Am I alone in pursuing freestyle only?
I never understood/appreciated anything other than "swim as fast as you can from A to B".
I was a long time hard-core runner, and the different swimstrokes seems to me to be akin to running backwards or sideways. (Or....heaven forbid......Racewalking!!)
Why shouldn't swimming follow the same path as running? Ie No stroke rules. Just go from A to B in the water anyway you wish? As fast as you can.
School me! Kick my ass! In my newbieness I cannot understand anything other than "A to B in the water as fast as you can."
Why do we have these 4 different strokes? It seems like a beauty contest. (I expect to be crucified for such blasphemy.)
Educate me, USMS people. Help me understand why you would want to find a way to swim slower!! :)
Skuj -- Like you, I got into swimming many many years ago, as a young adult, after having been a distance runner since h.s. Mostly, I don't really care about the other strokes. I just needed to swim for triathlons. WRT your comparison as the other strokes to running backwards, sideways, etc. Personally, I use the strokes-to-running comparison a little differently. Like running hurdles, for example. I was never on an organized/coached swim team...but in recent years I've worked a little on my other strokes and gotten myself up to where I can swim a 400m IM (albeit ever so slow) (actually I'll swim a 1600m IM now and then). The other question I've pondered is how, aside from the front crawl ("freestyle")...because it's the fastest... that we arrived at the butterfly, *** stroke, and backstroke as the other strokes that would be used in competitive swimming. Why didn't the trudgeon stroke, side stroke, or elementary backstroke make the cut?
Dan
Skuj -- Like you, I got into swimming many many years ago, as a young adult, after having been a distance runner since h.s. Mostly, I don't really care about the other strokes. I just needed to swim for triathlons. WRT your comparison as the other strokes to running backwards, sideways, etc. Personally, I use the strokes-to-running comparison a little differently. Like running hurdles, for example. I was never on an organized/coached swim team...but in recent years I've worked a little on my other strokes and gotten myself up to where I can swim a 400m IM (albeit ever so slow) (actually I'll swim a 1600m IM now and then). The other question I've pondered is how, aside from the front crawl ("freestyle")...because it's the fastest... that we arrived at the butterfly, *** stroke, and backstroke as the other strokes that would be used in competitive swimming. Why didn't the trudgeon stroke, side stroke, or elementary backstroke make the cut?
Dan
