(a) Do not begin to slide forward before you swing. Let your swing just have the precedence, and let it then carry your slide with it.
(9) The pace of the swing forward must be slow and unvarying, and the slide, therefore, must also move slowly. The time occupied by the swing should be the body's rest.
(10) Remember the fixed-seat instructions as to balance against the stretcher with the feet during the swing forward, and especially during the latter part of it. The fault of tumbling forward over the stretcher is far too common, and can only be avoided or corrected by maintaining the pressure on the stretcher. In fact, never let your body get out of control. You ought to feel and to look as if at any moment during the swing forward you could stop dead at the word of command. Swing and slide should practically end together, the body "snaking out," as I have heard it expressed, in the final part of the swing, but without "pecking" over the front-stop. There must be no over-reach with the shoulders.
(11) When the body is full forward the knees should be opened to about the breadth of the arm-pits, the flanks closed in against the thighs. The knees should bend steadily and gradually into this position, and at the moment of beginning they must maintain themselves there and not fall loosely apart. Such a movement entails a great loss of power at the beginning of the next stroke. Nor, on the other hand, ought the knees to be clipped together as the stroke begins.
(12) Remember, finally, that grace, erectness, straightness of back and arms, and a clean precision, balance and elasticity of all movements are as important now as they were on fixed seats. A man who on slides rounds his back, humps up his shoulders, and hollows his chest may do good work, but it will be in spite of and not because of these serious disfigurements. Only by carefully observing fixed rules and by prolonged practice will you be able to attain to the harmonious ease and elegance by which a comparatively weak man can so economize his strength as to outrow and outlast some brawny giant who wastes his power in useless contortions.
