Water ballet
Introduction
Water ballet, also called synchronized swimming is a water sport that requires flexibility, agility, precise timing, and holding breath underwater. This sport is performed mostly by women and shows choreographed moves in the water. It is a combination of dance and gymnastics that take place underwater. In 1984, water ballet became an official Olympic competition.
Basic Parts
The competition consists of two parts:
- Technical exercise
- Free exercise
The judge judges the technical and artistic quality of the routines performed by the swimmers and gives them points with a maximum of 10 in total. The swimmers can get penalized if they touch the bottom of the pool or if they hold the edges.
Rules
All participants in water ballet must perform a freestyle routine and a combined routine. For individual swimmers, they perform 7 mandatory routines for 2 minutes. When they perform in pairs, they must perform 9 routines with a margin of 10 seconds. When team competitions are held, they need to perform 19 different elements, a circular formation, and a straight line within 2 minutes. Lastly, for the freestyle routine, the swimmers have 6 and 8 minutes. Some things to be cautious about is the swimmers cannot be out of the water for more than 10 seconds and cannot touch the bottom of the pool.
Location
For water ballet, competitions are held in 10 10-meter-long long by 3-meter wide pools and with a minimum depth of 1.8 meters. In the Olympic games, however, the depth is 3 and 2.5 meters.
Work cited
Solis, K T . “What Is Water Ballet? (with Pictures).” Sports N’ Hobbies, 23 May 2024, www.sportsnhobbies.org/what-is-water-ballet.htm#:~:text=Water%20ballet%20is%20the%20original%20term%20for%20synchronized. Accessed 25 May 2024.
Briceño V., Gabriela. (2019). Synchronized swimming. Recovered on 23 February, 2024, de Euston96: https://www.euston96.com/en/synchronized-swimming/