Baxter O’Neill Discusses Arm Movements

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXXII, 31 December 1938, Page 4

Baxter O’Neill Discusses Arm Movements

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IF you have been following fully the instructions given in the previous chapters you should, by this time, be feeling quite at home in the water. If you are able to glide, ami to keep that foot flutter going vigorously during the glide, well, you are swimming, But, so far, you are not using your arms, and you are not yet able to breathe. 8o your actual swimming exploits are of brief duration. Before you will l>e able to breathe in the water it will be necessary that you should use your arms. Start, as previously, with the glide from the side of the bath, using the foot flutter. But, instead of keeping the arms at full stretch in front of you as you have been doing so far, sweep first one and then the other arm back. The. sweep is straight down under your body and back to the hip. (See Figure* 14.) It docs not much matter which arm you move first. Keep the body trunk quite straight while you make the sweep with the arms. ' Do not stretch the arms. Just take the full, natural reach of the arm. Move one arm after the other, down under the body, out of tin* water at the hip and forward through the air to the starting position readv for the next stroke. There is no pause in the movements of the arms. Just keep them going, windmill fashion, one after the other. This action is just the start, of the arm stroke. There are a lot of improvements you will have to make later. My object in the meantime is just to get your arm* moving. Thin first arm stroke—eall it, the “windmill stroke”—is not elegant. The arms are just swung round and round, being kept quite straight. Try that. What has been happenin'* to vour feet all this time? Tn very many eases, ar* woon as a bov starts his arms moving he forgets all about his feet. Result, the flutter stops, ami down sink his feet. Rememlior that the foot flutter never stops. l Some people find it very hard to keen the foot flutter going while

the arms are moving. Well, you must ju*t practise until you can* do it. Like most other tilings it is ■ perfectly simple when you know j how. It is impossible to do the I arm stroke pro|ierly unless the body j i

is lying Hat along the surface of the 1 water. The body will not lie flat on j the water unless the feet are kept l up. So, remember your feet and nee ! that the flutter never atopa while you j. are trying the “windmill stroke.” |

So far. you are etill doing all your work with your fare in the water. So you are etill able to practise tbo movements only for a few momenta at a time, taking plenty of rests to get your breath back. Once yo«

F,«. 14 ‘•‘l. *•« <>"»«-’ aim. nut; ill", „,d the eame time keep the foot flutter going, you will be ready for tliat n.xt Mage, which i- designed to bring your face out of the water -<> that you can breathe. Remember at the outlet, and always remember, the head must not Ik* lifted out of the general line of tlie body. \ou must bring your lace out of the water by rolling your laxly and by twiating the neck.* but you must never raise your head. At the outset it is advisable to do an exaggerated roll with the "windmill stroke.” Later this roll will be greatlv modified, but in the meantime you will need qtiiie a good roll. Hie purpose of thie roll is to bring sufficient of your face out of the water to permit you to breathe. Proceed thus: As the right arm makes its «w«ep through the water roll on to the right side. As the right arm finishes its »lr<»ke rol! lwck till you are flat on the water again. The left arm will be beginning it* sweep a* the right arm finishes, so you will continue the body roll on to the loft side a* the * r,, L mfl hes its sweep. (See Thus, the body rol la from side to -ide to the light as the right arm stroke is made, and to the left a* the left arm stroke i*. made. JuM an of flu* arms, so there is no pause in the volt It is just a regular roll trom able to side and. aw I remarked earlier, you can make it quite a big roll for a -tart. Hie roll of the body must he from ♦ lie top of the head to the tips of the toe*—an even roll throughout tlte entire body. Avoid merely twisting the tdioulders or i lie trunk, leaving the hips prone. The whole body mtwt roll evenlv. without twisting <>r bonding, so that whether von are face down or on right ‘side or your left -ide. (lie bodv i- alwavg ui