Swimming is a physical activity and sport where a person enters a body of water and uses arm and leg movement to advance in a certain direction. This activity is most commonly practiced in a swimming pool, but can also be done in open-water such as a lake or the ocean. There are different styles of swimming that offer variations of the movements of the arms and legs. Swimming also offers many health-benefits for the swimmer and is highly adaptable for different physical conditions and training needs. It is a natural ability that is somewhat innate to humans but can easily be lost without practice. Swimming can be relearned at any age and can be enjoyed by any age group and any level of physical fitness.
Swimming uses all muscle groups in the body to move across the water, which makes it an excellent activity to build and maintain physical fitness. The movements for swimming can be performed at a very leisurely pace or can offer a great deal of challenge for advanced athletes. The level of exertion is based on the swimmer’s speed as well as the style of movement used. The faster one moves across the water, the more muscles are required to work, the more oxygen is needed, and the more the heart rate is accelerated. Therefore, swimming works the muscles, the heart and increases stamina.
Different styles of swimming include the breast stroke, the crawl, and the butterfly, as well as the reversed version of all of these. All styles, except reversed, are executed lying face-down on the water’s surface. The reversed styles are practice lying back on the water, looking up at the sky/ceiling. The breast-stroke and crawl can be performed with the swimmer’s head held out of the water, making breathing easier for some. However, all styles are more effective with the head held in line with the rest of the body, mostly submersed, and popped up, or rotated to the side only to take a single breath as needed. Effective breathing for swimmers takes time to develop but quickly becomes second-nature when practiced regularly. Swimming is a very beneficial activity that is accessible to all levels of fitness. Thanks to the buoyancy of water, the force of gravity is immensely reduced, therefore making swimming a very low-impact sport. This is what makes it so accessible to everyone. Swimming causes no damage to joints and bones and the risk of muscle injury is very low. It is a great activity for rehabilitation after surgery or injury, it is effective for cross-training, it can be done by individuals with physical conditions that do not allow them to perform many other activities that pose threats of injury, and it is also a great activity during pregnancy. Swimming can also easily be adapted to individuals who have reduced movement of certain limbs or even amputations.
It has been observed that when very young infants are placed in a pool of water, they naturally move in a way that allows them to swim. Therefore, swimming seems to be a somewhat innate ability that we humans possess. However, many do not hone this instinctual skill from a young age and therefore lose their swimming ability by the time they are grown. By no means does this mean that their skill is lost for good. In fact, even people who become fearful of water can learn to swim with relatively little effort. Once a person becomes comfortable in the water’s environment and learns the basics of breathing in a controlled way, the rest is a matter of practice. Swimming requires nothing else but your own muscles, and a large enough area of water.
Though swimming is relatively injury-free compared to some other activities, it poses a set of dangers with regards to a watery environment. Pools are preferred by most for their predictability and safety. Swimmers do not need to pay attention to changing environments when swimming in a pool because it is a very controlled environment when it comes to the water’s depth, its temperature, and its surface. There is also often a lifeguard on duty patrolling the relatively small area occupied by the pool. However, it is the swimmer’s responsibility to know their limits and to watch out for warning signs. There are always marked indications of the water’s depth along the side of the pool, visible even while swimming. If a person is not comfortable in deep water, they must avoid accidentally swimming into a deep area of the pool. The pool’s depth also needs to be taken into account when jumping head-first into the water, otherwise known as diving. It is usually not recommended to dive head-first into a swimming pool, except pools that are built for this purpose. It is potentially fatal to hit your head diving towards the bottom of a concrete pool head first. Instead, swimmers should use the pool's stairs or ladders, or gently lower themselves into the water from the edge of the pool.When swimming in open-water, like a lake or the ocean, many other safety variables come into play. Being an open, natural environment, these swimming waters are strongly and arbitrarily affected by Mother Nature. When swimming outdoors in a natural environment, swimmers must be careful to watch out for changes in the lake or ocean floor causing random drop offs into deeper waters. They must also be aware of the water temperature as not all seemingly inviting waters are adequately warm for swimming. Cold water can quickly cause hypothermia and can affect the swimmer’s ability to use their muscles to swim to safety. Other safety factors include wave breaks, wind and tide levels, especially in ocean water, rocky floor surfaces, harmful wildlife in the water, as well as always keeping track of the shore and having a way out. Neglecting any of these variables can result in seriously injury and even death.
