# Everybody Plays!

# Swimming

Paralympic symbol

Swimming is done in a swimming pool, lake, or ocean. There are four competitive swimming strokes: front crawl (freestyle), back crawl, breaststroke, and butterfly. To swim the front crawl, swimmers lie in the water on their stomachs and alternate kicking their legs and propelling their arms. To swim the back crawl, swimmers do the same thing but on their backs. To swim breaststroke, swimmers glide through the water with their arms and legs extended, making their body like an arrow. Next, swimmers push their arms down and sideways to chest level, close their arms to a prayer position, and then extend the arms again to the starting glide position. At the same time, they bend their knees and bring their feet toward their bottom, kick their legs out, and then push their legs together into the starting glide position. To swim butterfly, swimmers move both their arms back, up, and forward at the same time, making big circles. They hold their legs together and kick as if they have one leg. This is called a dolphin kick.

A girl swims with a swimming noodle under her arms. Her coach is next to her.

A girl holds onto her coach's forearms and practices putting her face in the water.

Some swimmers count strokes to determine when they reached the end wall; other swimmers set up a lawn sprinkler at the end of the pool so it sprays on them when they reach the end of the pool; and still others have a friend or coach tap their back or shoulder with a long, thin pole that has a ball on the end.