Plate XXVIII
Swimming—Thrusting.
THRUSTING.
This is a transition from front swimming, in which the attitude and motions of the feet are still the same, but those of the hands very different. One arm, the right for instance, is lifted entirely out of the water, thrust forward as much as possible, and, when at the utmost stretch, let fall, with the hand hollowed, into the water, which it grasps or pulls towards the swimmer in its return transversely towards the opposite arm-pit. While the right arm is thus stretched forth, the left, with the hand expanded, describes a small circle to sustain the body ([Plate XXVIII.] fig. 1); and, while the right arm pulls towards the swimmer, the left, in a widely-described circle, is carried rapidly under the breast, towards the hip. ([Plate XXVIII.] fig. 2.)
When the left arm has completed these movements, it, in its turn, is lifted from the water, stretched forward, and pulled back,—the right arm describing first the smaller, then the larger circle. The feet make their movements during the describing of the larger circle. The thrust requires much practice; but, when well acquired, it not only relieves the swimmer, but enables him to make great advance in the water, and is applicable to cases where rapidity is required for a short distance.
SPRINGING.
Some swimmers, at every stroke, raise not only their neck and shoulders, but breast and body, out of the water. This, when habitual, exhausts without any useful purpose. As an occasional effort, however, it maybe useful in seizing objects above; and it may then best be performed by the swimmer drawing his feet as close as possible under his body, stretching his hands forward, and, with both feet and hands, striking the water strongly, so as to throw himself out of it as high as the hips.