Butterfly and Breaststroke
The two strokes I have chosen for my paper are the butterfly and breaststroke. The reason I chose these strokes is that they seemed pretty different and I wanted to see if they had a lot of similarities. The reason I think they are so different is because the breaststroke is easy for beginners to do and the butterfly seems to be much more difficult and taxing on your body. I will now show you the differences and similarities of these strokes.
The body position for the breaststroke is a prone position and is symmetrical, meaning both sides of the body do the same thing at the same time. Like the breaststroke, the butterfly stroke is also done in a prone position and is symmetrical. Both strokes are done on the stomach and while doing them you should be nearly horizontal in both. Although in the butterfly you shouldn’t be too flat because this would raise your hips, legs, and feet to the surface of the water, making coming up for a breath more difficult. In the butterfly, your head should be aligned with your neck and spine. The breaststroke is done in a similar fashion to the butterfly because you want as little movement as possible in your neck and shoulders.
The kicks for the breaststroke and the butterfly are greatly different but still have some similarities. In the butterfly stroke you do the dolphin kick, while in the breaststroke you do the breaststroke kick. The dolphin kick is done with your legs together and makes a whip-like motion. The breaststroke kick also makes a whip-like motion but is done with one leg at a time. Although, your legs do come together for a short period of time in the breaststroke kick, which is during the pattern of up, out, then together. Another difference in the kicks are your feet, knees, and ankles. In the dolphin kick your knees and ankles must be relaxed, while in the breaststroke kick you have to flex your feet and and turn them outward. The dolphin kick uses all your back and...