If it was legal to swim the four strokes of the IM in any order, your choice as long as you completed all four, what order would you choose? Would your choice be different depending on the distance of the IM?
I would have to say fly first that would be the only way I could get my arms out of the water for it. The IM is in just the perfect order for me just as it is.
I think I'd make it a middle stroke. The simple reason for that is that the first stroke in an IM is one that I have to be good at because I (assuming it's in competition) have some shakiness after the start and haven't gotten into a good rhythm yet. I need to sort of get into the groove of swimming before attempting a stroke that isn't my strongest. If it was the first stroke I'd probably blow all of my energy with worse technique and a distracted mind, and if it was the last stroke I'm worried that I wouldn't have the energy to get through it all - making me more likely to drown, hah.
Most likely fly, as it has always been my fastest stroke (at least for a 50). Even for a 100, fly would still come first.
Can I just skip *** and do two legs of fly?;)
Hmmm. As one of the breaststrokers so quickly despised in this thread, I must say that I enjoy having the IM order the way it is.
I like getting fly out of the way. While I never use any stroke for recovery, backstroke is a good stroke to prepare for the breastroke. And freestyle is a good final stroke, though it's really my worst stroke in the IM.
And if breaststroke were first, all of the breaststrokers would definitely win the race! We'd have all the energy necessary to blast ahead the first quarter, then hang on the rest of the race. I could go about six seconds faster leading off with *** than I could if my *** leg were third. Then my fly would still be fairly fast (though ugly) and I'd win the race.
Maybe there should be a meet where people get to pick their order. I'd be interested to see how I'd swim if the IM were ***, back, fly, free. I bet I'd be faster by a couple of seconds.
I don't care where the fly is as long as Breaststroke is first. That would even out the field a little bit. I for one am tired of seeing the breaststrokers swim by me in the third leg.
