The modern day Olympics includes four strokes for both men and women. Freestyle, Backstroke, Breaststroke, and Butterfly with 16 events for both male and female. When swimming became big in the Olympics, in the early 20th century, the strokes were inefficient in the water. The only stroke that was, was the English breaststroke which was slow and took too much time to be competitive. The strokes began to evolve once people knew what to do to push through the water faster.

Freestyle is a stroke at which you may choose to swim any legal stroke that is defined by the USA Swimming guidelines and the International Swimming Federation. (Both organizations deal with competitive swimming on both national and international levels.) The most common and fastest stroke for freestyle is the crawl, which has you lye on your stomach with arms and legs stretched out while taking breaths to the side, like laying your head on a pillow. When in slow motion it seems as if the swimmer is crawling through the water, but when swum fast, it is everything but.

Backstroke is a stroke which you swim completely on your back, but in the rules one may turn 90degrees to either side, much like rolling back and forth. You can also think of this stroke as the crawl, just turned over onto one’s back. This stroke is known for its grace (if swum appropriately.) The longer the arms and the legs the more graceful it will appear. Lenny Krayzelburg (pictured at left) is known for perfecting this stroke. At each wall for this stroke, the swimmer may turn over on his or her stomach to complete a flip.

Breaststroke is a stroke which deals with a simultaneous motion. Some may call it the froggy stroke. This is supposedly the oldest stroke of the sport. Breaststroke causes both arms and legs to go in a circular pattern. Timing is strategic in this stroke. A swimmer wants to be able to glide in the water. On most occasions the shoulders will well surface the water greatly to increase the pull of the arms.

Butterfly is the most unique and most difficult to achieve. This stroke combines a dolphin kick, where legs must not separate each other and the arms must be simultaneous. A full recovery of the arms but happen in order to get a full breath of air. Timing is also a vital asset to this stroke. Without it, you may not move in a forward motion.