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!! :)
Interesting.
I'm having a challenging time trying to master one stroke. Do you think the pursuit of the other strokes actually helps with each? ie Does the variety = betterment?
It could, there are definitely takeaways from freestyle to backstroke to fly that can be applied to each other. Breaststroke is pretty unique though.
You have to remember though - people that have been swimming their whole lives have a bit of a different perspective than those that pick up the sport as adults. Swimming is not exactly a "natural" movement for humans, at least not in terms of the competitive strokes. People that learn the strokes when they are young and still developing physically and mentally have the advantage of growing into those movement patterns when they're still malleable. From what I've seen, it takes exponentially more effort to master strokes as an adult than as a child/adolescent.
I'm not exactly sure where I'm going with this, except that really mastering even one stroke while learning swimming as an adult is a accomplishment in my book.
Interesting.
I'm having a challenging time trying to master one stroke. Do you think the pursuit of the other strokes actually helps with each? ie Does the variety = betterment?
It could, there are definitely takeaways from freestyle to backstroke to fly that can be applied to each other. Breaststroke is pretty unique though.
You have to remember though - people that have been swimming their whole lives have a bit of a different perspective than those that pick up the sport as adults. Swimming is not exactly a "natural" movement for humans, at least not in terms of the competitive strokes. People that learn the strokes when they are young and still developing physically and mentally have the advantage of growing into those movement patterns when they're still malleable. From what I've seen, it takes exponentially more effort to master strokes as an adult than as a child/adolescent.
I'm not exactly sure where I'm going with this, except that really mastering even one stroke while learning swimming as an adult is a accomplishment in my book.
