Individual Medley

By
Adam McGuire

!
!

Table of Contents
!
!
!
!
Introduction to Swimming and its History ..3

The individual Medley - The four stroke

The Butterfly..4
The backstroke.5
The Breast stroke.6
The Front crawl.7&8
Stroke Technique

More than a swimmer

Individuals involved in making champions..9&10
Coaches.11

Who Inspires you12

!
Conclusion..13

!
!

About the author16

Glossary

!
!
!
!
!
!

!
!

Introduction To Swimming

Training for swimming competitions takes a lot of determination, practice

and commitment. If you can compete against the clock, the noise, the other
swimmers, and the records held in each swim meet, swimming competitively
may be for you. Most people just swim for pleasure. Those who swim to
compete, learn the Individual Medley. The individual medley is a mix of four
different swimming styles. It is swum by one person. The swimmer must
swim equal distances of four different strokes. The strokes are in the
following order;!

The Butterfly!
The Backstroke!
The Breaststroke!
Freestyle/Front Crawl!

Prior to 1952 the Individual medley had only three strokes. The Butterfly
was not included, it was considered a variation on the breaststroke and not
a stroke in its own right.

The Individual medley is considered difficult

because of its combination of four different strokes, making it mentally

challenging as well as physically challenging. One of the most difficult things
about it is learning to pace yourself.

!
!

The Butterfly
!
Considered by most swimmers as the most difficult stroke to master.
Technique is crucial to the success of this stroke. Many successful flyers
are broad chested and have very strong upper body strength.

It is

physically exhausting over long distances and if technique is incorrect

dangerous on a swimmers neck.!

!
!

Technique!
Good technique is crucial to swim this stroke effectively. The wave like ,
dolphin body movement is crucial to its success.Your little finger comes first
out of the water at the same time you do your leg motion. !

Little finger comes first

Neck doest move

Hip moves up
and down

The Backstroke
!
Considered by many non competitive swimmers the easier stroke because
of the ability to breathe.

Many swimmers however find it difficult in a

competition because of the lack of visibility, the absolutes need to know

how many strokes it takes you to do 50, 100, etc meters. The pressure on
the underarm for many inexperienced swimmers is exhausting.!

!
!

Technique!
Thumb comes out off the water first and then twist your hand so it has its
little finger first. Dont let your head move and move your shoulders from
side to side. The trick is to not to bring your hands to your ears. !

bending arm for

more glide

Big gap means her

hand wont be next to
her ear

Twisting from
thumb to pinky

Breaststroke
!
Many recreational swimmers swim the breaststroke with their heads out of
water at all times concentrating on legs and arms. People learning to swim
learn front crawl and breaststroke first to help to master the breathing
technique.!

!
!

Technique!
Hands always come out of the water and at the same time to kick when hands
move forward to glide. Bring your legs to your bum and bend your feet.!

!
!

neck doest move

Hands
come out of
the water

Dont have to go this hig

anymore

!
!

Front Crawl
Front crawl is where a swimmer has freedom in his style of swimming the
stroke used freely. In most competitive and non competitive swimming it is
the front crawl chosen. This is now the reason freestyle is used to refer to
the front crawl.!

Freestyle is the most popular competition style!

100m (individual medley)!
200m (individual medley)!
400m (individual medley)!
800m (distance)!
1500m (distance)!
4x50 (medley relay

!
!

Technique!
Freestyle allows many different styles of swimming. You can swim straight
arms in the air or swim straight arms on your side meaning close to the
water or the last one is bend your arms so your finger tips are the only one
touching the water. There is one rule you must always do the same

pull

under the water. Your legs do a up and down motion called the flutter kick
so always try to keep feet as close to the water as possible. Most people
use the stander front crawl.!

put one eye in the water

skim water with

finger tips

!
!
!
!

!
!
!

!
!

More than the Swimmer.

In all the swim meets, competitions, Olympics, Championships there are
more than the swimmer involved in winning medals, setting records,
breaking records, or being disqualified. Officials are needed to manage the
competitions. With the individual medley the official are even more
important because as mentioned earlier it is so physically tiring and mentally
difficult to maintain, mistakes can be made by swimmers or small cheats
used to gain small advantages.
disqualified, known as DQ.

If a swimmer breaks a rule he is

The swim time is not considered valid but still

recorded. The following are the people involved in a swimmer winning a

medal;!

Referee!
Authority over all officials. They take all the responsibility for running the
race, making sure the rules of FINA are carried out, making decisions on any
other officials decisions. They call the swimmers to the blocks, blows the
whistle to: (a)call to compete(b)mount the blocks(c)get into the start
position.!
Starter!
The persons who takes charge of swimmers after the referee hands over
the swimmers to them. This is the person who blows the start whistle.!
TimeKeepers!
There are usually two per lane. One timing with a stopwatch and wine timing
down the time they then compare times to validate its the swimmers
correct time.!

!
Inspector of turns!
One for each lane at the the end of the pool watching turns and any false
turns are reported to the judge of turns.!
Judges of turns!
This person is located at the side of the pool. They move up and down the
lane alongside the swimmer ensuring all rules for the type of swim style
being swam. The judge of turns is very important for the the Individual
medley swimmer, as the swimmer must remember the rules for four
different styles of swim.!
Finish Judge!
This person is at the end of the lane and looks to see that each swimmer
ends correctly for example two hands simultaneously for breaststroke and
butterfly, on the back with hand reached backwards, and one hand for
freestyle.!
Clerk of Course!
This is the person who assembles swimmers prior to each event and is
responsible for seeding swimmers into heats based on their times. If it is
your first competition it is assumed you are slow and you are seeded with
the slowest start group.!