Overall, when safety is taken into account, swimming can be a very enjoyable and satisfying activity that can be practiced at many levels of difficulty, as well as by any age group and level of fitness. It is a sport that stands out among others and any swimmer would encourage others to give it a try!
Bibliography
Personal knowledge
images:
shuttershock.com
visboo.com
Overall, when safety is taken into account, swimming can be a very enjoyable and satisfying activity that can be practiced at many levels of difficulty, as well as by any age group and level of fitness. It is a sport that stands out among others and any swimmer would encourage others to give it a try!
Bibliography
Personal knowledge
images:
shuttershock.com
visboo.com
You did a great job of introducing your topic. You were concise when defining what swimming is, and you nicely prepared your reader for what they would read. Your first two paragraphs are organized very well, without a lot of superfluous information. However, as you continue on, the paragraphs begin to lack structure. For example, your first paragraph is only about the athletic component of swimming, while your second paragraph is about the different styles of swimming. Then, as I continued to read, I noticed that your paragraphs include multiple topics. For instance, your last paragraph combines swimming with diving- this is the first time diving was addressed in your piece. Perhaps you could have mentioned diving along with other water activities, such as synchronized swimming, to effectively convey your point of how safe a person needs to be around water. When considering this feedback, keep in mind what your goal was with the last paragraph. What exactly were you trying to convey? Were your successful?
ReplyDeleteAdditionally, your piece is written from different points of view. It switches from first person, to second person point of view. For example, the sentence “swimming requires nothing else but your own muscles, our willingness, and a large enough area of water” is confusing to the reader because you use words such as “your” and “our”. Do these words influence the reader to be more or less biased while reading your piece? Also, the sentence “it is simply fatal to hit your head…” could be rewritten to read “a blow to the head as a result of diving into an unsafe body of water could be potentially fatal.”
Nice job overall with your piece.
From: Rebecca Slotta
This writing was very nicely worded, with a lot of descriptions and examples how swimming
ReplyDeleteIs good for you, which is written very effectively in this post. It contains a lot of things people might not be familiar with about swimming, like the affect gravity has on us in water and out of. The writing at first glance might look long and intimidating to read, but as you get started it leaves the reader wanting more. I think it might be effective if this post had pictures to show the different styles of swimming and other key things people might want to be shown, which would engage the audience even further prior to what it already does. Also maybe breaking the text into different layers might be effective also, because the way it looks now, meaning how lengthy it looks might intimidate the reader, so having this text broken down into different sections would not only fix the flow, but also the impact the writing would leave. I like how the ending is, because prior to the ending it tells us how swimming is effective and safe and stuff like that, but you end the post with the dangers swimming has which I believe to be effective and necessary because some people might not take account that swimming can turn into a deadly sport in matter of seconds.
First off, I really enjoyed how your background design ties in with your topic, it definitely enhanced the post with the visual in the background!
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed how your post was organized. I thought it was broken up nicely, and each paragraph stayed on topic for the most part. I would maybe take another look at the last paragraph, as someone else already mentioned. Do you think that paragraph can be broken up into two?
I liked that you approached the topic from different angles. For example, you talked about how some people think the sport is dangerous, but then you talked about the safety in places such as the pool. I thought that kept your article seem free of any bias.
Lastly, I would recommend working on a stronger conclusion. The ending sentence, "Neglecting any of these variables can result in seriously injury and even death," kind of ends things very abruptly. I think if you brought your topic back around and sort of closed things with a broader idea, this post would be very good!
Hi Orsolya,
ReplyDeleteI thought this article was very good and very informative! I liked that you started off with explaining the sport, then went into how the positions are and finally that you explained about the bodies of water and actually putting swimming to use.
A question I have though is should we consider our personal experiences when developing our blog texts? I wasn't sure if you were trying to relate this to other people or if it was specifically an informative piece.
Also, I figure you did, but Did you have personal knowledge of the topic before researching it? Many people know what swimming is and many people know how to do it, but not everyone knows the strokes well. I swam on a swim team for years and loved it and really learned. Did you also swim competitively or just for fun? You could mention competitive swimming and even mention famous swimmers(Michael Phelps). Overall though, I think you did a great job!