So I figured since that last time I had a school project everybody had awesome ideas, I would hold my breath and hope that would happen again. :) I have to give an informative speech in my Comm 101 class. We can talk on anything we want so, naturally, I had no idea what to talk about. I finally decided on swimming after ruling out the history of sliced bread and soccer. But anyways, my question was what would you consider the most important aspects of swimming? I need three main points and I have two. 1)Strokes 2)Types aka. SCM, SCY, etc. Any ideas on what I already have or an idea for a third main point would be very helpful! Thanx a bundle!!
~Kyra
Former Member
I don't know what SCM and SCY are. However, another main point of swimming is the turn. Of coures I'm assuming you're taking about pool competition
Former Member
You might want to tell them that unlike football or basketball, swimming is a lifetime sport - that people swim in age groups all the way up to 100+. It's a good lifetime sport because it you can swim at your own pace and it is much easier on joints than some other sports.
Guvnah, you're a tease ;)
My inquiring mind wants to know!
Former Member
Thanx everybody for the ideas!! I think I have my topics now, I had some similar ideas but wasn't quite sure how to explain them, and you all helped me start thinking. I will be sure to post my paper!! Thanks again for all your help, now I think I may be able to actually start writing!
~Kyra
p.s. What are the best websites to find the history of swimming and such?
Former Member
Maybe you could select the history of a certain "event". What I had in mind was something like swimming the English Channel, or Alcatraz.
Maybe you could research why the IronMan triathlon uses 2.4 miles for its swim portion. (I could spoil it and just blab it here, but where's the fun in that?)
Another point could be “the history of swimming”, although this could run into volumes. A shorter topic could be the various governing bodies (FINA, USAS, USA-S, USMS, NCAA, YMCA, …) or possibly a discourse on swimming etiquette.
I agree with Jean. You could show how it is a sport for life by explaining all the different levels of participation....from swim lessons to babies, summer league teams, USS, high school, college, masters, triathletes, postal swims, and open water swims.
I think the history of the swimming strokes as described by Cecil Colwin in his books is fascinating.
The move from breastroke to sidestroke to trudgeon to crawl,with some pacific islanders thrown into the mix I find very interesting. Without visual aids it might be tough though.
There are some good ideas here. You could go a couple different ways, but perhaps if you want to focus more on competitve swimming your three points could be:
1. The four competitive strokes. You could go into the history, but that could be too involved.
2. The different types of competitive swimming (age group, high school, college, senior, masters. Also discuss open water events versus pool).
3. The final point would be that swimming is a sport for all abilities and ages. Here you could point out that swimming can save your life or save someone else's life.
Knelson,
That sounds great! Seagurl, please share your paper with us! We all love swimming so much that we want others to see what a great sport it is! I can't wait to see what you write.