!
!
!
!
!
!
!

!
Coaches and Clubs!
Coaches are very important to the swimmer.

Coaches are up daily for

5-6am daily morning workouts, and sometimes have to hold down other
jobs. They are there for evening workouts. Coaches must constantly study
the changes in swimming techniques, FINA rules, swim meets times places.
They must often fight for pool time, plan workouts. They must also know
what each individual swimmer in his group/club are capable of for swim
meets.

They have to know how to motivate, commiserate, and boost

swimmers before and after all competitions. Coaches not only have to work
with the swimmer, but also other coaches, lifeguards, parents, and schools.!
A coach must always come to training with a good attitude, ready to train,
ready to discipline, ready to argue, ready to motivate, ready to listen and
ready to counsel all swimmers they are working with.!
When a swimmer takes to the blocks with their heart thumping with
adrenalin a coach sits to the side feeling the same adrenalin. When a
swimmer wins, they stand on the podium and receive the medal the coach
feels the same pride the swimmer feels but no medal to take home. When a
swimmer fails, a coach feels failure to, when a swimmer false starts or is
disqualified the coach feels disappointment to.

A coach must have a

passion for swimming also to train another swimmer to win.!

!
!

Who Inspires you.

!
Every swimmer at a given time is always inspired
by the best swimmer at that time. Michael Phelps
stated that he was inspired as a boy by all time
record holder Mark Spitz. I am a swimmer and
am motivated by my world champion Michael
Phelps.

Conclusion
Swimming is a wonderful leisure activity with many health benefits. It is
something all ages can learn to do.

Learning to swim is something

you learn for life. Once you know how to swim you never forget.
Swimming is used my many different athletes to keep fit, recover
from injury or improve stamina.!

!
Swimming is also a competitive sport. The first drawings of swimming can
be found on cave drawings over 10,000 years ago. With competitive
swimming there is much discipline and commitment needed as most
training happens very early in the mornings and again in the evenings
leaving very little time for other sports or activities!

!
The Individual Medley is used to train and compete in competitive swimming
and is considered the most difficult swimming because of the physical
endurance needed by swimmers and the mental commitment as it is
four strokes, with four rules on each stroke for a swimmer to
remember and be very good at. !

!
However for non competition swimming the Individual Medley can be used
as a training method in keeping fit as it allows all the muscle groups to
be used. It also allows for many different types of breathing methods
to be used.!

!
!

Glossary
FINA is the swimming law makers, they make all the rules
for swimming, diving, water polo and all the other sports
involving water. It will always make rules for every stroke
and ensure they are applied at all swim meets,
International

competitions,

European

Championships,

Olympics. FINA representatives are present at the

Olympics and European champions to

help officials

ensure the standards are being met correctly.!

!
Dolphin kick- Is a kick that is the most difficult kick it uses all your stomach
muscles and like a dolphin tale it never stops when you train you must do it
hard !
Flutter kick - its like your walking with your stomach your stomach ripples
in and out, the trick is to not stop taking small kicks with your feet all the
time.!
keep one eye in the water - is a swim saying coaches say a lot. It actually
means with your eye skim the water if you dont and keep your eye in the
water you swallow water which is not pleasant!
Mark Spitz- is the all time record holder and won 16 medals in total he is the
all time swimming star not Michael Phelps who has won lots more medals
than him 22 medals but does not hold as any records as Mark Spitz. He
made 8 world records!!!

Technique - Technique is in this case how well you swim; your hand
movement, timing on the breast stroke or flip turn on the back.

It is the

method of swimming so that all rules are adhered to and that your style and
stamina is in harmony.

Technique is crucial on difficult strokes like the

!
butterfly. To succeed in the Individual Medley your technique for each of the
four strokes must be perfect only then can you work on speed.!

!
Flyer is the term given to the swimmer who is the person swimming the
Butterfly on the relay team, or perhaps it is the person whose best times
are in the butterfly. It does not refer to a swimmers speed or being in fact
the fastest swimmer.!

One of the relay teams of Michael Phelps !

Mark spitz relay team

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

!
My name is Adam McGuire. I am 10 years old. I am Irish, I was born in
Germany where I lived for two years. I lived in Switzerland for seven
years. I have been swimming since I was four years old. I started to
train with a swim development club in Switzerland when I was seven
years old, to train for competitions. I had my first competition when I
was nine and started to establish a time rating, and achieved my licence
to compete. When I was nine I moved to Poland. I currently swim with
my schools swim development team and am hoping to make the middle
school team next year.

In Poland I hope to find a swim club, continue my training and get my

licence to compete again. Swimming is my passion. I do it for fun, for
recreation and to compete. I can not imagine not knowing how to swim!

The individual medley is what I currently use to train, build stamina

and work on my times for. It allows me to establish times in all four
main strokes while working on my pace.

I hope you have enjoyed a quick look and swimming and the Individual
medley.

!
!
!

Adam