere, when two Native Americans, Flying Gull and Tobacco of the Ojibwe tribe, traveled to London to compete in a swim race

  In 1844
• Swimming's debut at the first modern Olympic Games in Athens


  1896
• After the first Olympics, swimming was officially established as a major competitive sport around the world
• Changes in swimming over the years

  • Backstroke added for men's competition in 1900 and women in 1924
  • Swimsuits got smaller and more technical
  • Athletes began to refine their skills to move through the water even faster
  • In 1924, swimmers started competing in the standard, 50-meter, Olympic-sized swimming pool with lane markers