I had expressed casual interest in WSI to my lifeguard instructor. We discussed it and she seemed to be very annoyed when I didn’t know the 6 strokes. I swam competitively for 5 years and I was really confused what the additional 2 were.
I probably sounded like an idiot and now I’m embarrassed but I didn’t know that sidestroke and elementary backstroke were official strokes. Is this really that embarrassing - I had no idea that was a thing but I guess it makes sense?
I would feel zero embarrassment. There’s no Olympic medal for sidestroke…
Marlow said:
I would feel zero embarrassment. There’s no Olympic medal for sidestroke…
THAT’S why I didn’t make the Olympics!
Marlow said:
I would feel zero embarrassment. There’s no Olympic medal for sidestroke…
There should be. I am a really fantastic sidestroker.
Marlow said:
I would feel zero embarrassment. There’s no Olympic medal for sidestroke…
There should be. I am a really fantastic sidestroker.
I’m sidestroking right now.
Also, Boomer Breaststroke where you take up an entire lane, and complain that the water is too cold, and say everyone needs to stop splashing, and how terrible kids are these days.
Bay said:
Also, Boomer Breaststroke where you take up an entire lane, and complain that the water is too cold, and say everyone needs to stop splashing, and how terrible kids are these days.
I have never heard it called Boomer Breaststroke, but that is now a permanent part of my vocabulary. (And I am only 1 year away from being classified as a boomer)
@Jonas
Boomer as in “baby boomer”? Isn’t all of that generation talk about the year when you’re born? Sorry “Gen X” but not sorry. Real boomers are like 70 and still around, and anyone who lived through life that long shouldn’t have their category confused. Those old gnarly pricks lived through a lot more than us to talk shit.
Bay said:
Also, Boomer Breaststroke where you take up an entire lane, and complain that the water is too cold, and say everyone needs to stop splashing, and how terrible kids are these days.
You must go to my pool.
@Dru
I have worked at about a half dozen pools. It’s always the same.
Bay said:
Also, Boomer Breaststroke where you take up an entire lane, and complain that the water is too cold, and say everyone needs to stop splashing, and how terrible kids are these days.
We call it the Vitruvian Man stroke after the da Vinci drawing.
Not embarrassing at all, there’s probably a few others as well like ‘survival’, ‘combat’ and ‘rescue’ strokes. I taught myself sidestroke from a book when I was quite young and still like using it all the time now.
I was a longtime competitive swimmer, lifeguard, swim instructor, and held WSI. I absolutely would not have answered this question correctly!
Carson said:
I was a longtime competitive swimmer, lifeguard, swim instructor, and held WSI. I absolutely would not have answered this question correctly!
This makes me feel so much better. She did not seem happy when I didn’t know the answer so I was just really confused. Bizarre.
@Jonah
It’s been a while, but now that I’m thinking about it, I do vaguely remember something about this coming up in my WSI class. The instructor made a joke like 'now is when we confuse all the swimmers in the class and tell you guys there are actually 6 strokes and not just 4’. Like, they definitely knew it was a test question we would have otherwise gotten wrong.
What about dog paddle??
Ellery said:
What about dog paddle??
One of my favorites~
When I was a WSIT for the Red Cross the other two strokes taught in Learn to Swim were sidestroke and elementary backstroke. Since elementary backstroke barely counts as a stroke that’s a weird thing to get mad about.
We used to teach the trudgeon and double trudgeon (old versions of freestyle) to instructor candidates. Ask her to demonstrate those.
Since elementary backstroke barely counts as a stroke
It’s a weird thing to get mad about certainly. But why does elementary backstroke ‘barely count as a stroke’? It’s quite different from backstroke. It’s also commonly taught to beginning swimmers, at least in the regions I’m familiar with, so it isn’t niche.
@Kaius
I had no idea I was doing an actual stroke when I get tired! I thought it was just something I did from muscle memory as a child! I feel more official.