Swimming
Swimming is the method by which humans (or other animals) move themselves through water without the aid of implements.
The breaststroke.
Swimming is a popular recreational activity, particularly in hot countries and in areas with natural watercourses, and a basic safety skill for those participating in on-water activities. Swimming pools are popular venues around the world, as are beaches, lakes, swimming holes and sometimes canals (although some of these locations may be dirty and/or dangerous).
Swimming is probably done since prehistoric times. Drawings from the stone age were found in “the cave of swimmers” neaw Wadi Sora (or Sura) in the southwestern part of Egypt near Libya. These pictures show probably breaststroke or dog paddle swimmers, although it may also be possible that the movements have a ritual meaning unrelated to swimming. This cave is also featured in the movie The English Patient. An Egyptian clay seal dated between 4000B.C and 9000B.C shows four swimmers, which are believed to swim a variant of the front crawl. More references of swimming are Babylonian bas-reliefs and Assyrian wall drawings, depicting a variant of the breaststroke, the most famous ones were found in the Kebir desert and are estimated to be from around 4000 B.C. The Nagoda bas-relief also shows swimmers dating back from 3000 B.C The Indian palace Mohenjo Daro from 2800B.C contains a swimming pool sized 30m by 60m. The Minoan palace Minos of Knossos in Crete also featured baths. An Egyptian tomb from 2000 B.C shows a variant of the front crawl. Depictions of swimmers were also found from the Hittites, Minoans, and other Middle Eastern civilizations, the Incas in the Tepantitla House at Teotihuacan, and in mosaics in Pompeii.
Written references date back up to 2000 B.C, including Gilgamesh, the Iliad, the Odyssey, the Bible (Ezekiel 47:5, Acts 27:42, Isaiah 25:11), Beowulf, and other sagas, although the style is never described. There are also many mentioning of swimmers in the Vatican, Borgian and Bourbon codices.
The Greeks did not include swimming in the ancient Olympic Games, but practiced the sport, often building swimming pools as part of their baths. One common insult in Greece was to say about somebody that he/she neither knew how to run nor swim. Naturally, Greek gods performed some outstanding swimming skills according to the legends. The Etruscans at Tarquinia (Italy) show pictures of swimmers in 600B.C, and tombs in Greece depict swimmers 500B.C The greek Scyllis was taken prisoner on a ship of the persian king Xerxes I in 500B.C. After learning about an upcoming attack on the Greek navy, he stole a knife and jumped overboard. During the night and using a snorkel made from reed, he swam back to the ships and cut them loose. Julius Caesar was also known to be a good swimmer. A series of reliefs from 850BC in the Nimrud Gallery of the British Museum show swimmers, mostly in military context, often using swimming aids.
In Japan swimming was one of the noble skills of the Samurai, and historic records describe swimming competitions in 36 B.C. organized by emperor Suigui (spelling unclear), which are the first known swimming races.
The Germanic folklore describes swimming, which was used successfully in wars against the Romans. Swimming competitions are also known from that time.
In 1538 Nicolas Wynman, german professor of languages, wrote the first swimming book “Colymbetes”. His goal was not exercise, but rather to reduce the dangers of drowning. Nevertheless, the book contained a very good and methodic approach to learn breaststroke, and includes swimming aids like air filled cow bladders, reed bundles, or cork belts. Around the same time, E. Digby in England also wrote a swimming book, claiming that humans can swim better than fish.
In 1603 the first national swimming organization is established in Japan. The emperor Go-Yozei declared that school children should swim.
In 1696, the French author Thevenot wrote “The Art of Swimming”, describing a breaststroke very similar to the modern breaststroke. This book was translated in English and became the standard reference of swimming for many years to come.
In 1708, the first known lifesaving group “Chinkiang Association for the Saving of Life” was established in China. In 1796 a still existing swimming club was founded in Upsala, Sweden. ]]. Benjamin Franklin (1706 to 1790) is credited with the invention of the swimming fins at his age of around 10 1716.
In 1739 Guts Muts (also spelled as Guts Muth) from Schnepfenthal, Germany, wrote “Gymnastik für die Jugend” (Exercise for the youth), including a significant portion about swimming. In 1794 Kanonikus Oronzio de Bernardi from Italy write a two volume book about swimming, including floating practice as a prerequisite for swimming studies. In 1798 Guts Muts wrote another book “Kleines Lehrbuch der Schwimmkunst zum Selbstunterricht” (Small study book of the art of swimming for self study), recommending the use of a “fishing rod” device to aid in the learning of swimming. His books describe a three step approach to learn swimming that is still used today. First, get the student used to the water, second, practice the swimming movements out of the water, third, practice the swimming movements in the water. He believed that swimming is an essential part of every [[education
More lifesaving groups are established in 1767 (1768?) in Amsterdam by the dutch, 1772 in Kopenhagen, and in 1774 by Great Britain. In 1768 a humane society is established in the United States.
