The Art Of Swimming - Containing Some Tips On: The Breast-Stroke, The Leg Stroke, The Arm Movements, The Side Stroke And Swimming On Your Back

By William Henry

This antiquarian volume contains a comprehensive and novice-friendly guide to swimming. With information on the breast-stroke, the leg stroke, the arm movements, the side stroke, and swimming on your back - this timeless guide is ideal for anyone with an interest in improving their swimming skills, and would make for a great addition to collections of vintage sporting literature. William Henry (1859 - 1928) was a British freestyle swimmer. He co-founded the 'Royal Life Saving Society' and won numerous national and European championships during his lifetime. Many vintage texts such as this - particularly those dating back to the 1900s and before - are increasingly hard to come by and expensive. It is with this in mind that we are republishing this book now, in an affordable, modern, high-quality edition. It comes complete with a specially commissioned new biography of the author.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Read Country Books
• Release date: Aug 6, 2020
• ISBN: 9781528762908

William Henry

William Henry is an historian, archaeologist and author of several titles including Coffin Ship, Hidden Galway, Famine; Galway's Darkest Years, Forgotten Heroes and Galway and the Great War. He lives in Galway.

Book preview

THE BREAST-STROKE

THE movements which are necessary in order that a man may propel himself through the water are acquired. If they were natural, there would be no difficulty in learning, because they would be made instinctively, as with quadrupeds, who of course have to follow the ordinary laws of mechanics when they swim. The ease and velocity with which a dog can move through the water appear disproportionate to the means employed. This capability of swimming is common to most quadrupeds.

If a dog be taken as one of the best examples of a swimming quadruped, and his actions be watched, it will be found that his legs move in the same plane as when walking or running, and that the body is poised in the water as under ordinary circumstances on land, with the head projecting. The trunk being situated just above the legs, and balanced on them, the centre of gravity naturally falls immediately above the propelling power. When an animal which has never been immersed before is thrown into the water, it will immediately begin to swim—self-preservation, which is the first law of Nature, in the eternal fitness of things, compelling it to do the exact thing required under the circumstances.

Swimming must, however, be acquired by man, whose hands and feet are nevertheless so formed that they present a much greater surface to the water than those of most animals. Confidence may do much to ensure rapid mastery of the art, but confidence combined with a correct knowledge of the movements which facilitate floating with the head above water is more than doubly valuable.

There have been cases of persons finding themselves able to swim upon first going into the water, but they are altogether exceptional. Huet, Bishop of Avranches, in his Memoirs, states that, being accustomed like other boys to bathe several times a day in hot weather, it happened that he ventured into a stream without first trying its depth, and immediately sank to the bottom; but being roused to exertion by the urgency of danger, he struggled so hard with his hands and feet as to raise himself to the surface of the water, and then, finding that he possessed a faculty with which he was before unacquainted, he swam across a deep river on that very day. This little anecdote is mentioned by many writers, and Bucke in his ‘Book of Human Character,’ after quoting it, says, ‘How many thousands of men have been drowned in all parts of the world ! Nine in ten of these might have been saved had they possessed the force of character here described.’

Such reflections may be of service to the moralist, but they are valueless to a teacher of swimming, who has to deal with the undoubted fact that, except in accidental and rare instances, all human beings have to learn swimming. They may learn to swim unconsciously, it is true, but all the same they have had to acquire the movements. Their legs being weighty, they