HOW TO SWIM.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XVII, Issue XIX, 7 November 1896, Page 25

HOW TO SWIM.

With the advent of the warm weather we shall all be taking to the water once more, and it is of the very first importance that we shonld all learn how to swim and how to swim well. The great difficulty with many swimmers is that they are mostly self taught, and have acquired bad habits, which is almost impossible to overcome. The three great characterists of the imperfect swimmer are splashing, rolling the body and moving the bead. The perfect swimmer makes no splaph. His over arm enters the water smoothly and deliberately, end his feet never come to the surface. There is no rolling of the body ; it comes up from the dive with the shoulders exactly at right angles with the surface of the water, and it keeps that position as steadily as a ferry boat. The head is set square on the shoulders, and is never lifted, turned, or jerked forward. The only motions of the body are made with the arms and legs ; any other movement destroys speed and interferes with the mechanical perfection of the stroke. The best teachers say that two years, swimming one hundred times each season, is none too long to make a good swimmer, and that if he has already learned a defective stroke it will take him an additional year to get rid of it. One of the chief defects of the breast stroke is that the motion of the legs is unnatural, and, nnlike any other made by a human being, is such that the muscles employed cannot be developed in any other form of exercise. This effect is completely overcome in the side stroke, the motion of the legs closely resembling that of a runner in full stride. The beet way to learn tbe side stroke is to begin with tbe leg kick, which should be practised at the edge of a bath, bolding on to a ladder or rail with the hands. After getting the body well balanced and steady in tbe water, with the feet as near the surface as possible, the legs must be gradually drawn apart and toward the body, the feet hanging loosely on the ankles. Great care must be taken to draw the right, or under, leg, as high as it will go. When both legs are well drawn up, the left, or upper, foot is brought square to tbe water and * stamped ’ down and slightly outward until the leg is straight; then it is kicked backward to meet the other leg. While the upper leg makes this stamp and kick the right, or under, leg is * stabbed ’ into the water and hooked round in a large sweep with all the strength at the swimmer’s command. The combination of these motions result in a peculiar stoop, or scissors-like clip, with both legs, and the water is squeezed from between them like a melon seed from between the fingers. The legs are then drawn up easily and gradually for another kick and the motion is repeated. The recovery must be made slowly and deliberately, but the kick is vicious, and swift as lightning. It will take a good learner at least a month to get this kick * down fine,' so that he can do it equally well on either side. After that he can try tbe arm strokes, which are best learned on a belt hung from a trolley. The great defect with most swimmers is that they strike the over arm and the legs at the same time. This style of swimming is now quite out of date and no longer need by the experts because it gives the body a jerky motion and often splashes badly. The best way to get the proper combination of the arms and legs is to draw the feet up ready for tbe kick, with the upper arm down by the hips. As the kick is made tbe upper arm is lifted out of the water and swung forward as far as it will go. The kick is so quick that it is finished long before the band reaches its position beyond the head, bnt the moment the feet come together the right, or under, arm begins its supporting drag stroke. This arm is carried straight down in a semi-circular sweep and then feathered back ready to shoot forward again. By the time the under arm drag stroke is finished the upper arm has been placed quietly and easily in the water and is ready to make its swift and powerful propelling sweep down and alongside the body, the legs being slowly gathered up to meet it at the next time ready for the next kick. When this stroke has once been properly acquired the motions will be found to fit into one another with remarkable smoothness and regularity, the kick, tbe under arm, the over arm, one, two, three—one, two, three. The motion of the body through the water is a continuous steady drive, without any sign of a splash or jerk, and the tremendous power exerted is entirely concealed from the spectator. The breathing is one of tbe great difficulties of this stroke. The escape of the air must be stopped at tbe back of the mouth, by the tongue and uvula, and not by the lips. If the swimmer depends on dosing bis mouth he cannot prevent an occasional wash of water entering, and if it does it is bonnd to go down bis throat and disconcert him ; but if tbe stoppage is made at the back of the mouth water may pass the lips in any quantity and it will simply wash ont again without interfering with

the breathing. The breath is inhaled during the forward swing of the upper arm, so as to give a full chest for the powerful propelling upper arm stroke. Although this is the best stroke of all for women few of them have tbe patience to learn it, and many object to it because they cannot see where they are going. But once mastered, no swimmer will give this stroke up for any other style of progression. The action of all the limbs is easy and natural, and a swimmer who has with difficulty covered one hundred yards on the breast will find himself able to go a mile with less fatigue.