New-York tribune., 1910-03-20

down Of them in time with the catch Of the Op-
pOsite hand. and by fiat. face down position Or
the body
Its great advantage is the remarkable speed
Of action. which allows absolutely no check.
making il probably quite as fast a stroke for
short dashes as any known Its worst fault ia
that il is freak stroke totally unfit for distance
work Il is impossible to hold il il the
ments are fast and there is speed in IL when
they retarded.
The American style calls for a longer reach i'm
sprinting: decidedly longer in distance swim
ming The legs perform the same alternats
thrash. but much narrower that the feet sell
dom rise above the surface. The great diff
ference between il and the Australian variety
lies in the fact that the movements of arms AMI
legs are totally independent Of each other The
body assumes the same position at the start
but rolls little more. Offering "a better chance
to breathe with less exeFtiOn.
The claim is made for il that the independents
action permits one 20 ask each part of the body
tn do much work as il can without strain
and without waste. In the Australian crawl tho
man with weaker arms than legs must either
Overexert the former or not obtain from the
latter their full benefit. for they timed to-
sether. In the American they taxed with
work prOPOrtOnate 10 their capabilities. besides
which the leg drive is continuous. and can bs
slowed down as much as one pIeases without
giving check, thus qualifying for distance
swimming.
Sullivan's discovery Is a slight modification
Of the American crawl. and in spite Of its
cess il has been called retrovertive. II is the
introduction of a very narrow. snappy. scissor
kick as used in the trudgeon into the leg
thrash. II looks in action merely like wider
and more energetic thrash. taken just as tho
upper arm starts its downward course but
/ it gives q the body a sudden leap forward. the
sreed OF which the continued leg drive seems To
maintain.
There many who claim for this stroke
that il has solved the problem of obtaining
speed from the legs without incurring the fol-
lowing increase of resistance formerly thought
unavoidable on the recovery Captain Rich
/ ards. OF Yale's champion swimming team. at
tributes 10 the at New Haven Of this typo
Of crawl the recent capture Of the intercolegi-
ate squad title
/ Daniels's combination Of the Australian and
American crawIs was made by himself 10 find
a stroke that would enable him to adapt
CavilFs style 20 his own personal idiOsyncTa-
cies. While he considered the synchrOnOus
timing Of arms and legs and wide thrash tho
most effective he realized that long reach
and slow action came best 10 him. and know
| ing that slow action in the stroke of his choice
meant mo speed" he added slight thrash
after each downward slap Of the legs. thus
making the drive continuous
With this composite stroke he did wonders
1T one hundred yards. eventually creating in
England that extraordinary worlds record Or
| - % seconds And, Of course. as success al
ways draws. he soon had large following,
and many still using his invention. though
he himself has abandoned IL. The fact that
/ Daniels shifted will be taken as evidence that
his stroke defective. but until his great
/ performance has been bettGred the thought
must recur that for hundred yards no
/ faster stroke has been found At the same
! time il must be admitted that in narrowing hia
/ leg drive Daniels came down To a stroke
strongly reminiscent of both the pure AmeTicaR
! and Sullivan varieties and that he was abls
with it to lower by fully three seconds Kierans
/ no yard mark of . minutes ~ 3-5 seconds,
often declared 10y experts 10 be the best worids
! swimming record in existence
: Handy's Icgless crawl is similar % the Ameri-
can in action. but the legs. instead OF thrashins
/ up and down are left limp and trailing.
] Theoretically. this stroke is wrong because
\ n IS Incredible that the tremendous power in
ones legs should fail % give results if properly
! applied. At the same time not only Handy.
| but several other topnOtChor rs have done better
( work without their legs than while using them.
I and a number Of leading authorities think
I tina. the legs should ut most be used to sustain.
I never 90 propel. So that naturally buoyant
night as well save his strength and let them
.