The Brattleboro daily reformer. (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1913-1955, 1915-06-22

Chicago, now instructor of swimming
at Princeton university, deserves full
credit for bringing it into prominence.
Possibly others may have thought
before he did of combining the two
strokes, yet even this seems unlikely,
for at the time he publicly outlined the
evolved theory in 1905 the crawl was
just beginning to be known here, and
few had given it attention.
At all events, it is quite certain that
Sullivan was the first to undertake
practical experiments and prove the
efficiency of the new stroke.
Early in 1906, if memory serves, he
induced four boys who could not swim
at all to take it up under his super
vision, and in less than two seasons
they were making their mark in the
competitive field One Of them, Leslie
Chiville, developed into star long
distance swimmer, then retired An
other, Richard Frizell, won a number
of championship titles before he mi
grated to Central America in 1913. The
remaining two, Harry Hebner and
Perry McGillivray, are today our great
est all round swimmers and hold a
long string of worlds records.
The brilliant success of the latter
pair probably accounts in part for the
widespread popularity enjoyed at pres
ent by the stroke that made them FL
nous, yet it is not difficult to be con-
WINGED of its actual superiority if one
gives it some study.
Easy to realize-for instance. in COM
pairing 1t with the trudgeon-that the
thrash added between scissor kicks
must Derforce make for greater speed.
equally clear in weighing it against
the crawl that the use of one or two
scissors Increases the propelling power,
for the wider and more vigorous move
ments cannot but impart more momen-
tum than the smaller drives of the con-
tinuous thrash. ....
1t might be claimed that the amount
of energy expended is out of proper
ton to the resulting benefit, but such
is not the case. Once an object is set
In motion it requires very little power
to keep it moving at the pace attained,
and even 4 mere flutter of the feet is
sufficient to maintain the speed fur
uished by the scissor kick in swim
ming.
Thus one of the chief advantages of
the stroke is that 1t enables its deyo-
tees to more effectively utilize their
legs than any of its predecessors. 1t
has long been the contention of experts
that in developing the double overarm
stroke we had discovered that means
Tor ably exploiting the strength of the
arms, but that neither the trudgeon
nor the crawl permitted us to gain all
possible propulsion from the legs.
While therefore it would be extremely
rash to assert that the composite scis-
sor thrash could not be improved upon.
yet the fact that it eliminates almost
entirely the negative movements of re-
sistance and also has more driving
power shows unquestionably that we
nave at least drawn step nearer the
goal of all students of natation-thc
finding of the perfect stroke.
In swimming the single type OF
trudgeon-crawl the body should roll
sensibly on the under shoulder as the
top arm drives, for if one travels on an
even keel the working lower leg rises
out of water in opening and q portion
Of its drive is made through thin all
and totally wasted. For the same rea
son it is essential to roll rather heavily
from side to side in using the double
type that both scissors may be per
formed completely beneath the surface
The roll. however. is not necessary in
sprinting, as will be explained
Let it first be understood. though
that the width of the scissor and boil