Swim Lingo

Ascending – Getting slower (i.e. the time taken increases).

BC – Backcrawl or Backstroke or Back

BR – Breaststroke sometimes also BS or Breast

Breast – Breaststroke

Catch-up – Drill where on FC one hand stays at full stretch ahead until the other meets it then it begins the stroke

Descending – Getting faster (i.e. the time taken reduces)

Dolphin Kick – Simultaneous leg kick used in Butterfly

DPS – Distance Per Stroke

Drag – Drill where on FC fingertips drag through the water on the recovery (also known as trickle)

Drill – A controlled form of stroke designed to draw attention to a particular aspect of that stroke: Catch-Up, Drag, Salute, Elbows High, Zip-up, Doggy Paddle, Duck, and many more

Easy – Usually swim down or warm-up, a slow easy stroke focusing on stretching out the stroke and warming up or down.

Elbows High – Drill where as it sounds on FC you keep the elbows bent and high out of the water on the recovery

Fly – Butterfly occasionally BF

FR – Freestyle or Free (normally Frontcrawl, but any stroke will do as long as you can maintain speed)

Freestyle – Normally Frontcrawl, but any stroke will do as long as you can maintain speed

IM – Individual Medley (all four strokes together in order Butterfly, Backstroke, Breaststroke and Frontcrawl)

Kick – Legs only (no pulling)

Kickboard – A flat float used for doing kick 

Long Course – 50m pool (term used for describing competitions)

Masters – Name used for our category of adult swimming at Meets

Medley – All four strokes swum in a specified order  

Medley Order – Butterfly, Back, Breast, Free, Medley Relay Order is always Back, Breast, Fly, Free

Pull – Arms only (no kicking)

Pull Buoy – The figure of eight style float that goes between your legs for pull 

Set – A self-contained part of the swimming session as ‘set’ by the coach e.g. a ‘main set’ might be 10 x 100m free

Short Course – 25m pool (a term used for describing competitions)

Sprint – All out as fast as you can go, breathing as little as you can

Steady – Swimming at a pace which is easily maintained (not easy or too hard, aiming for consistency of pace)

Streamline – Underwater body position after diving or pushing off the wall which maximizes swim speed and efficiency

Stroke – The stroke you are completing (usually not FC)

Stroke Count – Number of strokes per 25m or 50m (FC and BC every 2 arm pulls – a cycle – BR and Fly every stroke) abbreviated as SC

Stroke Rate – Number of strokes per minute (measured by stopwatch or calculation) abbreviated as SR

U/W – Underwater (usually refers to kicking, using Dolphin kick)

Yards – distance of the pool (25 yards)