Learn to swim

Manawatu Standard, Volume XI, Issue 1642, 23 February 1886, Page 4

Learn to swim

. . ... . ♦ ! Every healthy boy aud girl can learn to swiin. Leb me tell you how I learnt. In learning to swim there are just two things to acquire. First : '<■■■ confitfencein the water. First learn j '-to think of water, not as a monster, : '"■■■ready to devour all that may approach .. it, but rather look upon it as a willing • servant or a playful' eompaniong ready to afford you all manner of. delight. Then learn to move the 'j hands and feet in the light way/ Some persona reverse this order and try to secure the proper motion first. This they do by using corks or lifepreservers, or an}* thing that will hold them up while they get the stroke or catch the exact movement. Thousands have learned in this way, It is uot the best ; for such have to learn over again when they try to swim without these helps. A bettpr wny, especially, for the girls, is to have some friends who will place Ihe '.: hand under the chin ol the learner, and gai dually 'remove the help as the person learns to do without it. If yon. choose this method- — of learning the proper mbthod first — you need only to remember this siglerule : Always - thrust out the hands ami feet at the same time. In the recovery, when you draw in the feet, and hands do it slwely . then, with a sudden push, ureached yourself out as. Jar as yonr set and hands can reach, keeping fee close together. Any good . wimmerth will show, ynu how . aiot; this is done; but you may do it perfectly the first time. I began the other way j gaining confidence first, the proier motion aterward. Most persaris are afraid of the water, especially when they sink beneath its surface. Those ""learning to swim are apt to carry the head and body too far out of the •water.' To gain confidence then, J first """of all' accustomed myself to remain uhrjor water as long as I could hold my breath. Tn this way 1 lost all fear./ Afterward, when I was learning ihe proper motion, if I sink up to. my mouth, and almost to. my .eyes, it didn't frighten me. Having gained this confidence, then I took a veay easy and 'natural method of learning the swimmer's stroke." I - began with what we boys call scooping, i.e., standing on a rock, or anything a foot or two below the surface, I stooped down until the water came to the chin, then gave a sudden push with the hands stretched out before me, and the feet straight behind nie, the hand and feet together, of course, thu« skimming along the surface. First I went a little way until I reached the hand of my friend, who stood re;idy to catch me. Then he stepped back a little farther. Then a little farther still. Thus I discovered the buoyancy of the water. Then, .1 ;tobk my first stroke while scooping, another, and gdualy. another, until I proudly told my comdariion the next day that I could «wiin six stroke. Adding a fews strikes every day in a short time I then was swimming fearlessly with the seterans. You can all be Ihe same if you will "-try.