Diving Feet Foremost
To enter the water, diving feet foremost, is a difficult thing to do, but when such a plunge is nicely made it usually comes in for a good share of merited approval. Most of the ornamental and difficult swimming movements are usually performed in tanks or at swimming gatherings, where there is an audience, and the spectators, who know very little about scientific strokes, are interested, amused and entertained by these other performances, among which none ranks higher than plunging feet foremost. As in other forms of diving and plunging, the swimmer stands on the edge of the pool or starting station, and, taking the usual breath, leaps outward, feet foremost, much like jumping in the water, throwing the arms behind and over the head and entering the water feet first, instead of head first. The body must be well thrown back, and the legs straightened and kept perfectly rigid while entering the water. One must jump well out and be sure to judge the distance safely in order that there be no danger of striking the upper part of the body on the ledge of the bath, pier or wharf, as the case may be.
The number of ornamental feats in swimming is almost unlimited, according to the ability and ingenuity of the performer; but, in addition to the above-described movements, such figures as porpoise swimming, where the expert describes, by going under and over the water, the swimming of a porpoise; imitation of a torpedo, the head and body being submerged and the feet above the water, the swimmer propelling himself with the hands, the feet alone showing above the water; the back and front somersaults, which are really swimming gymnastics; sculling on the back, using feet and hands only; imitation of a bicycle rider, etc., etc., all of which can be mastered by a clever swimmer with practice.