Competitive events

Competitive swimming races are held all over the world where it has become a popular sports among many nations. The events which will be include in a competitive swimming meet are mostly the same events that you can see in an Olympic event. The lengths of the race and lengths of the pools are depends on the type of event and type of meet. However most of the swimming meets from high school level to national or international level consists of  the four main strokes which described in my previous post. 

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Long Course

Long course is a type of swimming meet where usually main events can be experienced and an Olympic standard 50m pool will be used. Furthermore in this type of meets 50 meters, 100 meters and 200 meters will be the basic distances used and a single is available for each and every stroke (Goldsworthy, 2011). Therefore the four strokes freestyle, backstroke, breaststroke and butterfly has individual events for 50m, 100m and 200m distances. In addition only for freestyle there are 400m races and also in extended races 800m for woman 1500m for men can be seen (Goldsworthy, 2011).

Short Course 

This is another type of swimming meet where short distances comes to action. short course swimming races are usually held in 25 meter length pools and as similarly the major events such as the 50m, 100m and 200m for the four strokes are conducted (Goldsworthy, 2011). Here the main difference is that the swimmers have more turns using tumbles due the short length of the pool and with this under water roll of the tumble turn the swimmer can gain more speed by pushing off from the walls when each lap is completed (Goldsworthy, 2011). 

Individual Medley

This is another event that can be seen mostly in every swimming meet. Individual medley is an interesting event to watch but a hard to swim. This event commonly known as "IM" consist of all four strokes and the swimmer must complete all four in the order of Butterfly, Backstroke, breaststroke and freestyle (Competitive Swim Events, n.d.). Moreover this event is done in 200meters where 50m for each stroke and 400 Meters where 100m for each stroke. 

Relays 

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A relay is where four swimmers will perform as a team. There are two types of relays namely medley relay and freestyle relay where in medley relay the four swimmers will swim the four stroke in order of backstroke, breaststroke, butterfly and freestyle (Competitive Swim Events, n.d.). In freestyle relays all four swimmers will be swimming freestyle and generally the fastest will swim the last lap of the race. Furthermore in relays the swimmers will enter the water after the previous swimmer touch the wall and one swimmer will swim only one lap of the race (Competitive Swim Events, n.d.). 

Open Water

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Open water swimming events are held out doors and it can be in lakes or sea and this is a long distance race where mainly freestyle stroke is used. In this kind of event the competitors have to go through natural conditions such as waves and different temperatures (Goldsworthy, 2011).

How I started competitive events

One of my first meets. I going to start the race in lane 8

Soon after i learned my four main strokes i was enable to participate in school level meets and after a while i entered  national level. My first national level meet was a Novices which we had to pass through to participate in other national level meets. 

When  i first started freestyle was my main and best stroke where i participated in many events and after several years it changed to backstroke and with time to breast stroke as well. During that time i participated almost all the events i described above but giving more space for my main stokes. However relays were the most nicest to swim and most enjoyable events in the list. Usually the meets were always ends with the relays. Here i also like to share some photos of me taken when i was participating in my first Novices meet. 

One of my first relays

Waiting anxiously for the event to start in one of the
first meet i participate in

Reference List

Competitive Swim Events, (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.bluewaveswimteam.com/documents/

           CompetitiveSwimEvents.pdf

Goldsworthy, J. (2011). Types of races in competitive swimming. Retrieved from

           http://www.livestrong.com/article/416582-types-of-races-in-competitive-swimming/