There are four regulation strokes in competitive swimming.

The Four Regulation Strokes

  • Freestyle (front crawl in practice for races).
  • Backstroke, swum on the back with an alternating arm action and flutter kick.
  • Breaststroke, with simultaneous arm pull and frog-style kick, plus strict timing rules.
  • Butterfly, with simultaneous arm recovery over the water and a dolphin kick.

These four are the only strokes used as official, regulated strokes in major competitions like the Olympics and World Aquatics events, and they are also the strokes combined in individual medley races.

Mini FAQ

Q: Aren’t there more than four ways to swim?
Yes, there are many other techniques (like sidestroke), but only these four are recognized as official race strokes under modern competitive rules.

Q: What about “freestyle” – isn’t that any stroke?
Technically you can use any stroke in a freestyle event, but swimmers almost always use the front crawl because it is the fastest.

Information gathered from public forums or data available on the internet and portrayed here.