Swimming and diving 101: terms and rules to know

Swimming and diving are best described as team sports of individuals. That is to say:… Swimming and diving are best described as team sports of individuals. That is to say: swimmers win races; teams win meets.

A dual meet for the aquatics teams usually follows a default order of events, with each race scoring points that eventually comprise the team’s final score.

If a team amasses 121 points, it is guaranteed a win.

Individual races and diving events award nine points for a first-place finish, four for second, three for third, two for fourth and one point for a fifth-place finish.

Relays, races involving teams of four swimmers, confer 11 points for first place, four for second and two for third.

At maximum, three swimmers for each team are allowed to score in any individual event. Two groups of swimmers may score for each team in relays.

In swimming, there are four strokes: the backstroke, breaststroke, butterfly and freestyle.

Backstroke features the swimmer on his or her back with rotating arms and flutter kicking.

Breaststroke is done with the swimmer looking forward, repeatedly pulling and kicking in horizontal circular motions.

In the butterfly, dolphin-like in its arc, the swimmer must extend his or her arms simultaneously forward, keeping legs together and pulsating.

In freestyle events, a swimmer may use any of the other three strokes, but almost always, an athlete chooses the crawl stroke, a stomach-down rhythmic rotation of the arms accompanied by a flutter kick.

A typical dual meet contains 13 events for each gender. Men’s and women’s teams score separately. Usually, women’s events will race before the men.

A meet begins with the 400-yard medley relay. Four swimmers form a team in which each swimmer must swim 100 yards. The first does backstroke, the next breaststroke, followed by the butterfly, and the last swimmer races freestyle.

The meet closes with the 400-yard freestyle relay, in which all four swimmers compete in freestyle.

In between the relays, the teams race in individual competitions that include the 50-, 100-, 200-, 500- and 1,000-yard freestyle races; a 200-yard event in each of the other three strokes; and a 200-yard individual medley, which has one swimmer swimming 50 yards of each stroke in the order of butterfly, backstroke, breaststroke, freestyle.

Divers compete in two events, at heights of one meter and three meters, which take place one-third of the way into the meet and two-thirds into the meet, respectively. Diving is judged by the officials with consideration of difficulty, form and execution in performance.

Divers may be awarded a did-not-finish scoring if they fail to complete any of the characteristics of their predetermined dives.

If an official determines that a swimmer has deviated from the accepted form of each stroke, i.e. flutter kicking in butterfly, the swimmer may be disqualified.

Leaving before a teammate reaches the wall in a relay or missing a wall on a turn can also result in disqualification.

Races begin with either a starting pistol or tone. Swimmers are not allowed to leave their starting blocks before the official starts the race.

Among other actions that result in disqualification are interfering with another team’s lane, either while racing in the adjacent lane or standing on the side of the pool, and having more than one swimmer in a lane for an extended period of time beyond the necessary amount involved with changing racers in a relay.

An individual can compete in no more than three events in a meet.