SUCCESS IN SWIMMING

Timaru Herald, Volume CXLII, Issue 20587, 28 November 1936, Page 16 (Supplement)

SUCCESS IN SWIMMING

MR. HELLMRICH’S IMPRESSIONS

Intensive Training by Japanese

The success of the Japanese in swimming is attributed by Mr Dudley Hellmrich, manager of the Australian team, who is ranked as one of the world’s leading authorities on the sport, to intensive training which results in physical perfection.

He told a Dunedin “Star” reporter that, unless the British countries were prepared to make swimming the serious business many of the other nations did, they would find it difficult to hold their own in present-day international competition. Japanese swimmers covered a mile a day during training, and even their sprinters swam half a mile or a quarter of a mile every day to develop stamina. It was a fact that was not always appreciated that a good quarter was indicative of a good 100yds. The Japanese swam these distances, concentrating on their stroke.

Those Australians who had been prepared to sacrifice their social pleasures to train intensively had shown results, Mr Hellmrich stated, and he mentioned the case of swimmers such as Bonnie Mealing, Edna Davey, and Noel Ryan, whose performances had all been in world class. Ryan had the best record cf any British swimmer, having won the 400yds and I,sooyds at two Empire Games. Ryan did all his training after work, and spent all his leisure time preparing for swimming. When he beat Boy Charlton he was trained by Mr Hellmrich, and his preparation at that time consisted of a mile each night. Bonnie Mealing was also coached by Mr Hellmrich from the time she was 12 years of age, and world’s records had also come her way.

Although she never swam more than 220yds on the back stroke in competition, Miss Mealing was in the habit of swimming half a mile a day in training, and swimming had made her one of the most graceful girls in Australia. She worked during the winter, but in the summer devoted all of her time to swimming. She was very good on the turns, and did not devote much time to this phase of her swimming, but she put in a good deal of work in practising the start.

Mr Hellmrich mentioned the case of Bill Kendall, who had done 59 4-10 sec for 110yds. Mr Hellmrich said he felt sure that had this young Australian not undergone a serious operation he would have been highly placed at the Olympic Games. He had achieved success in spite of his faulty stroke, this being due to the high state of physical perfection to which he had brought himself. The performances of these swimmers, Mr Hellmrich stated, showed that Australia was still able to produce swimmers in world class if they were able to devote the time to the intensive training that was necessary.

The Educational and Coaching Committee of the New South Wales Amateur Swimming Association had an arrangement with picture corporation that, in return for the exclusive right of taking pictures at all carnivals in New South Wales, they received all pictures in which swimmers appeared after they were exhibited in the theatres. The members of the committee examined them at the studio, and good judges who had seen pictures of the Japanese in action on numerous occasions were agreed that there was little in the Japanese stroke that was different from the ordinary crawl. The Japanese obtained their results by acquiring complete physical fitness, which they did by making almost an occupation of swimming. They could swim every 100yds at practically the same pace, and that was one of the secrets of their success in the distance events.

Mr Harry Alderson, manager of the Australian team at the Olympic Games, told Mr Hellrich that, apart from the representatives of the British Empire, there was scarcely a true amateur at the Olympic Games. Many of the competitors had not worked for the nine months preceding the Games. “The question we have to ask,” said Mr Hellmrich, “is whether we are prepared to follow such a course, or, if we are financially able to do so, whether it is desirable that we should.” He did not think it was desirable or wise that any sport should be regarded so seriously as to be made almost a business.

When the Japanese swept the pool at the Olympic Games at Los Angeles in 1932, everyone started to emulate their style, but at Berlin the Japanese had been beaten in several of the men’s events. Csik, the Hungarian winner of the 100 metres free style event, had little else to do but train, and the same applied to Peter Fick, the American sprint star, and Fischer, the German champion. These men had met one another in Europe and each had secured a win. Yusa, of Japan, was supposed to be the best sprinter in the world, but he was beaten, so it

looked as if swimmers should start emulating the American style again. If the Japanese stroke was so much ahead of any other swimming technique, Mr Hellmrich asked why it was that the Japanese women did not achieve the same outstanding success as the men. The answer was that they did not train so intensively, it being a religion with the men to give of their very best when chosen to represent their country.