The Haloren, a group of salt makers in Halle, Germany, are also known to greatly advance swimming through setting a good example to others by teaching their children swimming at a very early age.
In 1804 the lifebelt was invented by W. H. Mallison (America?), known back then as the “seaman’s Friend”. However, it took up a lot of valuable space on ships, and the Navy was worried about the device being used by sailors to desert.
The first German swimming club was founded in 1837 in Berlin. A journal mentions “swimming skates” in France, which may be a early version of a surfboard.
One watershed event was a swimming competition in 1844 in London. Some [Native American|native Americans]] participated in this competition. While the British raced using breaststroke, the native Americans swam a variant of the front crawl, which has been used by people in the Americas, West Africa and some Pacific islands for generations, but was not known to the British. As the front crawl is a much faster style than the breaststroke, the native Americans sunk the British competition. Flying Gull won the medal, swimming the 130 feet in 30 seconds, the second place was also won by another native American named Tobacco. Their stroke was described as making a motion with the arms “like a windmill'' and kicking the legs up and down. As this produced considerably splashing, it was considered barbaric and “un-European” to the British gentlemen, who preferred to keep their heads over the water. Subsequently, the British continued to swim only breaststroke until 1873.
The first indoor swimming pool was built in England in1862. An Amateur Swimming Association of Great Britain was organized in 1880 with more than 300 members. The main swimming styles were the breaststroke and the recently developed sidestroke. In the sidestroke, the swimmer lies on one side. Initially, the arms were brought forward under water, but this was soon modified to bring the arm forward over water to reduce resistance and to improve the speed, resulting in an overarm sidestroke. The legs were squeezed together in a scissor style. In 1895, J. H. Thayers of England swam 100 yards in a record breaking 1:02.50 using a sidestroke.
Only in 1873 John Arthur Trudgen reintroduced the front crawl to England again. Trudgen learned the stroke from Indians during a trip to South America (the exact date however, is disputed and may be anywhere between 1870 and 1890). This stroke, a variant of the front crawl was then called the Trudgen. The arms were brought forward alternating while the body rolled from side to side. The kick was a scissors kick, with one kick for two arm strokes, although it is believed that the Indians did indeed do a flutter kick and Trudgen mistakenly used the in Britain more common breaststroke kick. Variants used different ratios of scissor kicks to arm strokes, or alternated with a flutter (up-and-down) kick. The speed of the new stroke was demonstrated by F. V. C. Lane in 1901, swimming 100 yards in 1:00.0, an improvement of about 10 seconds compared to the breaststroke record. This style is the first European version of the front crawl, the fastest swimming style known today. Due to its speed, the Trudgen became very quickly popular around the world, despite all the ungentlemanlike splashing.
Captain Matthew Webb was the first man to swim through the English channel in 1875, he used a breaststroke, swimming 21.26 miles in 21 hours and 45 minutes. No other man or woman swam through the channel for the next 31 years. The first European amateur swimming competitions were [[1889] in Vienna. He died in 1882 while attempting to swim the Niagara Falls
Louis III of Bavaria built a swimming pool which is believed to be the first artificial wave pool from 1879 to 1889 , in castle Linderhof, which also featured electric heated water and light.
Synchronized swimming started in the late 19th century, and the first competition was in 1891 in Berlin, a mens only event.
The first modern Olympic games were held in 1896 in Athens, naturally a male-only competition (see also Swimming at the 1896 Summer Olympics. The games had only four swimming events, 100m, 500m, and 1200m freestyle and 100m for sailors. The first gold medal was won by Alfred Hajos of Hungary in 1:22.20 for the 100 m freestyle. Another swimming competition of 100 meter (very roughly) for sailors included three Greek sailors in Bay of Zea near Piraeus, starting from a rowing boat. The winner was Ioannis Malokinis in 2 minutes and 20 seconds. A 1500 meter race was also performed.
In 1897 Capt. Henry Sheffield designs a rescue can or rescue cylinder, now well known as lifesaving device in Baywatch. The pointed ends made it slide faster though the water, although it may cause injuries.
