Swimming is the way through which humans can stay afloat on water. It became a part of the Olympics in Athens in the summer of 1896.
Because it is considered to be one of the important life saving skills, apart from learning how to swim themselves, parents across the world are keen to teach their young ones how to swim.
Techniques of swimming
70% of the human body is made up of water. Since the density of the human body is similar to that of water staying afloat requires very little propelling of water downward relative to the body. This propelling is attained by using the hands and forearms as paddles, and by kicking the legs to push water away from the body.
The various swimming styles like free style, back stroke, butterfly stroke are all based on the one principle that the torso and the legs should be kept as parallel as possible to the surface of the water. It has been observed that dropped legs or a slanted torso dramatically increase drag in the water and this results in reducing the speed in water. By extending the forward of the head as much as possible a swimmer can increase his or her speed.
Benefits of swimming
There are numerous advantages of swimming, they are:
- It is an excellent form of exercise because all the muscles of the body are used when one swims.
- It is effective in weight loss.
- Since swimming requires constant supply of oxygen to the muscles, it is a primarily an aerobic exercise, and it is believed that this helps to reduce stress.
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