Swimming Glossary
Terms  Acronyms  Definitions  Abbreviations


Competitive Strokes:  
Butterly (fly) Double arm and double kick with body undulation and straight arm recovery
Backstroke (back crawl) Alternating arm and kick with pronounced roll on each pull
Breaststroke Double arm and kick, underwater recovery, modified frog kick (whip kick)
Freestyle (crawl) Alternating arm and kick, breathing to side, standard stroke used by all
Individual Medly (im)  All of the above in that order
Recreational Strokes:
all of the above plus
 
Sidestroke  Completely on one side, one arm does upper half stroke, other lower, scissors kick
Trudgeon Crawl Same as freestyle, but with scissors kick
Elementary Backstroke Flat on back, double arm underwater, recover only to shoulder level, frog kick
Underwater swimming Same as breaststroke, but continue stroke all the way back
Dog Paddle Duh - you know.   It's actually fun to do during cool down
Workout Terms  
SKPS Swim Kick Pull Swim
Kick Usually with a board stretched out in front of you
Pull plastic foam pull buoy between legs to concentrate on the pull without kicking
Interval start on a specific time.  the rest time will vary
Repeat Rest a specified time, e.g. swim ten times 50 yards, rest 15 seconds between each swim
On as in Go on 75, i.e., swim 5 times 200 yards, going on 5 minute intervals
DPS distance per stroke, the number of yards one armstroke takes you
SC stroke cycle, one sc equals two armstrokes
Fartlek or Speed play vary speeds during a continuous swim
Set A related group of swims, like a course in a menu
WU Warm up, a short swim or series of swim to raise your heart rate and loosen up
WD Warm (or cool) down, a short swim to relax and avoid soreness
Drill sampler  
Butterfly One-arm strokes, the other forward, breathe to side or forward, change arms at wall.
No arms, hands back at sides, kick head down, kick head up.
Lots of kicking with or without board because propulsion is easily 30% from kick.
Backstroke One-arm, stay on side for 6 or more kicks, roll all the way to other side, repeat with other arm.
Breaststroke Swim with dolphin (butterfly) kick to introduce undulation into stroke.
Freestyle One-arm, catch-up (touch hand in front before beginning stroke), fist swimming (get feel of water resistance from the whole arm), hesitation (delay recovery with hand held back), ripple (skim the water with fingers while elbow is held high), hypoxic swimming (reduce the number of breaths), tarzan (head up and forward), underwater recovery (slide hand forward close to torso).
Individual Medley All of the above, sometimes changing the order of the IM, such as Fly last
Sets  
Ladder Increase or decrease the yardage, either straight like 400, 300, 200, 100 or 4x100, 4x75, 4x50, 4x25, or 4x100, 3x100, 2x100, 100, or mix them or reverse the order
Pyramid As above, but up and down, such as 8x50, 4x100, 2x200, 1x400, and back down
Straight/broken Straight is a swim without stopping; Broken is a distance divided into shorter swims. Alternate straight and broken, for example, would be 500, 10x50, 400, 8x50, 300, 6x50, etcetera.  you can SKPS on the straight yardage, and swim on the broken.
Descending You descend either the strokes or the time. A combination example: swim slow 50, counting strokes; swim same speed with fewer strokes; swim 2 seconds faster with the fewer strokes, rest and do the 3x50 five times, each slow, slow with fewer strokes and faster with same stroke count.  Any distance can be used for several repeats and then start from the top
Individual Medley All the workouts can be done alternating free and im, for example the straight/broken swims can be straight free and the broken swims im.  most of the workouts on 50 swimworkouts are a combination of im and free

LINKS

SWIMMING
Fear of Water
Swim a Mile in 6 Weeks
Swimming for exercise
The Adult Learner
Lunchtime Swims
Introduction to Swim Workouts
Fifty Swim Workouts
Flip Turns for Beginners
Basic Swimming for Triathletes
Triathlon Basics
Ironman Swim Workout Plan
Chesepeake Bay swim
AboutSwim.com (everything you want to know and are afraid to ask)
Home
(includes lots of stuff about other swimmers, such as turtles,toads,
frogs, koi, cichlids, salt water fish and reefs, in aquaria and ponds)

(New - A Facebook discussion group has been put up
by a swimmer doing the swim-a-mile plan. If you would
like to join or begin a discussion please go to FB 0-1650 talk
)

 

 

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