Every Boy's Book: A Complete Encyclopædia of Sports and Amusements

by Unknown

THRUSTING.

In the thrust the swimmer lies horizontally upon his waist, and makes the common motions in swimming. He then simply stretches one arm forwards, as in swimming on the side, but remains lying upon the waist, and, in a widely described circle, he carries the other hand, which is working under the breast, towards the hip. As soon as the arm has completed this motion, it is lifted from the water in a stretched position, and thrown forward in the greatest horizontal level, and is then sunk with the hand flat into the water; while the swimmer thus stretches forth the arm, he, with the other hand stretched as wide as possible, describes a small circle in order to sustain the body; after this he brings his hand in a largely described circle rapidly to the hip, lifts the arm out of the water, and thrusts it forward. During the describing of the larger circle the feet make their movements. To make the thrust beautifully, a considerable degree of practice is required. This mode of swimming is useful where a great degree of rapidity is required for a short distance.

THE DOUBLE THRUST.

In the performance of this the arm is thrust forwards, backwards, and again forwards without dipping into the water; in the meantime the stretched-forth arm describes two circles before it begins the larger one.

TO SWIM LIKE A DOG.

In this motion each hand and foot is used alternately as a dog uses them when swimming, as the term implies. The hands are alternately drawn towards the chin in a compressed form, and then expanded and slightly hollowed, with fingers close, and as they strike the water the feet are likewise drawn towards the belly, and struck backwards with a kind of kick. This mode of swimming is of use to relieve the swimmer from time to time when going a distance.

THE MILL.

The swimmer lays himself on his back and contracts himself so that the knees are brought almost to the chin, and while one of the hands keeps the equilibrium by describing circles, the other continues working. Thus the body is kept turning round more or less rapidly.