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Competitive Swim Info
USA Swimming Organization:
STAR Swim Team is a member of the following organizations:
*CLICK ON ORGANIZATION NAME TO VISIT THE WEB SITE*
USA Swimming
- National governing body which is located in Colorado Springs
Central Zone Committee
- Regional governing body of USA Swimming
Minnesota Swimming Inc
- "MSI" The Local Swimming Committee (LSC)
Strokes and Races:
STAR swimmers learn and develop each of the four competitive
swimming strokes: Backstroke, Breaststroke, Butterfly and
Freestyle.
Backstroke
In the backstroke, the swimmer must start in the water faring the
starting end with their feet under the surface of the water. (This
differs from Minnesota High School League rule which allows the
swimmer to start the race while standing on the gutter of the pool
grasping the starting platform as long as some part of their body,
usually their heels, remain in contact with the water.) The swimmer
must stay on the back except during the turns. The stroke is an
alternating motion of the arms (a reverse wind milling) with a
flutter kick. The rules now allow the swimmer to turn over onto the
stomach during the turn as part of "a continuous turning action."
However, the swimmer must be on the back when they leave the wall
after a turn and at the finish of the race. The backstroke flags
that appear five yards from each end of a short course pool (five
meters from each end of a long course pool) are very important to
backstrokers. The flags alert them that they are approaching the
wall. Swimmers spend a great deal of time practicing their turns
until they know how many strokes it takes them to reach the wall
after passing the flags. This helps them make the turn without
looking for the wall. You may notice some swimmers doing an
extended dolphin style (feet together with a flipper motion) kick
as they come off the wall. Though that is not the style of kick
used throughout the race, it is legal and helps the swimmer get
back to speed and into rhythm. At the finish, you may also notice
some swimmers diving backwards to touch the wall. This technique is
a little faster way to finish the backstroke race.
Breaststroke
The breaststroke may be one of the most difficult strokes to
master. It requires simultaneous movements of the arms on the same
horizontal plane. The hands are pushed forward from the breast, on,
under or over the surface of the water. This part of the stroke is
called the recovery. The hands are then pulled out, back, and
together during the propulsive phase of the stroke. The timing of
the kick and the arm pulls is critical. The kick looks kind of like
a "frog" kick, with both legs coming down and around in a
simultaneous circular motion. In the breaststroke events, the
swimmer must touch the wall with both hands at the same time at the
turns and at the finish of the race. Failure to make the two-hand
simultaneous touch in results in a DQ (disqualification) and
commonly occurs when the swimmers are first learning the stroke.
After the start and after each turn, the swimmer may take one arm
stroke completely back to the legs, and one leg kick while wholly
submerged. The head must break the surface of the water before the
hands turn inward at the widest part of the second stroke.
Butterfly
Butterfly is perhaps the most physically demanding stroke. It is
also the newest of the four strokes and was first swum in its
modern form in the 1956 Olympics. Before that, butterfly was swum
using the breaststroke kick. Butterfly requires the simultaneous
overhead stroke of the arms combined with the dolphin kick. The
dolphin kick features both legs moving up and down at the same
time. If the swimmer does a flutter or breaststroke kick, it
results in a DQ (disqualification). As in the breaststroke, the
swimmer must touch the wall at the turns and at the finish with
both hands simultaneously. After the start and after each turn, the
swimmer is permitted any number of underwater kicks but only one
underwater arm pull. That pull must bring the swimmer to the
surface.
Freestyle
In the freestyle, the competitor may swim any stroke but the stroke
usually performed is the Australian Crawl. This stroke consists of
an alternating overhand motion of the arms and a flutter kick that
can either be a six-beat or a two-beat (kicks) per two arm stroke.
The shorter races, the 5O and 100, are the "sprint" events. These
events are usually all out races from the start to finish. A fast
start (getting off the starting blocks quickly) is very important
in both the 50 and 100 freestyle races. You will notice swimmers
doing flip turns each time they reach the end of the pool. This is
the fastest possible turn method and is taught and practiced from
very early on in your child’s swim experience with STAR.
After each turn, the swimmers come off the wall in the
"streamlined" position. In other words, the body position resembles
a pencil. The skinnier and sharper the "pencil," the farther they
will travel off the wall. The freestyle swimmer finishes the race
when any part of their body touches the wall.
The Individual Medley race, or "IM" features all four strokes swum
in the same event by a single swimmer. The competitors swim one
fourth of the race in each of the strokes and in the following
order: butterfly, backstroke, breaststroke,
freestyle.
There are two types of relay races - Medley and Freestyle. Each
relay team consists of four swimmers. A critical factor in any
successful relay is the exchange between swimmers. The swimmer on
the block must remain in contact with the starting block until the
incoming swimmer touches the wall. An early departure by one
swimmer results in a DQ (disqualification) for the entire relay
team.
Medley & Freestyle Relays
In the
freestyle relay
, each swimmer swims one fourth of the race distance using any
stroke desired. Of course, as in the individual events, the
Australian Crawl is the stroke most often used. The
medley relay
employs all four strokes, one stroke swum by each of the four
swimmers on the relay team. The order of strokes, however, is
different than that used in the IM. The backstroke leg is done
first in the relay because the backstroker has to start in the
water. Clearly this would present a problem if the backstroker had
to be concerned about someone coming into the wall while the
backstroker was preparing to take off. Therefore, the order of
strokes in the medley relay is backstroke, breaststroke, butterfly,
freestyle.
Meets and Time Standards:
At USA swim meets, swimmers compete against others of the same age,
gender and swimming ability. Events are categorized by gender in
the following age groups: 8 and under, 9-10, 11 -12, 13-14, 15-16,
17-18. There are some minor variations in these groups but usually
each age group swimmer will be competing against swimmers no more
than two years older than they are. Within each age group, the
competition is further narrowed by time standards.
MEETS
Minnesota Swimming (MSI) sets standards before each season so that
a swimmer’s time in an individual event is categorized as a
(slowest to fastest) "C", "B", "A". "Champ" or "Zone" time. Then,
within each meet, a swimmer with a "C" time in an event will swim
against other swimmers with "C" times in the same event. There are
different types of meets during the course of a season (A, A/B,
B/C,C, C Finals, etc.) ending with the State Meet. These
designations are established primarily to keep the meet size
manageable. An "A" meet has only those swimmers who have achieved
"A" or better times in the events they enter at the meet. A "B/C"
meet will be open to swimmers with "B" and "C" times and so on.
Most swimmers will get their first meet experience at a "B/C" meet.
In each event the swimmer enters, they are given heat and lane
assignments based on the fastest time they have previously achieved
in that particular event. Those with the slowest times or no
official times swim in the first heat while the fastest swimmers
swim last, except in the longer distance events where faster
swimmers swim in the first heats. Within each heat, the fastest
swimmers swim in the middle lanes of the pool. As a swimmer moves
from, for example, a "C" time to a "B" time in a particular event,
she/he will swim against other "B" swimmers in that event in the
future meets. Once a particular time standard has been achieved,
the swimmer will remain in that grouping until he/she moves up to
the next time standard. Swimmers need to achieve a Champ time to be
eligible to swim in the State Meet in that event at the end of the
season.
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