How to Swim an Individual Medley (IM)

Ever hear some say they swan an IM and you had no idea what they were talking about? IM stands for individual medley. This is when a swimmer does each stoke in a certain order.

Difficulty: Moderate

Instructions

1. The order must be butterfly, backstroke, breaststroke the freestyle. However the length of an IM could change.

2. A 100 IM is 4 laps...1 of each stroke stated above in that order.
   
   A 200 IM is 8 laps...2 of each stroke in that order.
   
   A 400 IM is 16 laps...4 of each stroke. Beginning with 4 laps butterfly and so on.

3. When swimmers compete in a medley relay each one takes a different stroke. Even though a relay could be any of the distances listed above the order changes. The order for the medley relay I'd backstroke, breaststroke, butterfly, freestyle. The reason for this is due to backstroker's must start in the water and to do this in the middle of a relay is impossible. Therefore the backstroker’s begin in the water and go first. Everyone else begins off the starting block in a dive.