THE CRAWL SWIMMING STROKE The crawl is the newest and the fast est of all swimming-strokes. It is essentially a racing-stroke. The head is under water most of the time, so that with all its speed there is little fun in swimming it.
At the same time, it does have its place even for the non-racer. It is often con venient, for example, when diving is the order of the day, to be able to come back to raft or pier quickly — and for the dis tance that can be covered on one breath, the sprinting crawl is not far from twice as fast as the breast-stroke. In a river swimming-hole, too, there is usually not room enough to do much except sprint; while for swimming under water, the crawl is especially good. Moreover, bar ring the breathing, the crawl is the easi est of all strokes to learn fairly well. To small boys who do not mind being ducked, it commends itself especially.
The crawl is literally a crawl along the water. The arms move as in the trudgeon, except that the elbows are bent and the stroke is correspondingly briefer, a sort of short-arm pull, passing into a paddling motion, and finishing as a push. The recovery is in the air. The leg-stroke is unlike anything else. The thighs are held motionless in line with the body, while the lower legs thresh up and down from the knees. It is pretty nearly, there fore, the movement of the child who lies on the floor on its stomach and waves its feet in the air. The knees should be close together; the feet should be extended in line with the shins on the stroke ; the best opinion seems to be that they should be drawn up on the recovery as in the scissor-kick. The feet should never be more than twelve or eighteen inches apart, and at their highest point may come well into the air. In short, in the crawl kick, both legs have much the motion of the under leg in the scissor-kick.
Of timing in the crawl there is none. The arms alternate, and the legs alter nate ; but each goes its own gait without regard to the other. Many swimmers move the legs only just enough to keep them from sinking ; a few let them trail behind and do not use them at all. Most, however, drive the legs rather hard. Each swimmer is a law to himself, according to the relative strength of legs and arms.
The hardest thing about the crawl is the breathing. The body travels flat on the face, and the thrashing movement of the legs tends to throw the head under. Breath has to be taken, therefore, by a quick turn of the neck to one side. It may be taken as often as one pleases— at each stroke, at every other stroke, at each third stroke, according to the rapidity of the pace. Breath should be taken, however, as in the trudgeon, during the pull of the arm on the side toward which the head turns. The natural impulse is to take it just the other way, on the side of the arm which is in the air. It is a great mistake to take breath by lifting the head from the water as in the breast-stroke, since this position at once checks the swimmer's progress. Many persons, nevertheless, who cannot manage the proper breathing, keep the head above water all the time, and inhale as they please. For persons
who are strong in the arms, and naturally swim pretty high in the water, this is by no means a bad stroke for short distances.
The crawl can, however, be swum in a somewhat leisurely fashion by lengthen ing out the arm-stroke until it becomes like that of the trudgeon, and rolling the body strongly from side to side. This is the method ordinarily followed when the crawl is used for distance-racing; and the principle might be carried still further.
In fact, we are yet very far indeed from having exhausted the possibilities of the crawl. When it first came into notice, it was thought to be impossible for anything but short sprints. Now it is used for dis tances up to the mile. Still further modi fication might convert it into a rival of the breast-stroke for the timid and the middle-aged ! The crawl-kick is the most nearly fric tionless of all leg-strokes. I t ought, there fore, to be possible to make it the basis of some simple stroke for the beginner. To be sure, it is somewhat tiring ; but on the other hand, it is the most natural of all leg-movements, and it does not have to be timed. I have myself experimented with a side-stroke in which the hips are slightly twisted and the crawl-thrash, made somewhat obliquely, replaces the scissor-kick. The stroke has the merit of great simplicity, is fairly rapid, and has proved especially suited to children who are too young to get the somewhat com plex timing of the ordinary side-stroke. But of this more in its proper place.
I have been studying also another form of the crawl, which seems to offer possi bilities of ease, if not of speed, for a swim mer whose build and temperament it chances to suit. This is a sort of double sided trudgeon, with a crawl-kick. The legs strike sharply, but with' a pause after each straightening, so that one foot fin ishes before the other begins, as in the original or " Australian " crawl, in which arms and legs are timed like the legs of a trotting-horse. The arms work nearly as in the trudgeon. With the body on the side and the under arm at full reach, the upper arm is brought down and the breath inhaled. After a short pause in this posi tion, the upper arm recovers, and at the same time the body rolls over to the other side, and the arm which was at first the under arm now becomes the upper and comes down as before. Thus the pulling arm is always the upper, and the face turns first to one side and then to the other. The stroke is a leisurely one, since neither arm is moving at the same time as the other ; and it is, of course, entirely un suited to racing. It can be swum also with the scissor-kick, one kick to each arm stroke instead of one for both. I mention these matters merely to point out that, while the new speed-strokes have thus far been pretty much the exclusive property of the racing men by whom they have been developed, there is no reason why the pleasure swimmer should not take them in hand and modify them for his require ments. The day has long gone by when it is supposed that any one stroke is best, or that any two persons must swim in the