INTRODUCTION TO SWIMMING To be a real swimmer, it behooves them to begin right.
With just which stroke it is best to begin, is by no means clear. Tradition is for the old breast-stroke. In certain ways, however, this is the worst of all possible strokes for the beginner, as it is the slowest of all for the expert. It does, to be sure, appeal strongly to the sex that likes to keep its hair dry; but even if one means to make it his chief reliance in the end, it can probably be mastered most easily by taking the back-stroke first. For nine persons out of ten, how ever, the place to attack the art is by way of the under-arm side-stroke.
The advantages of this course are pretty clear. The movements of the breast-stroke are highly artificial. This is especially true of the kick, which many persons cannot master even after years of trying. But the movements of the side stroke are almost instinctive — the arms paw the water alternately, the legs swing forward and back as in walking. More over, in the breast-stroke, the head has to be carried wholly out of the water. In the side-stroke, the head practically floats itself. Every swimmer ought to know both strokes, but experience shows that for some reason or other the breast stroke is easy to acquire after one has been swimming the side-stroke, but that the side-stroke is difficult after one has thoroughly learned the breast-stroke.
Moreover, the under-arm side-stroke leads directly to the over-arm side-stroke, and that in turn to the so-called " trudg eon." The breast-stroke does not lead anywhere.
On the other hand, the timing of the side-stroke is somewhat hard to get; and in addition, in the case of children, the " scissor-kick " which goes with it is so nearly like running that the little learner sometimes cannot be persuaded that it is not exactly the same. However, the teaching of little children is a separate problem, which I shall consider later. For the present, the best order in which to take up the various swimming-strokes is for most persons probably this : under arm side, over-arm side, back, breast, trudgeon. The crawl, fastest of all racing strokes, is in a class by itself, and may be taken up anywhere. In fact, there is a good deal to be said in favor of begin ning with it; and some of this I shall say later, in connection with the teaching of little children. For the present, however, let us assume that the learner has reached years of discretion, and purposes to mas ter more than one stroke, and to do it in the easiest way. He may, then, take his lessons in the order suggested here, or in any other which commends itself to his mind.