The second Olympic games in Paris in 1900 featured 200m, 1000m, and 4000m freestyle, 200m backstroke , and a 200m team race (see also Swimming at the 1900 Summer Olympics). There were two additional unusual swimming events: an obstacle swimming course in the Seine river (swimming with the current), and an underwater swimming race. The 4000 meter freestyle was won by John Arthur Jarvis in under 1 hour, the longest Olympic swimming race ever. The backstroke was also introduced to the Olympic games in Paris, as was water polo. However, other nations refused to play with the soft ball, and the only teams are from the United states, subsequently winning Gold, Silver and Bronze.
The Trudgen was improved by the British born Australian swimming teacher and swimmer Richard (Fred, Frederick) Cavill. Like Trudgen, he watched natives, in this case from the Solomon Islands, using front crawl. But different from Trudgen, he noticed the flutter kick, and studied it closely. He used this new flutter kick instead of the breaststroke or scissor kick for the Trudgen. He used this stroke in 1902 at an International Championships in England to set a new world record by outswimming all Trudgen swimmers over the 100 yards in 0:58.4. (Some sources say it was his son in 0:58.8) He taught this style to all his six sons, each of them becoming championship swimmers. The technique became known as Australian crawl up to 1950, when it was shortened to crawl, technically known as front crawl.
The Olympics in 1904 in St. Louis included races over 50 yards , 100 yards , 220 yards , 440 yards , 880 yards and one mile freestyle, 100 yards backstroke and 440 yards breaststroke, and the 4*50 yards freestyle relay (see also [Swimming at the 1904 Summer Olympics])). This games differentiated between breaststroke and freestyle, so that there were now two defined styles (breaststroke and backstroke ) and freestyle, were most people swam Trudgen. These games also featured a competition to plunge for distance, were the distance without swimming after jumping in a pool was measured.
In 1907 the swimmer Annette Kellerman from Australia visits the United States as an “Underwater Ballerina”, a version of Synchronized swimming, diving into glass tanks. She was arrested for indecent exposure, as her bathing suit showed Arms, Legs and the neck. Kellerman changed the suit to have long arms and legs, and a collar, still keeping the close fit revealing the shapes underneath. She later stars in several movies, including one about her life.
In 1908, the world swimming association Federation Internationale de Natation de Amateur (FINA) was formed.
Women were first allowed to swim in the Olympic Games 1912 in Stockholm, competing in freestyle races. (Women could participate in golf and tennis since 1900 in Paris). In the 1912 games, Harry Hebner of the United States won the 100m [[backstroke ]]. At these games Kahanamoku from Hawaii won the 100 meter freestyle, having learned the six kicks per cycle front crawl from older natives of his island. This style is now considered the classical front crawl style. The men competitions were 100m , 400m , and 1500m Freestyle, 100m backstroke , 200m, 400m breaststroke, and 4*200m freestyle relay. The women’s competition were 100m freestyle and 4*100m freestyle relay.
On July 28th 1912, a pier in Binz near Rugen, Germany collapsed under the load of 1000 people waiting for a cruise steamer “Kronprinz Wilhelm”. Sailors of the german navy were able to save most people, but unfortunately 17 people died because they could not swim, including seven children. This catastrophe caused the foundation of the “Deutschen Lebens-Rettungs-Gesellschaft (DLRG)” (German lifesaving organization) on October 19 1913 in Leipzig. In the same year the first elastic swimsuit was made by by a sweater company Jantzen.
In 1922, Johnny Weissmuller became the first person ever to swim the 100m in less than a minute, using a six kicks per cycle Australian crawl. Johnny Weissmuller started the golden age of swimming and was the worlds most famous swimmer, winning 5 Olympic medals and 36 national championships and never loosing a race in his 10-year career, until he retired from swimming and started his second career as Tarzan. His record of 51 seconds over 100-yard freestyle stood for over 17 years. In the same year, Sybil Bauer is the first woman to break a men’s world record over the 440m backstroke in 6:24.8.
At the Olympic Games in 1924 in Paris, lane dividers made of cork were used for the first time, and lines on the pool bottom aided with the orientation.
