Olympic swimming

[LoboGunLeather]

Caught a bit of today's Olympic TV coverage of the Womens Breast Stroke competition.

I am not an expert by any means, but it appeared to me like they were all using their arms.

 

[45Smashemflat]

Ba dum, tiss….

 

[Rudi]

Go to your room! HA!

 

[boykinlp]

When I was a youngster, my siblings and I all swam on the local pool’s swim team. At different times I swam all 4 disciplines. My best two were freestyle and backstroke. I have a question that hopefully someone here can answer. When I was swimming competitively in the early ‘70s, I thought to swim the breaststroke correctly, you couldn’t put your head completely under water during the swimming motion. Whenever I have watched it in the last few Olympics, ALL the swimmers have water completely going over the top of their heads all the time. Did the rules change or am I misremembering? Any knowledgeable swimmers in the group?
Larry

 

[soFlaNative]

Watching 200M men's heat and boykin's right. Not only head down but much fewer stroke count.
I don't think it's a rule change as much as swimmers have found more time spent underwater equals a faster time overall.

 

[zeke]

When I was a youngster, my siblings and I all swam on the local pool’s swim team. At different times I swam all 4 disciplines. My best two were freestyle and backstroke. I have a question that hopefully someone here can answer. When I was swimming competitively in the early ‘70s, I thought to swim the breaststroke correctly, you couldn’t put your head completely under water during the swimming motion. Whenever I have watched it in the last few Olympics, ALL the swimmers have water completely going over the top of their heads all the time. Did the rules change or am I misremembering? Any knowledgeable swimmers in the group?
Larry

was a breaststroker in late 60's and early 70's. You got disqualified for your head going underwater, or doing dolphin kicks off the start and turns. A lot of things have changed, and now they are considerably down the pool by the time they surface. If memory serves, the only stroke where dolphin kicks were allowed was butterfly.

And there was no turning over to do a forward flip turn in backstroke.

 

[Heinz]

I think the OP might deserve a time-out for that first comment.

 

[LoboGunLeather]

I think the OP might deserve a time-out for that first comment.

A perfectly innocent comment on my observations. I share no responsibility for those whose twisted minds may misinterpret a simple statement of fact.

 

[NYlakesider]

I think the OP might deserve a time-out for that first comment.

Well I do not know about that, but looks like his eyes work perfectly!-

 

[Onomea]

...I have a question that hopefully someone here can answer. When I was swimming competitively in the early ‘70s, I thought to swim the breaststroke correctly, you couldn’t put your head completely under water during the swimming motion. Whenever I have watched it in the last few Olympics, ALL the swimmers have water completely going over the top of their heads all the time. Did the rules change or am I misremembering? Any knowledgeable swimmers in the group?
Larry

Here's an explanation of the evolution of breaststroke and the rule changes: The Evolution of Breaststroke

 

[boykinlp]

was a breaststroker in late 60's and early 70's. You got disqualified for your head going underwater, or doing dolphin kicks off the start and turns. A lot of things have changed, and now they are considerably down the pool by the time they surface. If memory serves, the only stroke where dolphin kicks were allowed was butterfly.

And there was no turning over to do a forward flip turn in backstroke.

Thanks zeke for the clarification! I didn’t think I was wrong. I wonder why they changed the rules that drastically? I would expect those kinds of changes would drop times considerably and make records of swimmers like Mark Spitz much easier to break. It was a lot harder to do the breaststroke back then!
Larry

PS - I forgot about seeing them turning over to do a forward flip turn the backstroke! I thought that looked CRAZY!

 

[Greyman50]

I best not comment about my desire to be a women's swimming instructor……

 

[fiasconva]

According my questionable sources they changed the rules years ago once they started televising the races and let them use their arms so the races would only last minutes instead of hours. They needed more time for commercials.

 

[ditrina]

Caught a bit of today's Olympic TV coverage of the Womens Breast Stroke competition.

I am not an expert by any means, but it appeared to me like they were all using their arms.

BOOOO HISSSSS...GO TO YOUR ROOM...

 

[zeke]

Here's an explanation of the evolution of breaststroke and the rule changes: The Evolution of Breaststroke

The only comment on that article was by one of my former coaches

 

[SMSgt]

A perfectly innocent comment on my observations. I share no responsibility for those whose twisted minds may misinterpret a simple statement of fact.

Same excuse I use, but it never works.

 

[soFlaNative]

I best not comment about my desire to be a women's swimming instructor……

Bowlegged wimmin'?

 

[TX-Dennis]

Took me a minute to get that. I was thinking, "well, of course they're using their arms. How else can you swim?"

I can be a bit slow sometimes.

 

[Greyman50]

Wonder how Dolly would do??????

 

[Heinz]

Wonder how Dolly would do??????

Anything Dolly does, she does well.