Added: 12/16/2005 |
Progress in Technique is One of the Great Olympic Swimming InnovationsOne of the first interesting Olympic swimming innovations was introduced by David Armbruster and Jack Sieg. They proposed a new variety of breaststroke. This style is known as butterfly now. Another one of the Olympic swimming innovations took place in the backstroke and consists of forward tumble turns usage.
According to swimming competitions rules the swimmer is obliged to contact the wall being turned less than 90 degrees relative to the horizon. The result of the innovation (forward tumble turns usage) was that average race speed has grown. This took place due to the fact that the swimmer was allowed to turn about 90 degrees sideways, touching the wall and pushing off the wall lying on his back.
The strangest competition took place in Paris at the Olympics of 1900. It was underwater swimming. At first, a decision was made to award the swimmer with two points for every meter of swimming under the water and with one point for each second of staying under the water. To the great public delight Charles de Venderville from France conquered 60 meters and was under the surface of water for 1 min 8.4 sec. Peder Lykkeberg from Denmark was under the surface of water for one minute and a half but he could swim only 28.5 meters.
Underwater swimming has one peculiar property, the swimmer can swim using whatever style he prefers but he should swim under the water. The necessity to breathe from time to time is a basic restriction. Swimming on yours back under the water allows the swimmer to breathe out through the nose or carry a nose clip. One can close his nostrils with the upper lip during the underwater swimming.
It is also necessary to talk about three foundations of underwater swimming: Pose, Evenness and Equilibrium. These foundations one can name the "Power Triad". In the time of swimming, Quick is a part of Pose, Evenness and Equilibrium develop the undulation of the body ahead, on one side, and from the back states. The undulation of the swimmer's movement is reached by skilled use of the tools for training, such as snorkel and short fins, for example.
Another one of the Olympic swimming innovations was introduced by Denis Pankratov (Russia), who introduced underwater swimming methodology for butterfly, breaststroke and backstroke. Angela Kennedy (Australia) swam with a dolphin kick long distances underwater, which also represents an innovation in Olympic swimming.
Now the question of the day is what is faster to swim underwater, swim freestyle or to swim at the surface front crawl. There are some recommendations which help to learn the underwater swimming. The first one is not to put out of your mind whirling for a while, and return to practicing ahead rotations in the water. When one believes that your presence in the water is comfortable then he can perform swimming front crawl. Try to get your head downward quickly and rotate fast.
The second is a quickly spin to establish the best distance from the barrier before your roll. At the start do swimming in all positions of your body relatively to the wall. So you can observe how near to the wall you can actually approach. Study to discover a convenient distance for you - you must correct the position of your knees but you should try to finish this movement horizontal and then to turn round otherwise you'll begin to move up or down. The third is the feet position. The forth is the jump off the wall. The fifth is if your torso is moving away forming the barrier; search out a good position for the next move.
Day by day the new Olympic swimming innovations are introduced to make the kind of sport even more exciting and spectacle.
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