The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1889-06-25
WOMEN AS SWIMMERS.
Very Few Girls Know How to Move
Gracefully in the Water.
From The Netr YORK WorI


From the Nep York World.
The women who swim well, and their
number increases every season, find it one
Of themes difficult things to learn in the
whole round of athletics, and ability in this
line represents great deal of hard work
and persistent endeavor. Nothing but the
most tremendous earnestness of intention
and long and persistent practice ever en-
ables woman TO throw ball, for the rea-
son Of the length OF her clavicle, which
makes it extremely difficult for her to use
her arm in the way required. Aud so in
swimming. Her head being heavier for
her size and her lungs smaller than those of
a man, her constant tendency in the water
with every stroke is to pitch forward on
her head. The shape Of her body also in
creases this tendency, and the smaller size
or her lungs gives her much less bouyancy.
All these she has 10 overcome before she
can learn to be swimmer, and girl who
is good one deserves great deal OF cred
it. One Of the professional female swim
mers said the other day:
The majority of girls swim with their
arms only, and if they do kick it is gener-
ally out up into the air, which does not pro-
pei them along much. The truth of the
matter Is that it takes a good deal of train
ing to teach any woman to use her legs
freely, for they have been hobbled together
ever since she was 10 years of age, and
when she gets in the water she is shy about
using them and drawing them up under
her frog-fashion, as a good male swimmer
does. She bends her legs at the knee, so.
that the lower part of the limb rises grace
fully above the water at every stroke, and
then drops it back with a thud, as if part
of the roof of the hath-house had fallen in,
and when this sends her pitching over her
head she aggravates the trouble by kicking
her heels out Of thewater and looking like
duck diving for clans"
And good many yoang women viii
recognize with pain that this is very ac-
curate description of themselves in the
water. But it is also certain that with the
proper sort of training she can get rid of
all these awkward ways and learn to be as
agile and graceful in the water as she is on
the ballroom floor. There are half dozen
big swimming schools in this city. but the
best and most graceful swimmers are those
who learn not in the smooth water of a
tank, but in the tumbling fiurries of the
sea. For one thing, salt water is much
more buoyant than fresh, which makes it
easier to keep ones self af1oat, and the
swimmer who has learned in a tank with
out ripple upon it, discovers that it is a
very different thing to fight wave and tide.
The same professional female swimmer who
is so sarcastic about the efforts of her sister
woman says:
1.-THE way learned to swim was both an
easy and safe one, and one / should recon-
mend to women who are anxious to master
the art I began when / was about Is
years old, and my only teacher was my big
brother, who had the two qualifications
of the swimming teacher for being strong
and amiable. He began by teaching me
not to be afraid of deep water. The trouble
is that the moment one has the sense of
there being no foothold beneath one, it
takes away ones breath and thus is lost the
very buoyancy that is necessary TO keep
one afioat, for the lungs must be kept full
of air as much as possible in swimming
This he did by making me catch hold of
his belt and swimming into deep water
with me, so that | grew perfectly accus-
toned to the sensation of these being
nothing beneath my feet and not to mind it
all. After | had lost all this fear and
breathlessness, he took me into shallow
water, put strong elastic belt about six
inches wide around my waist, with loop
fastened in the middle of the back, through
which he could slip his hand. Then in
water not more than three feet deep he
slipped his hand through this loop, made
me turn ON my face and learn the proper
swimming motions. l could do these with
perfect confidence. because l knew he had
fast hold of me and | could not by any
possibility sink and get nay mouth and ears
full of water, as he kept me near the sur
face by his hold on the belt. Then he
showed me how I must bring my hands
back to my chest, keep my fingers and
thumb close together, forming sort of
a cup of my hand, and how the
palm should be turned downward during
the first bali Of the stroke and one edge of
it turned up after the arms began to go out
at right angles from the body and that my
motions must be slow and deliberate, as
any attempted hurry would result in pump
ing me of the breath which was so valuable.
Next he taught me the use of my legs which
should first be drawn up under the body
with the knees turned out sideways as much
as possible and the heels close together,
which made the necessary frog-like kick
an easy thing to do. / learned to
do these arm and leg strokes in exact
unison, which is one Of the most important
points in swimming, and when | had the
motion perfect he took his hand out of the
belt and let me try it alone, still in shallow
water. But the moment 1 would begin TO
sink he would promptly seize me and haul
me up, for his idea was, and a good one,
too think, that the shock of going under
water and getting ones ears and mouth full
of it is bad for beginners and gives them q
certain sort of nervousness which it takes a
long time to cure. 1t was not long after
that, however, before | could go anywhere
and since then practice has made me one of
the champion lady swimmers"