SWIMMING

Southland Times, Issue 22770, 21 December 1935, Page 19

SWIMMING

(By

“Freestyle.”)

COMING EVENTS. January 25, 26 and 27—New Zealand Junior and Intermediate Championships, Hamilton. January 25 and 26—Otago Surf Championships, Sports Trust Shield, Oreti Beach. First week in February—Southland Senior Championships. January 28—Otago Senior championships at Dunedin. February 15, 17, 18 and 19—New Zealand Senior Championships, at Dunedin. February 26—Ex-Pupils carnival. March 19—Collegiate carnival. Easter Monday—Surf Club carnival.

WATER POLO. Training for the New Zealand championships is proceeding steadily and all players have greatly benefited by the coaching they have received during the season. Team-work has also improved considerably and enthusiasts are optimistic that Southland will be well represented at Dunedin. Last Thursday evening the weekly training match was played and the coach was particularly pleased with the high standard of play achieved by most players. V. Grenfell was probably the outstanding back on this occasion, using his head a great deal and proving very versatile. P. Malthus, whom Grenfell was marking, was the best forward and played brilliantly. This player is once again striking form and is also playing a harder and more aggressive game than at the beginning of the season. Mr H. Snrth, the coach and selector, was also very pleased with the play of A. Marshall and C. Kidd, although he considers that both have certain weaknesses which must be remedied. Marshall, for instance, is a strong, fast and heady player, but could improve his shooting. Kidd is inclined to speculate to much with “'blind” shots over his head. He should endeavour to learn a greater variety of shots, for being able to perform only one throw properly is a serious handicap to his game. Neither “Bill” or F. W. Springford attended this practice, other defaulters were P. McGrath and M. Hunt. All four are very good players and it is a pity that they do not turn up regularly; it is hardly fair to the coach. However, the team eventually selected will have to include those players who have shown their keenness by regularly attending practices and in such a way will have acquired better team-work and understanding of one another’s play. Mr Smith says that it is not practicable to play good individual players in a representative team when they have not learnt to combine. In fact he considers that a team of average players who have played a great deal together would defeat a team of brilliant individualists who have never played together. Swimming. Mr Frank Beaurepaire, former Australian champion and an authority on swimming, recently wrote: “An analysis of the times will more than prove that American coaches and swimmers have improved tremendously in methods and times by a close observation of the methods employed by Japanese swimmers. There is no possible doubt of this and Mr Kipnuth, head coach of the American Olympic team agrees with me. Commenting on the recent tour of Japan by fourteen of the outstanding swimmers of the United States, Mr Kipnuth remarks: ‘Our team made every sacrifice necessary in the interests of good training, both en route and in Japan as the results oi the meet showed by comparing the times made in our championships held in Detroit and those which were turned in by the same swimmers in the big international meetings, in Osaka and Toku.’ Thus,” continues Mr Beaurepaire, “it will be seen that not only was the American team training progressively, but continued under conditions which permitted the coach and members of the team to closely observe the outstanding Japanese performances and that these conditions made the opportunity for grafting small but important improvements to their strokes. These improvements would relate mainly to looseness and celerity of arm recovery, length, and method of forward glide and shortness of arm-pull after the forearm and hand have passed their maximum depth of pull. Another feature which would be studied and acted upon would be the looseness of the leg and the depth of the knee during the performing of the leg flutters in the crawl stroke.” Mr Kipnuth, in an American sporting paper, sums this position up by saying: “The high standard of Japanese intensive practice which has helped them to incorporate those small but important differences they had already noted when combining the Japanese crawl rhythm with the American crawl timing and rhythm.” The Japanese, in a period of less than 12 years’ so improved their standard of swimming that they were able to produce at Los Angeles twenty swimmers fit to stand in the front rank of the world’s best and even in less than the three years, which have elapsed since the Los Angeles Olympiad, they have produced further potential world beaters, many with names totally new to enthusiasts. At the recent international meetings with America the following results were achieved (and it should be specially noted that all performances were over a long course of 50 metres or approximately 55 yards):— 100 metres (109.4 yards) Freestyle: They have twelve swimmers who range in time from 57.45ec to 62sec. The Australian record for this distance is well outside 62sec.

200 metres (218.8 yards) freestyle: The Japanese produced twelve swimmers whose times range from 2min 11 2-ssec to 2min 19 4-ssec. The Australian record is still well outside this latter time. 400 metres (437.6 yards, nearly quarter of a mile) Freestyle: Ten swimmers ranging from 4min 52sec to smin 7sec. Of these twelve swimmers, eight can smash 5 minutes. To-day it is doubtful whether any Australia will break smin lOsec. 800 metres (875.2 yards nearly half a mile): The comparison shows that the Japanese have three men 4sec off a flat lOmin for the distance. They also have five others who can do below 10 min 30sec. The Australian record of “Boy” Charlton is lOmin 22scc. In summing-up, there are 30 different swimmers who could go to Australia and be outstanding. Conversely, if New Zealand or Australia could produce one performer doing the above times we would announce him as a

great. Olympic prospect. This shows definitely, the general height of the standard of swimming achieved by the Japanese and far from being discouraged New Zealand should instead endeavour to at least emulate the feat of a nation whose average physique is well below that of the New Zealanders.

The list of results achieved by the Japanese swimmers in their recent Olympic trials is a formidable one. Furthermore, the Japanese who visited Australia last year and proved too fast for the Commonwealth's best swimmers are well down on the ladder. Sakagami is a 62sec man for the 100 metres freestyle and was placed 10th on the Japanese rating list for that distance, and Kiyokawa is now only fourth best backstroke in Japan. Local Jottings.

On Monday night last several cars containing Invercargill swimmers visited Riverton and assisted at the opening of the local club. The evening was enjoyed by all and the several races and exhibitions by our swimmers were greatly appreciated by the Riverton enthusiasts.

The final placing for the “Learn to Swim” week events is: Miss C. Lynch 1, A, Poole 2, J. Cameron 3. Competition was very keen throughout and very little separated the placed three. D. Davis did well at the Otago championships and gave W. Jarvis a hard race in the 100 yards freestyle. Both he and P. H. McGrath, Southland senior 100, 220, 440 and 880 yards champion, have been invited by the Kiwi Club to compete at its Carnival which is to be held in January. McGrath, however, is not yet in form and requires plenty of swimming. He still possesses a beautiful stroke and with training he should be very hard to beat. M. Jones has recently been unfortunate in the matter of disqualification. On two occasions lately his winning efforts have been annulled because of his habit of starting too soon. This is a bad fault and has been noticed quite frequently among local swimmers. It has been decided, however, that in the future officials will be stricter in punishing competitors for an infringement of starting rules. M. Jones, it is hoped, will be a little more careful in the future, for he is a very promising young swimmer, is sure to go far and should not be discouraged by the setbacks he has recently suffered.