Random Facts About Swimming

Anthropologists say that man evolved out of the sea, and it is absolutely a fact that our prehistoric ancestors swam according to interpretations of cave drawings in Sura, Egypt. However, the earliest written references to swimming are from about 2000 BC, but people should have been bathing, swimming and fishing long before that.

Swimming competitions started in Europe around the turn of the Nineteenth Century, but there are certain to have been swimming competitions long before that in Europe and in other continents in the world. John Arthur Trudgen made the front crawl famous in 1873, although it is probable that this style was being used in other parts of the world.

Until 1873, the breast stroke was the favourite style of swimming in Europe and America. The crawl, which was first known as the Trudgen, became an Olympic sport in 1896, the first of the contemporary Olympics, which were held in Athens. The butterfly stroke was introduced in 1952, before which it was considered as a variation of the breast stroke.

The vast bulk of our bodies is composed of water, and there is a great deal of oil too. This means that the body is less dense than water, which also means that the human body floats under regular circumstances. So, the body will float in fresh and salt water at or 50%-ish below the surface.

You can go above this level by paddling water downwards, which will push the body up, or you can go forwards by pushing water behind you. A blend of both of these actions will propel a swimmer forward at or above the surface of the surrounding water.

It is easier to swim in salt water than fresh water, because the salt makes the water denser which has the effect that your body will float higher in it. Good swimmers or rather fast swimmers have subtle hips.

Swinging from one arm to another in the crawl, which is the fastest stroke, depends on hip action not on large arm muscles. After all, the amount of water that you can move with your hands is not that heavy.

Thigh muscles are important for a continuous, rhythmic beat and coordination is equally important. There are different styles of swimming the crawl, some swimmers like to draw the water back with cupped hands, others with flat hands and yet others with fingers slightly spread.

Breathing is essential for any form of continuous exertion. It is best to control the breathing so that you breathe in on one stroke, hold it for a stroke and breathe out over the next two strokes. This means that you just have to raise your mouth out of the water every four strokes.

Swimming is an excellent exercise because it exerts numerous muscles at the same time, but does not put pressure on hip, knee or ankle joints. It also raises the amount of oxygen in the blood., as do most exercises, but swimming encourages the partaker to hold in breath which means that the swimmer gets all the benefits from that air.