Los Angeles herald., 1910-01-16
AQUATICS MAKE
MUCH PROGRESS
EXPERTS SAY 1909 SHOWED
ADVANCEMENT
SWIMMERS MAKE REAL STRIDES
IN METHODS
Strokes and Styles Changing as Re-
suits of Practical Experiments
Made by Students of
the Sport

observer and to those who consider
records the criterion of progress the
year 1909 may not have seemed a very
remarkable one in aquatics But to
the close student of the sport it was
a year of great achievement and won-
derful improvement.
During the twelve months just
elapsed both theoretical and practical
swimmers advanced rapidly, and as a
class, not individually. Coaches like
Mckenzie Mccormick, Sullivan, Kist-
Ter, Cady, Meifert, Helm and CaVill
gave close attention to the new phases
of the crawl stroke, studying and eX-
perimenting until each had worked out
a style of his own, in many cases to-
tally different in action and movement
from the original Australian variety
introduced here in 1904.
Frank Sullivan of the Illinois A. c.
of Chicago proved the most successful
of the lot, and his remarkable achieve
ment in taking five boys totally ignor-
ant of the art of natation and develop
ing them in less than two years into
world record team tells its own tale OF
the value of the stroke. 1t is strict
ly American product, the long, easy,
straight arm reach, narrow leg thresh
and absolutely Independent action of
arms and legs, being diametrically the
reverse of the short, jerl1y arm move
ment, wide kick and synchronous time
of the Australian variety
Sullivans special pupils-Richard
Frizelle, Harry Hebner, William Nos-
burgh. Perry McGillivray and Leslie
Chiville-made good after only a few
months of tuition, but it was only dur
ing 1909 that. they reached champion
ship form. Leslie Chiville proved a
mediocre sprinter, but one of the best
distance swimmers in the country. The
other four showed phenomenal speed
at so, 100 and 220 yards, and on May
20, in Chicago, brought down the 400
yard worlds record Of Alb 2-5, held by
the New York team composed of Dan
iels. Trubenbach, Goodwin and South,
to 4:0S As. None of the boys has yet
reached his twentieth year, and Nc
Cillivray is only A. Frivelle has done
such sterling work of late as to be
classed by western experts second only
to Daniels as an all around swimmer.
Youngsters Give Promise
1t is the high standard of the young
sters and novices that gave most en-
couragement during the year. When
boys from IA to IS years of age begin
to press the veteran champions, and in
many instances elbow them uot Of the
way, one begins to realize the great
strides that are being made and to
speculate on what the newcomers VIII
do when they reach maturity.
And the advance is real. not COM
paratiVe for the old-timers have not
let grass grown under their feet Z.
4 NJ Daniels of the New York Athletic
club silenced effectively those who
said he was on the decline by estab
fishing a few more records at distance
swimming and then going after the
back stroke figures. He created new
ones on December II, when he covered
the classic $50 yards in 2:O4 2-5 from
treadwater start in a seventy y-five-fOOt
pool. This is the best time ever made
under the conditions.
Other veterans who deserve mention
because of their steady Improvement
are bud" Goodwin of the New York
A. c.; H. J. Handy of the Illinois A. c.,
of Chicago: Ralph ShintOn and Curtis
Sloan of the East Liberty A. c., of
Pittsburg; A. NJ. Goessling of the Mis-
souri, A c., of St. Louis; Leslie Rich
of the Brookline S. c., of Boston, and
Scott Leary of the Olympic club, of
San Francisco.
Among the best of the 1909 crop are:
w. Auerbach, J. p. Mantell, William
Oppenheim, j. Manley and Hamilton
Brown of New York; w. Anthony, r.
Ayres and P. Scott of Philadelphia;
j. Balm, J. CutnelI and S. Maisack of
Pittsburg; J. Macdermott, H. Huzzah,
J. NJ. Griffin and W. S. Merriam of
Chicago.
Several new teams were formed dur
ing the year either by the organizing
of swimming clubs or by the opening
of aquatic departments in athletic
clubs. The Argo S. c. and Y. NJ c. A.
of Philadelphia became active in the
sport; the City club Of New York con-
cluded plans to do the same; the Pitts
burg A. c. began to corral material,
and New Orleans, Louisville, Denver,
Seattle and San Francisco all ac-
quired new swimming clubs.
Progress Among Colleges
Among the colleges progress was
marked. Not only did several insttu-
tions take up swimming as a sport to
be fOstered but teams as rule i'm
proved and the opening of the Car
negie natatorium at Yale gave new
impetus to athletics. The Intercolle-
giate Swimming association took into
it's own hands the revising of water
polo and swimming rules and showed
that in the future it intends to do its
own share of the work. Collegiate
swimmers performed creditably in the
national and district championships
and what was even more gratifying to
those who look into the future, fresh
men teams were seen in some of the
universities and sought meets with
each other.
That the national A. A. U. champion
ships did not always fill in a satisfac-
tory way must be attributed to the
system now in vogue of holding them
one at a time in distant parts of the
country and to somewhat strained re-
lations between the leading clubs. Still,
if the national events did not bring out
representative fields, the district cham
pionships were splendidly attended and
frequently resulted in new records and
exciting competition. 1t might be q
good thing for the authorities to go
back, at least for a trial, to the old
method of holding all the events in
one big meet. The majority of swim
mers seem TO think that it would i'm
prove matters lot.
Swimming Records of Year
Taken all together, there was much
to be satisfied with during the year,
and we may well congratulate ourselves
on the gradual, but continuous, prog
ress of a sport that must take pre-
cedence as the most useful in exist
hence.
Following is a list of swimming rec
ords for 1909: 22O yards, c. M. Daniels,
N. Y. a. c., bath, eight turns, min
utes 25 2-5 seconds, March 26; $50
Yards, c. M. Daniels, open water. four
turns, minutes 38 As seconds, August
28: $50 yards, c. NJ. Daniels, open
water five turns, minutes Is As sec
onds. August 28; no yards, c. NJ. Dam
iels, open water, six turns, 10 minutes
81 As seconds. August gS; $50 yards,
G. M. Daniels open water. seven
firms 70 minutes 19 2-5 seconds Au-