Swimming Terms &
Language
- Adapted Swimming
- Swimming for participants with a disability.
- Anchor - The
final swimmer in a relay and the point in the stroke pattern where
the hand feels the most resistance and begins effective propulsive
movement.
- Angle of Attack -
The angle or degree at which the hand enters the water.
- Body Position -
The way the swimmers body sits in the water, ideally as straight,
long and close to the surface of the water as possible.
- Bow Waves -
Produced by breaking the water line and will slow the swimmer down.
- Burn Out - The
point when competitive swimmers tire from swimming, possibly
through over-stress or pressure.
- Circle Swim -
When there are more than two swimmers in a lane during practice,
swimmers swim up on the right hand side, staying close to the lane
line, and return on the other side ensuring that there is 5 seconds
apart between the swimmer in front. This eliminates the risk of
swimmers crashing into each other.
- Cool-down - A
slower, longer swim as an essential injury prevention technique,
used by the swimmer after a race to rid the body of excess lactic
acid
- Cut - A
qualifying time for a competitive event.
- Deck - The area
around a swimming pool reserved for swimmer, coaches and judges.
- Distance
Freestyle - Freestyle competitive events at distances of
200 m or over.
- Flip Turn - A
type of turn used in front crawl and backstroke. As the swimmer
approaches the wall, they tuck their body into a somersault, roll
toward the wall and push off with their feet.
- Flutter Kick -
The alternating kick used in backstroke and front crawl, usually 6
kicks per cycle.
- Gala - An
unofficial competitive swimming event.
- Heat - A division
of an event used to cut the number of participants, when a single
race to determine the winner would mean too many swimmers competing
at the same time.
- High Elbow -
Refers to the recovery phase of the front crawl, where keeping a
high elbow encourages better balance and body roll. Also refers to
the pull stage of the stroke, where the elbow remains in a higher
position over the hand, giving the sensation of reaching over a
barrel when pulling through the water.
- Hypoxic Breathing
- Breath control swimming such as underwater swimming or breathing
every fifth or seventh stroke in Front crawl.
- Individual Medley
- A combination of the four competitive swimming strokes swum in
the following order; Butterfly, Backstroke, Breaststroke, Freestyle
(usually front crawl).
- Lane - The
section of a pool, distinguished by lane lines, in which a swimmer
is assigned to swim. In competitive swimming, lanes are numbered
from 1 to 8, with lane 1 being the lane furthest to the right.
- Lead-off - The
swimmer to execute the first leg of the relay.
- Length - A
completed lap either up or down the pool. This may be a distance of
25 m or 50 m depending upon the size of the pool.
- Negative Split -
When the second half of the race is swum faster than the first
half.
- Open Water -
Swimming events contested away from the swimming pool, either in
rivers, lakes or the sea.
- Pace - The speed
that corresponds with a race distance, e.g. 1:20 (1 minute 20
seconds) per 100m.
- Qualifying Time
(QT) - A specified time that must be achieved for the
swimmer to enter a competitive event.
- Relay Exchange -
The exchange between the swimmer in the water finishing the leg and
the next swimmer on the relay team. A smooth exchange requires the
finishing swimmer’s hand to touch the touch pad at the same
time as the starting swimmer’s sets off from the starting
block.
- Resistance
swimming - Used as a training method, resistance swimming
is usually used in a confined space to keep the swimmer in one
place, either for stroke analysis, athletic or therapeutic reasons.
Resistance swimming is done either against a stream of water -
known as a swim machine - or by holding the swimmer stationery via
elastic attachments.
- Sculling - A
technique executed for balance or to stay in one place through a
back and forth motion of the hands.
- Shave down - The
act of shaving off body hair just before the race in order to
reduce water drag.
- S-pull pattern -
A technique used in front crawl that requires an outward and inward
sweeping motion of the hand and arms rather than a straight back
motion. This allows the arms to travel a greater distance through
the water and travel further in the stroke.
- Seed- To assign a
swimmer to a heat or lane according to their qualifying time.
- Split times - The
times taken for each individual section of a race.
- Start Position -
The position taken by the swimmer at the beginning of the race. The
swimmer is required to have at least one foot at the front of the
starting block and remain motionless until the start signal sounds.
The most common position has the swimmer bent over, knees bent and
feet shoulder width apart. Some swimmers prefer a track start with
one foot forward and one foot back.
- Stroke Shortening
- To counter the slowing down of a stroke as swimmers begin to
tire, they may increase the frequency of their stroke rate without
increasing their overall speed.
- Stroke Rate - The
amount of time taken to complete a single cycle of a stroke.
- Taper - Reducing
the intensity of training just before a race so that the swimmer
may be fresh and in peak condition for the event.
- Touch - The
finishing point of a race.
- Turnover - The
number of times a swimmer completes one cycle of a stroke during a
race.
- Unofficial time -
The time displayed on a scoreboard or read over the PA system
immediately after a race. After being checked and adjusted (if
necessary), this will become the official time of a swimmer.
- Yardage - The
distance a swimmer races or swims during the totality of their
practice.
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