POWER IN THE SWIMMING KICK

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXXII, 18 January 1939, Page 10

POWER IN THE SWIMMING KICK

By Baxter O’Neill. HON. SEC., N.Z. SWIMMING ASSOCIATION. No. 10

YEARS and years ago, when people were first learning about the erawl stroke, a very famous swimmer in Sydney, Dick Cavill, astonished all his friends by tieing his legs together and swimming with arms only. He swam just about as fust that way a* he did when he used his legs. 'Ve know now that that was not very wonderful. What Cavill had done was merely to eliminate the

you with power by kicking them back. They displace practically no water. The water just slips round them and lets them go past. You can prove this for youreelf j quite simply. Hold up a lighted match. Then plash the palm of the hand (straight at the match (Fig. 24). Push it as fast as you like. What happens? Just nothing. The flame does not even flicker. That shows that pushing the flat surface of the hand at the match is not driving any air on to it. But, try tliitv one. Hold the hand with the fingers pointing towards the match (Fig 25). Now give the hand a sharp wave, or a firth-tail motion. I The match will flicker greatly and

f.'Uin- up with the old-fashioiid lisli-tail motion of tlic lmml did hnU. 11,. proved that no kick at something that the straight thrust ..U U better than a poor kick, would not do-it dispiaeed a ha of he'munhor that. Unless your legs air. A fisl. swims very fast because T y °“ n, “ re l‘»"'« r f»r proi'ul- it exerts a lot of power. And it 6,0,1 tl,un th °y y"» of by way exerts it in just the same way as ° ' ''sistanee you might ns well do your hand made the air stream flow a» Cavill did and tie them up! the match. How big are your feet* That is But we are not provided with ftslihot a very serious question. lint tails. We hale two legs. Very some people think that you get power well. (let u friend to hold that for swimming by pushing your feet match. Clap your two hands sharply back against the water. That’s how in front of it, lingers pointing a frog gets Ins power. Bu*t a frog towards the match (Fig. 26). The has feet quite different to yours. match will almost certainly be blown The point I wish to make is that it ln swimming your legs must doert not mnttnv i- , . «« tlie-rtume With the water a* your . ' k y° ur hands did witli the air to blow out •ro they are of no use in providing the match.

Power in the swimming kick is | supply. And no retarding factor* of derived not from any back-thrust • resistance are set up. Hence the the legs or feet, but by the “scis- j net power—that which remains tor soring” action of bringing the legs the purposes of forcing the body sharply together. This forces the through the water—is greater than water out behind and so gives the i that provided by any other stroke, power. The crawl kick looks like j The kick is the moat difficult part an aimlortrt thrashing up and down of Hie stroke to perfect; benoe tin* the legs. It is not. It is a eon- j attention we have devoted to it. If tinuous series of seizor kick*, allj,Vo.i now- understand the theory f very email and all done very fast. have endeavoured to explain. you Right leg moves down as left leg!" 1,1 IJ,l4,tMVla,ul M,l >' > our h*g* move* tip. pass, barely brush-1^ WUr b,M > nm * K ‘T l ing each other, and are Immediately | Wml4Sr e mm be overready for the return kick. There therefore it must, be avoided, wno pause in the action, no atop- T,,, ‘ mi |. v wa - v to avoid lt >■ to k «**P ping for recovery. Recovery ie *traight as possible and get your automatic and part of the one move- < t r *'* n g power without anv bending, ment. The action is smooth and s l** ,uJ plenty of time practising easy, but fast. The amount of water tlle fckk al tlle sUle °( <•*>« and displaced bv each kick is amaU, but tho floatln;; board, rcmcnib-rin- t« . • ’ keep it narrow, to keep the 1,-, t IS displaced tut fast and. as the Lt ra i s | lt> but supple, and the trunk displacement is practically continu-1 of the bod. us atraight a, if on*, there is no pause in the power‘were standing to attention.