POSITION AND STROKE IN SWIMMING. 55 



above water. But, when the correct position is once mastered, this 

 difficulty disappears, and swimming is made as natural and easy a 

 function of the body as running or walking. 



Fig. 2, showing the correct position of the body while swimming, 

 has been drawn from empirical analysis, and is as plausible in theory 

 as in practice. All of the propulsory exertions should be given so as 

 to have but one tendency that of advancing the body directly for- 

 ward. (The proper method for accomplishing this end will be spoken 

 of further on.) Now, admitting that the whole tendency of the stroke 

 is to force the body in the direction of the component, c, if the body 

 be so bent that the chest and part of the abdomen will form a resist- 

 ance, making an angle with the direction of the force as a, b, c the 

 tendency of that resistance will be to form a resultant in the direction 



Fig. 2. 



of b, which forms, with the natural buoyancy of the body, the force 

 that keeps the head above water. 



A concomitant advantage in the position under discussion is, that 

 the neck and head are free to take their natural positions, and hence 

 the avoidance of the evil referred to in speaking of the position of the 

 head assumed by beginners. 



The greatest difficulty to the beginner is to learn to keep the proper 

 position of the body after attaining it. This difficulty can only be 

 overcome by using the proper stroke after having placed the body in 

 the correct position. 



In the use of the arms, the only direction that can be given is to 

 remember that, when the arms are thrust forward at the beginning of 

 the stroke, such position of the elbows and hands should be taken as 

 will make the least resistance to the water. To accomplish this, the 

 hands should be placed palm to palm, and the elbows made to come quite 

 close together, starting them from under the chest, as in the cut. In 

 making the effective part of the stroke, our object is to get a forward 

 motion only. The arms and hands should be so placed as to produce 

 the greatest resistance upon the water. To accomplish this, the palms 

 of the hands should be thrown outward, and the plane of the direction 

 of the stroke of the arms made parallel to the surface of the water. 



The most important and the most often defective point in swim- 

 ming is the mode of using the legs. It would be well for a beginner 

 to observe the swimming of a frog, for undoubtedly the same method 