1928 was the start of the scientific study of swimming by David Armbruster, coach at the University of Iowa, filming underwater swimmers. The Japanese also used underwater photography to research the stroke mechanics, and subsequently dominated the Olympic Games in 1932. Armbruster also considered the problem of breaststroke that the swimmer was slowed down significantly while bringing the arms forward under water. In 1934, Armbruster, refined a method to bring the arms forward over water in breaststroke. While this “butterfly” technique was difficult, it brought a great improvement in speed. One year later, in 1935 Jack Sieg (Seig?), a swimmer also from the University of Iowa developed a technique to swim on his side and beat his legs in unisono similar to a fish tail, and modified the technique afterward to swim it face down. Armbruster and Sieg combined these techniques into a variant of the breaststroke called butterfly with the two kicks per cycle being called dolphin fishtail kick. Using this technique Sieg swam 100 yards in 1:00.2. However, even though this technique was much faster than regular breaststroke, the dolphin fishtail kick violated the rules and was not allowed. Therefore, the butterfly arms with a breaststroke kick were used by a few swimmers in the 1936 Olympics in Berlin for the breaststroke competitions. In 1938, almost every breaststroke swimmer was using this butterfly style, yet this stroke was a variant of the breaststroke until 1952, when it was accepted as a separate style with a set of rules.
Around that time another modification to the backstroke became popular. Previously, the arms were held straight during the underwater push phase, for example by the top backstroke swimmer from 1935 to 1945, Adolph Kiefer. However, Australian swimmers developed a technique were the arms are bent under water, increasing the horizontal push and the resulting speed and reducing the wasted force upwards and sideways. This style is now generally used worldwide. In 1935 topless Swimsuit for men were worn for the first time during an official competition.
In 1943 the US ordered to reduce the fabric consumption of swimsuits by 10% due to wartime shortages, resuting in the first two piece swimsuits. Shortly thereafter the Bikini was invented in Paris by Louis Reard (officially) or Jacques Heim (earlier, but slightly larger).
Another modification was developed for breaststroke. In breaststroke, breaking the water surface increases the friction, reducing the speed of the swimmer. Therefore, swimming under water increases the speed. This lead to a controversy at the Olympic games in 1956 in Melbourne, and six swimmers were disqualified, as they repeatedly swam long distances under water. However, one Japanese swimmer, Masaru Furukawa circumvented the rule by not surfacing at all after the start, but swimming as much of the lane under water as possible before breaking the surface. He swam all but 5m under water for the first three 50m laps, and also swam ½ under water for the last lap, winning the gold medal. The adoption of this technique led to many swimmers getting blue in the face or even some swimmers passing out during the race due to a lack of air, and a new rule was introduced by the FINA, limiting the distance that can be swum under water after the start and every turn, and requiring the head to break the surface every cycle. The 1956 games in Melbourne also saw the introduction of the body roll, a sort of tumble turn to faster change directions at the end of the lane.
In 1972, another famous swimmer, Mark Spitz was on the height of his career. During the Olympic Games in Munich, Germany, he won 7 gold medals, more than any other athlete ever.
Breaking the water surface reduces the speed in swimming, this is true not only for breaststroke, but also for backstroke . The swimmers Daichi Suzuki (Japan) and David Berkoff (America) used this for the 100m backstroke at the Olympic games in Seoul in 1988. Berkoff swam 33m of the first lane completely underwater using only a dolphin kick, surfacing just before the turn, far ahead of his competition. A sports commentator called this a Berkoff Blastoff. Suzuki, practicing the underwater technique for 10 years, surfaced only a little bit earlier, winning the race in 0:55.05. The rules were quickly changed in the same year by the FINA to ensure the health and safety of the swimmers, limiting the underwater phase after the start to 10m, which was expanded to 15m in 1991. In Seoul, Kristin Otto from East Germany won 6 gold medals, the most ever won by a woman.
Another recent innovation is the use of forward tumble turns for backstroke. According to the rules, a backstroke swimmer had to touch the wall while lying less than 90 degree out of the horizontal. Some swimmers discovered that they can turn faster if they roll almost 90 degrees sideways, touch the wall, and make a forward tumble turn, pushing off the wall on their backs. The FINA has changed the rules to allow the swimmers to turn over completely before touching the wall to simplify this turn and to improve the speed of the races.
In 1998 Benoit Lecomte swam across the Atlantic Ocean, a total of 5,600 kilometer in 72 days, swimming 6 to 8 hours daily. He was accompanied by two sailors on a sailboat.
After underwater swimming for breaststroke and backstroke , the underwater swimming technique is now also used for butterfly, for example by Denis Pankratov (Russia) or Angela Kennedy (Australia), swimming large distances under water with a dolphin kick. The World swimming body FINA is again considering a rule change for safety reasons. It is currently unclear, if it is possible to swim faster underwater than swimming freestyle or front crawl at the surface.
