The right mode of starting is as follows: Stand as seen in the accompanying [illustration]—the spine well bent backwards, the body tolerably stiff, and leaning well against the heavy bar. Now draw yourself up gently by the arms, as if you were trying to lift your chin above the bar, and you will find yourself started without any trouble. Keep the back still bent, and as you descend allow the arms gradually to assume a perfectly straight position. You will then swing out fairly and boldly, and by the least possible sway at the end of the swing will retain sufficient impetus to enable you to resume your stand on the perch.
Even in this there is an art. If you merely allow yourself to swing back as you swing forward, you will be disagreeably reminded of your error, by hitting the back of the leg smartly against the edge of the perch. In order to avoid this misfortune, draw up the legs sharply just before you reach the end of the return swing, and you will find them come down on the perch with perfect ease.
If you are using the rings instead of the bar, you can vary this part of the performance by turning round in the air, and crossing the ropes so that you alight on the perch with your back towards the trapèze, though it is necessary to give a sharp twist as your foot touches the perch, and so to turn in the direction in which you started.
Take notice that the arms are always at full length during the swing, and that the illustrations which represent the performer swinging with bent arms are entirely erroneous. There is another fault into which the artists mostly fall. Thinking that they are obtaining pictorial effect, they represent the ropes which sustain the bar as forming an angle with the arms of the performer, whereas the arms, body, and ropes are, or ought to be, all in the same line.
The real attitude in the trapèze is given in the accompanying [illustration], wherein it will be seen that the ropes, the arms, and the body are all in the same line; and, indeed, a little reflection will prove that they must be so. Note the position and action, or rather the non-action of the body, and be careful to imitate it. During the swing, let the body and limbs hang at full length, and be sure to keep the feet nearly together, and the toes pointed. The illustrations are all wrong in this respect. They always will show the performer in an attitude which the draughtsman is pleased to think a graceful one; but it is inexpressibly graceless and ridiculous in the eyes of a gymnast.
When you have accomplished the swing and return satisfactorily, you may advance another step. Swing off as usual; and, when you have reached the extremity of the swing, you will find yourself balanced for a moment motionless, the attraction of gravitation being balanced by the impetus of the swing. Just at this important point, shift your hold on the bar, and change sides, as you would do if the bar were hanging quietly.