FLOATING Motionless floating on the surface of the water, and more especially in the open sea, on a warm summer day is a luxury in itself. Simple as the feat may seem, it is not easily accom plished, and the person able to float is possessed of a power which many good swimmers envy. It does not follow because the speed rate is good that a swimmer can easily float without much practice, or, on the other hand, that a first-class exponent of the art of floating must needs be a good swimmer. It is possible to learn to float without first being able to swim, but such an ability can only be acquired by persons who are not subject to nervousness. Only those who are able to float can in any way adequately appreciate the delight which a novice experiences when after—very often—long practice, attended by repeated failures, he realises the fact that he is actually floating.
The tedious practice required to become perfect in the art undoubtedly prevents many men from acquiring that power which, when once gained, enables the swimmer easily to perfurm many feats which otherwise seem difficult or, in fact, impossible, and which also largely increases that all-im portant feeling in swimming exercises—absolute self-confi dence.
Apart from its obvious usefulness, floating is so graceful a pastime that it is the ambition of most swimmers to become experts ; but, unlike swimming, it cannot be learnt by any given methods, as the relative buoyancy of each individual body varies. It is therefore compulsory first of all to discover the exact posi tion in which the body must be placed in order to float properly, and then so to regulate the breathing as to enable the swimmer to keep the mouth above water. Theoretically, it is possible for every person to float. This may be correct in sc far as salt water is concerned, but in fresh water cases frequently occur in which the chest capacity is not sufficient to counteract the specific gravity of the body, and although the body might float to all intents and purposes on the surface, the head would have to be so far craned back as to keep the mouth and nostrils under water.
To overcome this is the secret which governs the whole art, and how it may be overcome, in the majority of instances, it is our province to demonstrate. No very great skill or exertion
is required to obtain perfection. All that is necessary is prac tice, continued practice, even if failure seem always to be the result. New positions of the limbs must be tried, and if the succeeding movement of the body be remembered the swimmer will quickly grasp the fundamental principle that floating is merely the balancing of the body on the surface so that neither the arms nor the legs sink downwards. If the whole body slowly settle towards the bottom, then the respiratory organs are at fault, or else the limbs have not been extended at the same level as, or lower level than, the rest of the body. If the legs sink, then the arms have not been extended sufficiently or kept widely enough apart, the head has not been sunk low enough, or the chest properly expanded. It is surprising how little is often required to just balance the body on the surface. The mere deflection of one hand may prevent sinking ; and as soon as this fact is fully grasped floating co:nes as naturally as ordinary swimming.
Women, as a rule, learn to float more quickly than men, because, as already remarked, their bones are lighter, and their adipose tissue greater than that of males.
It is erroneous to suppose that if a person be thin and pos sessed of but little adipose matter floating is rendered im possible. A stout person is possessed of greater advantages at the outset, and is more likely to learn rapidly ; but the thin person need not on that account despair, for one of the best exponents ever known—Buckingham—was a remarkably thin man.
To a swimmer who really loves the art as a pastime, there is nothing so enjoyable as being able to float in open sea water. When the breakers are running high the body is at one moment poised on the top of a wave, while the eyes rapidly scan the valley of water beneath and the incoming wave beyond ; the next moment the body is sunk in the valley with a high mountain on either side, and the blue sky above.