Evening star., 1922-12-24

Once. in his carly days, "BacL" was
great third place athlete" he says
| Back in 1897 he made his only ap-
pearance In natloual sw INNING
tournament. entering the 1OO-yard
swim in a meet in Lincoln Park la
eoon here. There were four entries
and Bachrach won his one and only
swimming medal when he finished
third-after the fourth man swan
himself out and quit at the end of
fifty yards.
Sits While He Teaches.
Now. weighing. by his own adm,s-
ship" he sits in a huge wicker arm
chair beside the l. A. c. tank and
trains promising youngsters to break
al! the swimming records from the
Bermudas to Honolulu. Once a month
or so when they I'LL the tank up u
|. Bach" drops in with u mighty
splash and does round or two. but
that is about the extent Of his cwn
water work.
Anybody can be a good swimmer If
he has the will to work; and work
be champion. for II just isn't born
in some people to be champions. but
II he is willing to plug along day IN
and day out and stick to ;he deadly
grind he Will be good swimmer.
The trouble is that lots OF swim
natural talent. haven't enough Of the
VIII to win to keep at it
Makes EN- Work Regularly.
What is the secret Of your success
rs a coach?" he was asked.
Making them work day in and'da
out. I require my teams to swim a
quarter Of mile day. ] don't hold
81, f.ak
their own time. but they must SWIM
at least that quarter OF a mile. After
that they can play around the tank If
they want TO as long as they wish.
IF q swimmer swims 200 quarter
miles in a year that's seventy-five
miles. Nobody can swim seventy-fve
miles a year without developing.
They are bound to learn something.
II sit up here and watch them swim
their eleven laps. and when they
come out I talk things over and point
out their mistakes and suggest i'm
proTements. That's AL there is to
"Afy principle is to get them young.
Syb!l Bauer come to US four years
ago when she wasn't quite fourteen
years old. We had announced through
the newspapers that We were going
to organize class for girls. and in
vtted swimmers to apply. She was in
the class. One day I saw her using
the back stroke. and doing very well
with Il. We talked it over and she
decided she wanted to be the worlds
greatest back stroke swimmer. To-
day she is
Not Unique. He Declares.
Bachrach passes over his own In
ability to rank above the mediocre
swimmers with the explanation that
the best coaches don't swim much.
That applies in other sports too." he
says. ''Zuppke down at Illinois was
never much OF foot ball player, but
look what a coach he is. When you
work around here all the time you
don't have the desire to swim much.
It's like being a chef. Nobody ever
saw a chef eat much. unless he was
out at somebody else's house"
Really great swimmers. Bach
says. are born, not made. You can't
put voice IN anybody he expla ms
There would be no ~ of my gong
to singing teacher to cultivate u
voice I haven't got. But while everr-
body can't be 4 great swimmer. lie
can be good swimmer. If he want,
to work for it,
Most of the famous swimmers de
veloped under his tutelage are prod
ucts OF the Chicago public beaches
and Y. N. c. A. pools. Back in Oc-
tober, 1920. boy on one of his teams
told Bachrach friend who was