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Show 1,1 CRITICISES 0m SWIMMING I H' J Dick Cavill's Comment Unwarranted According tp HI f - American View of It I- '; rpHE wholesale criticism of American '' swimming strokes and methods by I jj Richard Cavlll, former champion of 1 , ; Australia and now instructor at tho Il linois Athletic club of Chicago, has I aroused coaches throughout the coun try and brought to light somo Interesting Interest-ing facts concerning the development of tho crawl since Its Introduction here seven years ago. Any discussion on ( the relative merits of tho Australian I and American varieties of this stroke , t must, of course, prove an idle ono. both I ' -v. bocauso there is no definite type In either country and because widely dlf-, dlf-, ' ferlng conditions moke Imposslblo a 1 fair comparison. And It may bo added i that Cavlll cannot bo counted a com petent Judge of tho question owing to 1 his having studied American methods only In tho mlddlo west. Considering j , that New York holds tho champion- i ( ships at all distances in straight swlm- f ' .mlng his views arc not at all conclu- i ' nlvo. After reading somo of the replies to ' tho Australian's comments ono is apt to wonder what constitutes tho true -' ' ' American crawl. There appear to be ! conflicting opinions on the subject, and , certainly tho descriptions given by Sul-. Sul-. , , ' llvan, Mcffert. Mackenzie' KlBtler, j ' Wahle, Cady and some other of our ' I ' i leading authorities differ greatly. ) j . Ono thing stands out Irrefutably, , t howover. Cavlll bases his criticism on i) our supposed use of a straight arm jU i ' stroke, and yet every one of the coach- 1 es above mentioned teaches his pupils JJ to catch with elbow raised, which Jf makes a straight arm drlv Imposelblo. , j j If somo Insist on the arms being J brought down at right angles to the fj I body it la because they know that this , j is the best way to prevent' the bcgln- i ncr from getting an exaggerated in- . j ward hook that minimizes the effec- 1 lI tivencss of the drive. ) ;j It is made evldant by the published , I ' arguments that in the post few years ' j students of swimming have given par- 'j tloular attention to the obtaining of a ',' . act of movements that would Insure J tho propelling forward of the body i' from start to finish of tho arm drive. '!; k In the old side stroke, when tho hand j waa carried Into the chest and then ' out, there was considerable loss of i power, and later when tbe trudgcon j 4 cam into existence and a straight arm j was prhed both tho early part and , j i tho finish of tho stroko were useless, j oecause tho pressure tpz npplled ,' '" downward at first and upvtrd at last. I , 1- To obviate this the raised elbow catch IjT was .lntnrzed. and It gave imfhedl- v ate.' resuiui, because It enabled the iU. -" '.'.-i t begin to draw bis body fv 1 forward the minute the hand dug.lnto tho water. The latter part of tho swoop was still unsatisfactory, though, and It is only qulto recently that coaches seem to havo hit on the way to draw benefit from it In fact, few neom to know of tho discovery even now. In tho now method tho hands plungo Into tho wnter with forco on either eldo of the head and abovo it Tho elbows el-bows are held high and the wrists bent slightly downward. As the arm sweeps down In this position tho shoulder Is mado to do most of tho work until the hand reaches tho height of the chest, when the upper arm slackens speed (tho olbow is still high) and the forearm fore-arm comes strongly into play, pressing backward hard until it reaches tho thigh, when It Is lifted out of water and carried forward for another stroke. As con bo seen, this action entails no loss of power or cessation of forward propulsion at any part of the drive. Curiously. Cavlll makes no mention of this stroke. Ho claims that tho arm should bo carried down along tho center cen-ter of the body and close to it, but any one with even slight knowledge of applied ap-plied mechanics will understand why nuch a method Is Inferior to the other, as tho leverage, is at no time as good. Of the leg drive very little was said in the. recent controversy, but Coach RIchardB of Yale expressed tho opinion that an improvement In the present thrash was being tried out at New Haven, Ha-ven, and another step forward was anticipated an-ticipated through It. He has been studying tho "swordflsh kick" of Instructor In-structor Bundstrom of the New York Athletic club, and he believes that it has wonderful speed In It. This kick greatly resembles the crawl thrash, but Instead of tho logs moving simply up and down they perform a rotary motion mo-tion very like the action of a bicyclist In pedaling fast. Gfeat difficulty has been experienced In teaching these complicated movemonts and results have not proved very satisfactory, but there Is no doubt that Sundstrom can by the aid of his kick only go almost as fast as the average swimmer can using arms and legs, so Richards contention con-tention Is not unwarranted. |