Lie in shallow water and practice the stroke of the upper arm and the breath ing. Add the kick, properly timed. Work off into deeper and deeper water; support the body by the under-arm hand on bottom, and continue the prac tice of upper arm, breathing, and legs. Gradually lessen the aid of the under arm until a light touch of the finger-tips is sufficient. With increased confidence and balance, get the under arm on the full reach, and slide after the kick. Finally, at the end of the slide, draw down the under arm without touching the bottom, recover immediately, as the upper arm comes down, and the lesson is learned.
The head should be carried as low as possible in the water, and turned some what toward the upper shoulder. Espe daily at first, it should be so far submerged that the water comes over both ears and nearly to the eyes. In this position the body will almost float itself. Hence comes one of the great advantages of commenc ing with the side-stroke. Do not, in gen eral, use water-wings or any other artificial support. They help one to float ; but they alter the balance, and in the end hinder more than they help. In default of a beach, one can use a light raft, which will tilt on one side under his weight. At the worst, one can follow these directions while he clings to some support, first with both hands, then with the under hand only.
After one has got the under-arm side stroke pretty well learned, it becomes a simple matter to change to the single over-arm. The two are exactly alike, except that in the over-arm stroke the upper arm is carried forward above the surface of the water. This diminishes by so much the resistance of the water, and thus increases the speed. It does, how ever, slightly alter the balance of the body, so that it seems a little strange at first. The upper arm, too, since it travels faster out of water than in, may start an instant later on its recovery. Morever, the weight of the arm tends to sink the head. But as the breath should be coming out as the upper arm goes forward on its recovery, it should not make any particular differ ence whether the nose is under water or not. It is a fundamental principle in the timing of all swimming-strokes, that, when the breath is being taken in, no thing except the head shall be out of water.
There are two common variants of the side-stroke, both of which it is impor tant to avoid ; for the reason that both will have to be unlearned before one can advance from the single over-arm stroke to the double over-arm, or trudgeon. One of these is the habit of taking in the breath as the under arm comes down. The other is the habit of opening the legs as the upper arm goes forward and closing them as it comes-down. Both these involve a timing impossible for the double over-arm stroke. The second of them, in addition, causes the legs to act at the same time as the upper arm, so that the body, instead of progressing steadily, one member acting at a time, jumps for ward in a succession of jerks as in the breast-stroke. When the side-stroke fails to give an even progress, something is wrong with it. Either the timing is wrong, or else the legs are being opened too quickly, or too wide, or the upper knee is too much bent. Unfortunately, all these wrong ways are especially natural.
Swum correctly, then, the side-stroke should swing along in four-four time. During the first beat, the upper arm comes down, the legs open, the breath comes in, and the under arm recovers. On the second, the legs close. The third is a rest. With the fourth, the under arm falls in and the upper recovers.
The side-stroke, under-arm or single over-arm, is on the whole the best all round stroke ; the one stroke, that is, which every swimmer ought to know whether he knows any other or not. In this respect it has pretty much super seded the old breast-stroke. It is easier to swim than the breast-stroke, and con sequently faster. It lends itself better to swimming in skirts, since there is no lap ful of water to be dragged along. Its chief disadvantage is that it does not allow the swimmer to see conveniently what is directly in front of him, or to view both sides at once. It works well in surf, since one has only to breathe in the trough of the wave, and let the crest run over him as it will ; but in a short chop, where the waves are only a few inches high and cor respondingly frequent, the stroke has its limitations. One thing with another, it has become the standard method of pro gression among swimmers who are good but not fancy.