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Home , Boy Charlton, Brad Cooper, Cecil Healy, Fanny Durack, Flutter kick, Frank Beaurepaire

WSCAWSCA Vol 05 Issue 3 WORLD COACHES ASSOCIATION NEWSLETTER of the World Swimming Coaches Association phone 954.563.4930 fax 954.563.9813

The Gold Medal Clinic Acapulco, Mexico August 17-20, 2005 Olivares, Rodrigo Castanada, Carlos Sarabia, Kiril Todorov, a video, say, “do that exactly” and get out of the way. They Maurico Garduno, Lenin Aguirre, and Pablo Mata. This great learn by WATCHING. There are 200 Million little perfect team from Mexico pulled off the Best Ever WSCA Gold Medal Dancing Brittany Spears out there.” Clinic in Acapulco, Mexico on August 17-20. - “use daily doses of “speed shots”…going multiple 12’s and 25’s at race stroke and race speed, go about 8-12 minutes of The organization and execution of the clinic was the best this at a time on low rest. They need to practice their “Racing ever, and with attendance exceeding 400 from more than 18 Stroke”.” nations, it was the most successful yet. In addition, the fact - “In 1992, USA Swimming and USA Soccer both had 225,000 that it was the first WSCA Gold Medal Clinic ever held in a registered athletes. Then USA Soccer put 1.5 million dollars non-English speaking nation makes it even more significant a year into promoting its sport. In 2004, USA Soccer had and special. 2.3 MILLION registered athletes, and USA swimming, with virtually no investment in the grass roots publicity, had Our thanks from all of WSCA to Javier Careaga and his great 260,000 registered athletes. Are there any rocket scientists team on their magnificent performance. in the audience? “

There were coaches of the Olympic Gold Medalists, Frank Frank Busch Busch, Paul Bergen, Eddie Reese, Kim Brackin, Teri McKeever, - “It's possible to get way over-involved with the competition Bob Bowman, Glenn Beringen, Mike Bottom, and Doina Sava. in the camp. It's important to trust what you did to get there, In addition, other impressive presentations were made by: honor that, and stick with it.” Carmen Gomez, Ed Moses, Gina Bastidas, Yanet Valadez, - “Imagine three meets…the city of Acapulco Championships, Teresa Rivera, Lulu Cisneros, and Beatriz Esesarte. the state of Guerrero Championships and the Mexican National Championship. As I simply say each name, your fear We hope, and will know soon, that there will be audio factor increases, despite the fact that they are all in 50 meter reproductions of the talks available in both English and pools, they are all the same, and your goal in each should be Spanish, on CD’s. the same….a personal best time.” - “We have 4 simple rules on our team…first, SHOW UP. Be Meanwhile, here are some interesting speaker quotes there. Come to practice. Second, PAY ATTENTION. Learn from the Clinic: something new all the time if you do. Third, TELL THE TRUTH, to yourself as well as others and finally, Fourth, HONOR YOUR Bob Bowman TEAMMATES AND YOUR TEAM WITH YOUR EFFORT.” - “ swam over 66,000 meters the week of competition in . Imagine the implications of that for Paul Bergen the taper and for warmup and cooldown planning.” On the preparation of … - “We went on the road a great deal to train in the last year, - “How you feel does not determine how you will swim. You to escape the escalating weirdness at home from media, can feel great and swim lousy, feel great and swim great, feel friends, etc.” great and swim mediocre. You can feel lousy and swim lousy, - “Michael is a “motivation machine.” Whatever you give him, swim great or swim mediocre. You can feel mediocre and positive, negative, whatever, he finds a way to turn it into swim great, lousy or mediocre. There is no real pattern. The more motivation.” fact is, “on the day,” you are going to compete, regardless of how you “feel,” so learn to swim well under any circumstance Paul Bergen of “feel.” On developing young talent: - “girls can concentrate 2:1 longer than a little boy.” Eddie Reese - “girls are 3: 1 better than boys at repetitive motor skills”. - “Success is getting faster. Period.” (until teenage years) - “for you to GET BETTER, you have to DO more and DO IT - “Give Boys and Girls different things to do whenever BETTER.” possible….the approach to development should be different.” - “Freestyle requires more rest because you take more - “How many little girls can dance like Brittany Spears? ALL strokes and have to take them faster, than you do in any OF THEM! They watch the videos on TV and copy exactly other stroke.” and perfectly. Teach swimming the same way. Show them continued on page 2 >>>

