Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1889-08-04
WOMEN Is SWIMMERS.
VERY FEW GIRLS KNOW HOW TO MOVE
GRACEFULLY III THE WATER.
One of the Champion Lady Swimmers
Tells How She Learned TO Swim
With Ease.


Tells How She Learned TO Swim
With Ease.
The women who swim well, and their
number increases every season, find it one
of the most difficult things to learn in the
whole round of athletics, and ability in
this line represents great deal of per-
sistent endeayor. Nothing but the most
tremendous earnestness of intention and
long and persistent practice ever enabled
woman to throw a ball, for the reason of
the length of her clavicle, which makes it
extremely difficult for her to use her arm
in the way required. And so in SWIM
ming; her head being heavier for her size,
and her lungs smaller than those of 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
of her lungs gives her much less buoyancy.
All these she has to overcome before she
can learn to be good swimmer, and a girl
who is good one deserves a great deal of
credit. One of the professional female
swimmers said the other lay:
''The majority of girls swim with their
orally out up into the air, which doesn't
propel them along much. The truth of
the matter is that it takes good deal of
training to teach any woman to use her
legs freely, fo~ they have been hobbled
together ever since she was 10 years of
age, and when she gets into the water she
is shy about using them and drawing them
! up under her frog-fashion, as good male
swimmer does. She bends her legs at the
knee, so that the lower part of the limb
rises gracefully above the water at every
stroke, and then drops it back with thud,
as if part of the roof of the bath-house
had fallen in, and when this sends her
pitching up over her head she aggravates
the trouble by kicking her heels out of the
water and looking like duck diving for
CLANS"
And good many young women will
recognize with pain that this is very
accurate description of themselves in the
water. But if is also certain that with the
proper sort of training she can get rid of
these awkward ways and learn to be as
agile and graceful in the water as she is on
the ballroom floor. There are several
swimming schools in this city, but the best
and most graceful swimmers are those who
learn not in the smooth water of tank.
but in the tumbling hurries of the sea.
For one thing, salt water is much more
buoyant than fresh, which makes it easier
to keep ones self afoat, and the swimmer
who has learned in tank without a ripple
upon it discovers that it is 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:
"The way l learned to swim was both
an easy and safe one and one | should
recommend to women who are anxious to
master the art. | began when was about
fifteen years old and my only teacher was
my big brother, who had the two uualif-
cations of the swimming teacher-being
strong and amiable. He began by teach
ing me not to be afraid of deep water. The
trouble is that the moment one has the
sense of their being no foothold beneath
one 1t takes away ones breath, and TINS is
lost the very buoyancy that is necessary to
keep one afoat, for the lungs must be kept
full of air as much as possible in swim
ming. This he did by making me catch
hold Of his belt and swimming into deep
water with me, so that / grew perfectly
accustomed to the sensation of there being
nothing beneath my feet, and not to mind
it. 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 my back. through
which he could slip his hand. Then in
water not more than than three feet
deep he slipped his hand through the
loop, made me turn on my face and learn
the proper swimming motions / could do
these with perfect confidence, because |
knew he had fast hold of me and | could
not by any possibility sink, and get my
mouth and ears full of water, a. he kept
me near the surface by his hold on my
belt. Then he showed me how | must
bring my hands back to my chest, keep my
fingers and thumb close together, forming
sort of cup of my hand, and how the
palm shonld be turned downward during
the first half of the stroke and one edge of
1t turned upward after the arms began to
60 out at right angles from the body, and
that my motion must be slow and DELHI
crate, as any attempt to hurry would re-
suit in pumping me out. 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 SWIM
ming, and when | had the motion perfect
he took his hands out of the belt and let
me try it alone, still in shallow water.
But the moment | would begin to sink he
would promptly seize me and haul me up,
for his idea was-and good one, too, /
think-that the shock of going under
water and getting ones ears ard mouth
full of it is bad for beginners, and gives
them a certain sort of nervousness which |
it takes a long time to cure. 1t was not
long after that, however, before / could 90
anywhere, and since then practice has
made me one of the champion lady swim
marc -