The sun., 1908-06-21
TEACHING A WOMAN TO SWIM
FEW TAKE TO 1T NATURALLY,
SAYS AN INSTRUCTOR,

a Girl VINO Can swim -Easemess "a
| Keep the Hair Dry One Trouble
'The desire to learn how to swim ia rapidly
becoming craze among New York young
women, and Of course it's one Of the mos.
sensible craxes they've yet taken up" said
a swimming instructor who now has more
business at his natatorium for girls and
women than he can take care Of. -Ive
been teaching swimming For dozen years
In and around New York, but this year
have nearly three times az many young
women pupils as / ever had before. and
I've had to get a couple Of assistants to
help me out.
Il can't exactly account for the sudden
ness Of all this. know, though, that the
| fact has been rapidly trickling in upon the
consciousness of young women in these
parts that men folks have keen admiration
for the girl who is able to take care Of her
self in the water.
'It's about three times as hard to teach
| girl or young woman how to swim as 1t
| Ia to teach q boy or a man. Nearly all mem
bers Of the female sex that ever met have
shown an instructive dread Of the wafer.
The thought Of getting into water up to
their necks makes them either hysterical
or rigid, as the case may be. It's altogether
different with boy. A boy takes to the
water almost as naturally as pup SEAL
don't know whether you've noticed it or
not, but the average young boy is as cour-
ageous as the devil. Nothing faxes him.
He's courageous to the point Of reckless
ness. I've got class Of boy pupils, and
far from having any trouble with them on
account Of timidity, as do with most Of
my girl and women pupils, have to keep
constant eye on the cubs to prevent them
taking unnecessary chances.
4The shavers want to hop into the deep
water before they've learned their strokes.
They want to do the high dive stuff before
they've picked up the knack OF floating
on their backs. They're willing to take
any old chance. This of course really
to be watched to see that they don't go too
far with their ambition. After the second
or third lesson my boys want to do oil the
fancy stuff. and when / take batch Of
them down to the beach, as I sometimes
do at the end Of the term. to watch them
perform In sure enough deep water a lot
OF them strike out as II they intended to
swim to Mozambique or Madagascar, and
4 uAV0 10 nuStl6 OUT III n DOaL ana nero
EN- back TO the shore.
the instructive dread OF water which
women possess is something beyond their
control, They simply are unable 70 say
to themselves, This il ridiculous, and
there's no possibility Of my drowning if
I. just, keep perfectly still and 80 on.
They'll grant you all that when you tell
them about IL before they get their bath
ing togs on. but they'll hang on to anything
that they can get hold Of like bull terrier
to bath towel just as soon as they are put
to the test in the water. They seem TO
have no confidence whatever in the water.
I've got half dozen girl pupils now who
can swim as well as anybody in water
that they know is only up to their armpits,
but the very minute that they discover
they've got into water that is over their
heads they go TO pieces and begin to strug-
gle and grow faint and all that, and when
they get into the shadows again they are
as limp as rags
Il wish the girls and young women would
cause themselves to become as limp as rags
when they're taking their first lessons in
swimming But they won't relax them
selves that way. AS soon as the average
girl taking her first swimming lessons
that is only about up to her waist she be-
gins to get as rigid as small edition Of
the Cardiff Giant, You tell her to relax.
relax and let herself co. but you might
just as we'll tell that to some Pharaoh Of
the steenth dynasty. She pulls every
muscle in her body as taut as the f fiddle
string, so that IL she did happen to hit deep
water in such condition she'd 60 to the
bottom like cobblestone. That is why
30 many women drown-because their
themselves in knots, in which condition
they become as heavy as lead and they are
just naturally bound to go down
Down a: the beach; In teaching some
young woman how to float, have you ever
held her up by keeping your outsgread hand
under her waist? You have? Well, then.
dare say that you've noticed that the very
instant the young woman found that your
hand was withdrawn she'd collapse into
bunch and go all to pieces. Your hand
was hardly helping her at all, and she could
have fioated on her back without your aid
at ALL But you couldn't make her believe
that In ten Thousand years, and SO the minute
she found that she was relying upon her
knees up to a line with her chin and began
+, shrek and gulp salt water, and then
you had to restore her to her underpipning
and begin all over.
Some girls and young women Of course
are more apt pupils than Others but
to plunge right into it like the boy does.
Take my own case. l learned how to swim
when was years old in the Missouri River,
nnd the Big Muddy is some bad stream.
TOO, WlUn lIh bWHunB SuluSS dhl buChDOleS
and all that. A big brother OF mine with
heroic ideas about all this stuff took me
out into the middle OF the Missouri In a
skin at point where the Missouri Ia about
a mile wide Then he simply picked me
up and tossed me into the river like as II
he was tossing out cobblestone anchor.
Did swim? ! reckon! Swan like bull
catfish My big brother would havs yanked
me back ipto the skif II he'd seen / was
drowning Of course, but he didn't let me
know that; and 30 just SWAN and swan
and swan like somebody that knew all about
1t and like I'd seen the other fellers swim.
From what I've seen since became swim
ming instructor know that 1t would be
pretty risky job to toss any nine-year-old
girl into the water that way and expect her
to swim.
Il use the pole belt and strap, OF course,
In teaching. don't believe in that harness
myself, but they insist upon having it and
Of course I've got to be agreeable to their
wishes. In my opinion, pupils can be
much better taught in water alb out up to
their shoulders and without any harness
on them at all. They gain more confidence
that way, That's the way teach most Of
the boys But the girls and young women
have all heard of the safety, as they call
It., OF the pole and belt and strap oontrap-
ton, and they all demand it. They not