WSCA Swimming Coaching Clinic September 30-October 2, 2005, W. Midlands <<< continued from cover to JL, electronic form. In the alternate months, JL will send Minutes - World Swimming Coaches Association Board total, coordinated lists to the Regional offices. Meeting 3. All WSCA Educational and News Information will be sent via electronic Media, emails and website. No paper costs Present: President Niels Bouws, John Leonard, representing except where absolutely necessary. , Glenn Beringen, representing Great Britain, Ian 4. There is a need to coordinate worldwide lists of Coaches Wright. This group represents 11 votes, or a majority on the Clinics. Each office to seek to find all clinics in their region and Board of Directors. Also present, representing Malaysia, Mr. report to JL, for maintenance in a full and complete list on our Wong Tong Poh, and Mr. Foo Yock Meng, and from Mexico, website. (and access information for those clinics.) Mr. Erik Ibarra Bahena. Two additional gentlemen from 5. Each office shall have a signature on checks. In addition, Mexico joined us later and I did not secure their names. before any checks are paid, the 2nd designated person in each office will approve via hard copy of email, the proposed All introduced themselves. expenditure. In the USA the approval person will be George Block. We need the names from each of the other two offices On the matter of the new constitution, despite having a as well. quorum which had previously approved the new constitution, it was agreed that some further revisions were called for, after The Terao Award Niels noted some internal inconsistencies, and we decided to There is a need this year for a VOTE on the nominated finalists wait one more year, make those corrections and re-submit for the Coach of the Quadrennium. JL will immediately to all. The only approved change to date was the makeup of proceed to formulate such a vote with an eye towards naming the Board of Directors, which is necessary to accomplish our the Coach of the Quad by the end of September and making business in the next 12 months. the award reasonably soon thereafter.

On the Formation of the Board: Coach Beringen recommended that we formulate a specific USA Representatives will be: Mr. Peter Daland, Mr. George set of recommendations for deciding on the Coach of the Block and John Leonard. Australian representatives will be Quad in the future. JL will propose one to the Board shortly, Mr. Ralph Richards and Mr. Rohan Taylor. The third place and ask input from many other coaches. team is , the 4th place team is . JL will issue an invitation to Japan to name a representative within 14 The 2009 Gold Medal Clinic - Brian McGuinness indicated days. If such is not named, the slot on the Board will go to possible interest on the part of Great Britain in hosting Germany. At the end of that time, those 6 representatives the event in the UK, possibly with the help of 2012 will nominate and elect 2 more from other nations with top committee. It was decided that we would accept real bids 8 finalists at the World Champs. It was agreed that an eye for the next 12 months and then seek a decision of the Board towards geographic representation would be important in on the location by late 2006. JL will so inform Brian and will that selection. JL will take charge of final formation of this also put out a general prospectus on the event for possible Board. hosts to consider. Niels Bouws noted that this clinic was extremely successful due to the great work of Javier Careaga On the formation of the OFFICERS. and his staff and there were significant benefits to WSCA from hosting the clinic in a non-English speaking nation. Duly To date, the only Presidential nomination is Mr. Michael Ursu noted and agreed by all. of Australia. Since Mr. Ursu is not currently nominated from Australia, it has been our custom to allow former Board Daily News. Members to be elected President, so this nomination was JL expects to have an employee on board in September who ruled “in order.” will scan the world news and send DAILY news updates to ALL WSCA members daily so our member coaches have the Because of the lack of current Board Members present, it was opportunity to be the best informed coaches in each of their decided that the most fair procedure was to re-ask the new nations and the world. This hopefully will be a significant Board Members for nominations for a President and two vice membership benefit. presidents, and then vote via email for our selections. This will be accomplished prior to the end of October, 2005, by There was general discussion on the WSCA involvement JL. with FINA and the opportunities for positive interaction therewith. It is notable that everything that WSCA has, in Recognition of Regional Offices - its 17 year history, asked FINA to do, FINA has eventually Ralph Richards will be WSCA Executive Director - Oceania/ DONE. (though the timetable moves more slowly than any of Asia us would wish.) Brian McGuinness will be WSCA Executive Director - Europe/ Africa Finally, President Bouws made note that in the proposed And John Leonard will be WSCA Executive Director - Americas new constitution, there is a “General WSCA Congress” every and Coordinating Director for the offices. four years in coordination with the Gold Medal Clinic, and each member nation which pays its $500 a year membership Items arising from discussion of the offices: fee to WSCA has the right to send a voting delegate to that 1. Each office will set fees for individuals based on the Congress, and all future constitutional changes must be economics of each nation within that region. It is expected approved by the Congress. and acceptable for different fees to exist for different nationalities, based on econonics of that nation. NATIONAL With Thanks to Michael Ursu for his efforts to re-write the FEES for associations will be set at $500.00 across the globe. constitution (more to be done!) and with High Thanks to (US dollars.) Javier Careaga for his wonderful organization of the Gold 2. Coordination of Membership lists - It is desirable for each Medal Clinic in Acapulco, the meeting was adjourned at office to have a full, current, list of ALL worldwide WSCA approximately 3:15 PM. members. To that end, in the months of Jan, March, May, July, Sept, Nov, lists will be sent from the regional offices Respectfully submitted, John Leonard

