Swimming Scientifically Taught | Page 2

Position 76 Fig. 30. The Crawl Stroke--Breathing Position 77 Treading
Water 83 Floating Position 85 Incorrect Floating Position 86 Easy
Floating Position 87 Teaching Diving to a Beginner 91 A Bad Dive 93
Correct Position in Mid Air 94 Correct Position on Entering the Water
95 Mrs. Frank Eugen Dalton--Position for a Dive 97 The
Standing-Sitting Dive 98 The Back Dive 99 The Dolphin Dive 101 The
Australian Splash 102 The Neck Dive 104 Swimming Like a Dog 106
Correct Position for Long Plunge in Water 108 Swimming Backward
on Chest 110 The Washing Tub 112 The Propeller 113 The Torpedo
115 The Catherine Wheel 117 Rolling 119 Swimming Like a Porpoise
122 The Pendulum 125 Forward Somersault 127 Double Somersault
130 One Leg Out of Water 131 Over and Under 137 Monte Cristo Sack
Trick 142 Water Polo 161 Water Polo--Diagram 177 The Best Method
of Saving Life 184 Sylvester's Method--Figure 1 191 Sylvester's
Method--Figure 2 192 Sylvester's Method--Figure 3 193 Tail-piece 195



PART I
INTRODUCTION

THE IMPORTANCE OF SWIMMING
That all persons ought to know how to safeguard themselves when in
deep water is becoming more and more recognized as time passes.
While swimming is probably the oldest pastime known to man, and has
had, and still has, its votaries in every country, civilized or uncivilized,
it is curious that this most useful science should have been so much
neglected.
For an adult person to be unable to swim points to something like
criminal negligence; every man, woman and child should learn. A
person who can not swim may not only become a danger to himself,
but to some one, and perhaps to several, of his fellow beings. Children
as early as the age of four may acquire the art; none are too young,
none too old. Doctors recommend swimming as the best all-around
exercise. It is especially beneficial to nervous people. Swimming
reduces corpulency, improves the figure, expands the lungs, improves
the circulation of the blood, builds up general health, increases vitality,
gives self-confidence in case of danger, and exercises all the muscles in
the body at one time. As an aid to development of the muscular system,
it excels other sports. Every muscle is brought into play.
In other important ways it is a useful, and even a necessary
accomplishment; no one knows when he may be called upon for a
practical test of its merits. The Slocum steamboat catastrophe in the
East River, New York, several years ago, gave a melancholy example
of what better knowledge of swimming might have done to save the
lives of passengers. That awful tragedy, which plunged an entire city
into mourning, was too appalling to have its details revived here, but,
regardless of the fact that the life-preservers on board were found unfit
for use, the loss of life would have been made much smaller had the
unfortunate passengers known how to keep their heads above water
until help arrived. Millions of people are transported yearly by river
craft, and just for lack of knowledge of how to swim a repetition of the
Slocum disaster might occur any summer.
Only about 20 per cent. of the entire population of the United States
know how to swim. A visit to any of the beaches along the Atlantic

coast will convince any one of this fact. There is no excuse for this
ignorance, especially in a city like New York, with miles of water front
and fine beaches at its very door; nor is there excuse in other places
where an ocean, lakes and rivers afford opportunities for swimming.
Swimming is a tonic alike for muscle and brain. The smallest child and
the weakest woman can enjoy it equally with the strongest man. When
slaves of the desk and counting-house are looking forward for an all too
brief vacation and seek the mountains or seashore to store up energy for
another year's work, they should know how to swim. Poor, indeed, is
the region which can not boast of a piece of water in which to take an
invigorating plunge.
The importance of being able to swim was very generally recognized in
ancient times, notably by the Romans. Roman youth, as early as the
Republican era, when trained to bear arms, were made to include in
their exercises bathing and swimming in the Tiber, where competitions
were frequent. Cassius in his youth became renowned as a swimmer.
Shakespeare, in a familiar passage, describes a race between him and
Julius Cæsar, Cassius being made the speaker:
"I was born free as Cæsar; so were you: We both have fed as well, and
we can both Endure the winter's cold as well as he. For once, upon a
raw and gusty day, The troubled Tiber chafing with her shores, Cæsar
said to