(1) The Biomechanics of the Butterfly Stroke

The aim of this assignment is to quantitatively and qualitatively research the optimal biomechanics for a sport skill that will be reported with our findings using an online blog. The sport skill that has been chosen for this blog is the butterfly stroke. 

The Butterfly Stroke is a swimming stroke that is swum on the breast while both of the arms moving simultaneously and then it is followed by the “dolphin” kick. This stroke is different to the other three swimming strokes as the butterfly stroke is the most difficult on for beginners to learn. 

The purpose of this skill is to move one’s body position in the water while trying to be as successful and effective when continuously executing the skill in order to minimize the time interval. So the fastest to complete the distance in a competitive race wins.

The butterfly stroke is possibly the most challenging and demanding swimming stroke compared to freestyle, breaststroke and backstroke as the butterfly stroke is very complex and is tiring and difficult to produce (Barbosa, Fernandes, Morouco, P & Vilas-Boas, 2008). This stroke can be broken down to four phases, the catch phase, front sweep, back sweep and recovery. This blog will look further into the biomechanics of these four physical phases. In a swimmers perspective there is also the four swimming phases of the starting phase, swimming phase, turning and finishing phase.  These phases can be seen in diagram 1

Diagram 1. This diagram shows the simulations movements of the swimmers body submerged and propelled above the water coupled with arm rotations, hip flexes and leg kicks that accelerate the swimmer through the water.

The butterfly swimmers arms, legs and torso are a continuous and simultaneous movement that requires the swimmer to have significant upper body strength, correct use of technique that keeps the body balanced and generates maximum effort and momentum. As well as body preparation all joints in the kinetic chain simultaneously extend in a single movement creating higher cumulative forces and torque that results in higher overall force. By looking at this sporting skill this blog can break down and look at a swimmers swimming position, velocity and acceleration through technique as well as Biomechanical qualities that optimise the swimmers performance while in the water are fluid dynamic and hydrodynamic –Drags and Hydrodynamic propulsion and the Bernoulli effect (Blazevich, 2012).

Both videos below show and demonstrate the biomechanics of the butterfly stroke. Through simultaneous movements of the arms, legs, breathing and body to counter balance each other to provide propulsion. Both videos give different perspectives of the biomechanics and techniques of the butterfly stroke (Butterfly Technique, 2016, Basic butterfly stroke technique, 2016).
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