My own boys at four have been able to keep the head under water for a quarter to a half minute. At five they picked up small objects from the bottom of tub or basin with their mouths; and coasted face downward and headfirst down the sloping end of the bath-tub into the water, slid the length of the tub along the bottom, and finally emerged under the spigots.
When a child can do that, he is ready to be taken to the water and taught the plunge. For this one stands in water about waist-deep or less, and shoots forward, straight and stiffand face downward, until breath or momentum fails. Many boys who are self-taught pass from the plunge to swimming with the face in the water, either breast-stroke, " dog-paddle," or crawl. At any rate, from the plunge, the venturesome learner advances naturally to the dive, and from that to swimming under water. This much he may well ac quire before learning to swim on the sur face at all. Most boys can learn to dive a full year before they are ready to swim.
There is another important prelimi nary to swimming, which can be taught nicely in the bath-tub, and that is floating. A little child in a long tub can be taught the entire art with the arms at full reach above the head. With larger pupils or smaller tubs, the floating must be done with arms at sides. In this case the heels should rest on a brick or other support.
Floating, however, though it comes very easy to most adults, is often difficult for little children. The trouble seems to be partly in their large heads and small chests ; partly in the difficulty they have in keeping still; but more, I think, from timidity. The floating position, with the water always just on the point of running into the nose, is really pretty trying to any beginner. One should, therefore, proceed with the greatest caution, beginning with small quantities of water, and increasing the depth only gradually. A fright at this stage is apt to be a serious matter, and to spoil the victim's nerve for years after. Small children should first learn to han dle themselves face down before trying to float face up.
This much, however, is only prelimi nary to swimming; and with swimming comes the parting of the ways. Not every child can be taught the same stroke first.
Take the special case of a plump and light-boned girl of six, seven, or eight, especially if her swimming-place is cold, so that the bath must be short until she can swim hard enough to keep warm. If
the water is also salt, so much the better. Let her learn to float in the bath-tub, hands at sides ; she is of the build which floats easily and high in the water. Let her also practice on floor or couch the exercises for the leg-movements of the back-stroke as given on page 27. A tub is not usually wide enough for the full kick, but much valuable practice on the most difficult part may be had by opening the legs to a V, with the knees straight, and then snap ping them together for the finish of the back-stroke kick. In the case in which I have most thoroughly tested this method, I took my pupil, a girl of seven, into shal low water ; held her lightly in the floating position, with arms at sides, and directed her to swim cautiously the back-stroke with the legs only. Immediately she pulled out of my hand, traveled more than her length, and bumped her head against the shore. She had swum the first time she tried. Girls usually, I find, take quickly to the back-stroke.
With little boys, on the other hand,this method may not work at all. An active little chap is so much bone and mus cle, and in consequence floats so low in the water, that the least movement pulls his head under. For the boy, then, as for many girls, some other stroke must come first.
There seem to be three possible ways, all about equally good in their place. The first is by way of the crawl, a method by no means bad for boys and men of any age. A somewhat obvious procedure is this : Teach the crawl-kick in the bath-tub. Teach also in the tub the method of breathing with a quick turn of the head over the shoulder. In the open water, try first the plunge; then the plunge with the kick ; then with the arm-stroke ; then with both. At each of the four stages try to have the learner snatch at least one breath over his shoulder. A forty-pound boy, if he can catch the knack of breathing, will swim the crawl faster than any other stroke, and learn it as easily. The beauty of the crawl is that all the movements are so natural as to be quite instinctive, while the tim ing, often the most troublesome part of a stroke, takes care of itself.