The three styles of swim races.
Like track and gymnastics, swimming has dozens of different events that swimmers all have the opportunity to compete in. If you turn on the Olympics, you’ll see that swimming, like track and gymnastics, occurs over the course of an entire week.
But why? Don’t swimmers just have four strokes?
True, there are four strokes: freestyle, backstroke, butterfly, and breaststroke. If you want a more detailed analysis of the strokes, click here to read that blog post. But, among these strokes are nested three styles of individual races: sprints, mid-distance, and distance.
Sprints are short races, typically 100 yards (four lengths) or less. Sprints are characterized by fast arm movements, hard kick, and strong, powerful underwaters off each wall. During meets, the sprint events are the 50s (down and back) and the 100s (four lengths) of each stroke.
Distance events are reserved only for freestyle and are characterized by events that are at least 500 yards (twenty lengths), which includes the 500, the 1000, and the 1650 (mile). The reason freestyle is the only stroke that is swum in these events is because it is the fastest. When it comes to watching the mile, spectators often can’t wait for the mile to be over with the fastest stroke freestyle, let alone the slowest stroke breaststroke. Freestyle is also the only stroke where a consistent speed can be held for extended periods of time.
Mid-distance events are those between sprints and distance races. The one main race that falls into this category is the 200 (eight lengths). This race is characterized by its challenging nature because it is short enough to put a lot more sprint-style effort into the race, but long enough that if you race it like a sprint, you will loose all your energy before you finish! The 200 is often considered by swimmers to be the most challenging race for each of the four main strokes.
Although this style of race could be categorized within the sprint or mid-distance group, the last style is a group race…a relay. There are a few styles of relays and it always varies depending on your age, location, and league. Relays are made up of four swimmers that go one at a time until everyone has gone. Relays are often the most exciting part of a meet.
Understanding the different styles of races helps swimmers be more informed about how to swim their events. At the Tidal Waves, we don’t do many distance events because we focus on new swimmers who don’t have the endurance to swim long distances. But we are a great place to start your swimming adventure. If you’re interested in learning more about our team and how we aim to progress your swimmers through our program, click below!