OCR Text |
Show MAKES CHAMPS; CAN'T SWIM 440 Develops Swimming Mar vels By Sitting in Huge Chair Near Tank CHICAGO. Nov C. (By th" Associated Associ-ated Press) No long ago the newspaper" news-paper" recorded the fact that Mls.s Sybil Bauer. 17-year-old Chicago glr! had swam the 4-10-yard backstroke In 0 meet in Bermuda in C:1'4. breaking for the first time in recorded athletic I history, a world's record held by a iuan. The old mark of ', 29 was held 'by "Stubby Krueger. j Behind that bare announcement Is :the story of a coach who can't swim the 440. or probably half that distance. I but who has brought out many of the most famous s Irnmers In recent years, imludlng MiSH Bauer, Johnny WelS-mueller. WelS-mueller. Norman Koss, perry McGUUv- ray, Mike McDermott and Harry Heb-ner. Heb-ner. He Is William Bachrach. swimming instructor of the Illinois Athlete club. Once, In his early days, Bach" was S great "third place athlete." he says. Back In 1897 he made his only appear ance In a national swimming tourna-'nient, tourna-'nient, entering the 100-yard swim in a meet In Lincoln park lagoon here. There were four entries and Bachrach won his one and only swimming medal when he finished third- after the fourth man pwam himself out and quit at tho end of fifty yards. N'ovv. weighing, by his own admission, admis-sion, "five pounds less than a battleship," battle-ship," ho sits in a, huge wicker armchair arm-chair beside the I. A. C lank and trains promising youngsters to break all tho swimming records from the Bermudas to Honolulu. Once a month or so when they fill the tank up to eleven feet for the water game. "Bach" drops in with a mighty plaah and docs a round or two, but that 1 about the extent of his own water v ork. Wild. POWER M l 1DED "Anybody can be a good swimmer If hu has the will to work and work( hard." Bachrach says. "He may not be a champion, for it Just isn't born In some people to be champions, but if! he Is willing to plug along day In and day out and stick to the deadly grind, he will be a good swimmer. "Tho trouble Is that lots of swim- meis, and sometimes those with mostj natural talent, haven't enough of thOj will to win to keep at H." "What is the secret ot your success as a coach'.'" he was asked. "Making them work day in and day out, I require mv teams to swim a: quarter of a milt- a day. I don't hold n stop watch on them, they can tak , their own time, but they must swim I at least that quarter of a mile. Afterl that they can play around the tanl c II they want to as long as they wish "If a awlrniuer swlnis 300 quarter, miles In a year that's 7o miles. Nobody No-body can swim 76 miles a year without, developing. They are bound to learn! something, "I sit up here and watch them iWlml their II laps, and when thev come on1 1 talk things over and point out their j mistakes ntid suggest improvement! That's all there Is to It. GET THBef SOI . "My principle is to get them young Sybil Bauer came lo us four years ago When he wasn't quite 14 year old. We bad announced through the newspaper! news-paper! that we were going to organize; B class for girls, and Invited swimmers to apply. She was in the class. One day I saw her using the back stroke, and doing very well with it. We talked it over and she decided sho wanted , to bo the world's greatest back stroke swimmer. Today ihe is." Bachrach passes, over his own in- i ability to rank above the mediocre swimmer with the explanation that I th best coaches don't swim much. " That applies in other sports, too." he aaya, "Zuppke down at ininoi was never much of a football player, but look what a coach .he Is. When you Work around here, all the lime you don't have tho desire to swim much. It's like being a chef. Nobody over saw m chef eut much, unless Ha was out at somebody's else's house." Really great swimmers, "Bach" says, are born, not made. "You cant pui h voice in anybody." he explains. "There would be no tisr of my golnx to a singing teacher to cultivate a voice 1 haven't got. But while everybody can't be a great swimmer, ho can he a good swimmer. If ho wants to work for It." PLEADS FOR CHANCE Musi ot th famous swimmers developed de-veloped under hll tutwlago ai prod nets of tho Chicago public beaches and Y, M. C. A. pools. Back In October ,1 191'0, a boy on one of his learns told Bachrach a friend who was swimming I at tho ak itreel public bench had been begging to be brought down t see the I. A. C. coach. Tho swimmer asked permission to bring his friend in Drdei to put a stop to his pleas. Fie brought him and hi! name '.v i-s Johny Welsmueller Between 'clobei 1920, and August of lost year, Bachrach Bach-rach trained Welamueller, Fourteen month! ago he entered his first big meet. (Jp to th present he has broken hlrty-.-te ven world's records. |