The crawl stroke consists of a sequence of alterating pulling strokes with the arms in turn accompanied by a fluttering motion of the legs and feet. Twice the total number of complete cycles of the leg movements is called the number of beats of the crawl. Although at first sight any number of beats, integral or otherwise, is possible, in practice one finds that the six-beat crawl far outstrips all others in popularity. In order to account for tnis, I refer first to the mechanics of the situation.
© Copyright 1971 First International Symposium on "Biomechanics and Swimming, Waterpolo and Diving", 14-16 September 1970. Proceedings. Published by Universite Libre de Bruxelles; Laboratoire de l'effort. All rights reserved.