The desire or cultural demand of modesty together with the awkwardness or unsuitabilty of conventional clothing in the water led to the development of the Swimsuit (and in Victorian times, the bathing machine).
Nude swimming is done:
Competitive swimming became popular in the 19th century, and is an event at the Summer Olympic Games. There are four swimming disciplines, and there are events for different distances in those disciplines.
The laws of competitive swimming place certain restrictions on the action used by the swimmer, depending on the event:
Full rules are on the rules web page of FINA.
Competitive swimming has traditionally been dominated by the United States, but recently that dominance has been challenged by Australia, where swimming is a hugely popular recreational activity, and participant and spectator sport. The success of Australian swimmers like Ian Thorpe and Kieren Perkins is reminiscent of Australia's previous golden age of swimming in the 1950s and 1960s, which saw the emergence of swimmers such as Shane Gould and Dawn Fraser.
There are also long-distance open-water swimming races (a 5 kilometre open-water event became part of the Olympic program in 2000), and some hardy individuals attempt very long-distance swims - such swimmers might cross the English Channel, or circumnavigate Manhattan Island, but these are by no means the longest such feats.
Swimming is also a crucial part of other sports, such as surf lifesaving, water polo, synchronized swimming and triathlon.
Recreational swimmers also use several strokes not used in competition - side stroke, which as the name suggests is performed on the swimmer's side, dog paddle (also known as human stroke, where the head is kept above the water and the arms alternately paddle underneath, and survival backstroke (more commonly known as elementary backstroke, a stroke performed on the back, but using underwater recovery and a breaststroke-style kick. There are many other commonly used recreational strokes such as the trudgeon, double trudgeon, trudgeon crawl, and inverted breastroke and doggy paddle.
Swimming is a good form of exercise. Due to the fact that the density of the human body is approximately similar to water, the body is supported by the water and less stress is therefore placed on joints and bones. Furthermore, the resistance against movement depends heavily on the speed of the movement, allowing the fine tuning of the exercise according to ones ability. Therefore, swimming is frequently used as an exercise in rehabilitation after injuries or for the disabled.
Swimming exercises almost all muscles in the body. Usually, the arms and upper body are exercised more than the legs, as most forward motion is generated by the arms. In competitive swimming, excessive leg muscles can be seen as a disadvantage as they consume more oxygen, which would be needed for the muscles of the arms. However, this depends very much on the swimming style. While breaststroke generates significant movement with the legs, front crawl propels the body mainly with the arms.
Swimming is a aerobic exercise due to the relatively long exercise times, requiring a constant oxygen supply to the muscles, except for short sprints were the muscles work anaerobic. While aerobic exercises usually burn fat and help with loosing weight, this effect is limited in swimming for two reasons. First, water cools the body much faster than air, and therefore the body aims to maintain a layer of fat under the skin for insulation. Secondly, in exercise many calories are burnt due to the increased body temperature (see: Perspiration). However, during swimming the body is cooled down almost instantly as the surrounding water is usually cooler than the body temperature, reducing the number of calories burnt.
While swimming is considered a sport with a low risk of injury, there are some health risks with swimming. Most lethal risks in swimming are due to the inability to swim. It is recommended to swim in an area supervised by Lifeguards and to paying attention to the water conditions. In generally, the health advantages of swimming are bigger than the health risks. Possible health risks range from lethal to minor inconveniences. Below is a list of potentially lethal health risks, followed by a list of minor health risks:
History
Ancient Times
Middle Ages to 1800
Swimming was initially one of the seven agilities of knights during the Middle Ages, including swimming with Armour. However, as swimming was done in a state of undress, it became less popular as the society became more conservative, and it was opposed by the church at the end of the middle ages. For example, in the 16th century, a German court document in the Vechta prohibited the naked public swimming of children. Leonardo da Vinci (1452 to 1519) made early sketches of lifebelts.The Pre-Olympic Era to 1896
The Modern Olympic Era after 1896
Clothing
Competition
Additionally, there are medley events where swimmers successively perform all four strokes. For the individual medley, one swimmer performs the various strokes in the order of butterfly, backstroke, breaststroke, and then freestyle. While the medley relays are swum by individual swimmers in the following order: backstroke, breaststroke, butterfly, and freestyle. Recreation
Swimming and Health
DISCLAIMER
Minor health risks are:
See also
External link
