Natural forces affect the movements of swimmers in water. And it is often useful to know how these forces act. This knowledge will help swimming teachers and coaches analyze swimming skills and assist them to understand how these forces influence movement, so that they can encourage beginners to be better swimmers or good swimmers to achieve there optimum potential. Biomechanics is the branch of science that is concerned with understanding the relationship between a living body's structure and function relative to movement. In this paper the swimming form of the front crawl stroke will be analyzed, which may result in improvement in the following areas:
· Improving performance
· Preventing injury
· Correcting weaknesses
· Identifying ways to alter human movement patterns
"Biomechanics is considered to be the physics of how the body moves. When these physical principles are applied to sports skills it becomes an integrated study between the internal forces produced by the body and the naturally occurring external forces that act on the body as skills are executed (Carr, 1997, p4.)". Although the final quality of movement will totally depend upon the athlete's (swimmer's) ability to integrate both internal forces generated by muscular actions with the external forces of gravity, buoyancy, fiction and mass that are present during swimming.
When looking at swimming one must first look at how the human body acts and generates forces in water. "Water is a unique environment. It possesses qualities that will assist the swimmer, but it also has qualities that will impede the swimmer's progress through the water. For instance, the water's density provides a buoyant force for the swimmer, while at the same time providing resistance to the swimmers propulsion (?????, 1995, p42)".
Topics to continue with: Main principles and their application
Density
Water Resistance
Skin/Frictiona...