BASIC SWIMMING INFORMATION

New to swimming and want to learn more on each swim stroke?

What are the different strokes?

 

There are four Strokes in Swimming - Click on the links for videos highlighting good technique in each stroke.

 

  • Freestyle
  • Backstroke
  • Breaststroke
  • Butterfly
  • Individual Medley
    • The Individual Medley, or IM for short, combines all four strokes in this order:(fly, back, breast, free). If it is a 100 IM the swimmer will swim 25 fly, 25 back, 25 breast, 25 free without stopping. 200 IM would be a 50 of each stroke without stopping, etc.

Please click below for a written description on all the competitive swimming strokes:

Swimming Strokes

Relays

Relays are races that are performed by groups of four swimmers who swim one after the other.

Click on each link to see a high-level example of each race

  • Medley Relay - 1st swimmer swims back, 2nd breast, 3rd fly, and 4th free
  • Freestyle Relay – All swimmers swim freestyle.
    • If it is the 200 free relay each swimmer swims a 50, which then equals 200 yds total.

Distances

Not all races are created equally. There are several different distances that your swimmer may be able to compete in, dependent on his/her age. Each length of the pool is 25 yards

  • 25 yard events = 1 length of any of the four strokes
  • 50 yard events = down and back - 2 lengths of any of the four strokes
  • 100 free = 4 lengths of any of the four strokes or Individual Medley
  • 200 yard events = 8 lengths of any of the four strokes or Individual Medley
  • 400 yard individual medley = four lengths of each stroke  (Fly, Back, Breast, Free)
  • 500 free = 20 lengths of freestyle only
  • 1000 free = 40 lengths of freestyle only
  • 1650 free = 66 lengths of freestyle only (swimmer's mile)

*Some pools are in meters and it will be listed their meet information. Please be aware your swimmers times might be slower due to a meter pool instead of yards. Times will be converted to yards in the final results.