2 The Evolution of the Crawl Stroke Telstra-ASCTA 2002 Convention Proceedings Presented by Forbes Carlile This presentation revolves around a video showing, in was made with both arms above the water. John ’s chronological order, something of the techniques of stroke was first witnessed by Londoners in 1873. He had champion Freestyle swimmers spanning a period of copied the South African natives. His knees were drawn-up over 150 years, up to the 2000 in the horizontal kick and with his body kept and the 2001 World Championships that featured the flat on the chest, head held high, both arms were thrown phenomenal swimming and world records by Thorpe, over the water. This was no easy stroke for dyed-in-the- Hackett, DeBruijn, and van den Hoogenband ... all of wool sidestrokers to master. They preferred to stick with whose techniques we shall later observe closely in slow the single-arm-over . English swimmers were motion and look for the attributes common in today’s not interested in adopting Trudgen’ s ungainly stroke. To record breaking techniques. sustain a both- arms- over recovery was very hard work.

The evolution leading towards the crawl stroke pinnacle of Australia became the testing ground for further racing styles was not one of rapid transition. Progress came developments. neither quickly nor easily. Training methods, equipment, facilities, rule changes, application of the various sciences F.C.V. (Freddy) Lane, when 18, in 1898, astonished by coaches, strengthening in the gymnasium, increasing by winning the NSW one mile championship in the commercialisation and possibly the use of “fast-suit” Murrumbidgee River, using the double overarm over the equipment, together with hugely increasing world-wide complete distance with the so-called Trudgen kick which interest and participation in the sport have all changed had evolved to a narrowed scissors action executed whilst in ways favouring faster competitive performances. the body turned on its side during each stroke cycle. However, there is little doubt in my mind that in recent years it is the application of more effective swimming The Crawl Stroke techniques that have made the greatest single impact Then came the revolutionary new racing stroke, after 10- on improving records. Once, covering greater distances year-old Islander Alick Wickham in 1898 at the Bronte and making greater effort in almost year-round training rock pool at the Sydney beach was seen racing with a increased to the levels which were reached 15-20 years stroke that had long been used in the South Seas. The ago, although clearly many factors have had an influence, kicking action was a revelation to the Sydney swimming improvement in techniques I believe have made the fraternity. The new stroke was soon dubbed the Crawl, greatest contribution to moving faster through the water so at the turn of the 20th century the challenge for many The driving forces have been increased international competitive swimmers was to master the double overarm competition and glittering prizes. with a vertical kicking action. This was not an easy transition for swimmers of the day to make, yet today we From the time the first recorded, organised races were can see so many 4-year-olds and younger, children who held in London in 1837, progress has come in fits and can happily swim laps with a complete crawl stroke with starts as each generation may be said to have stood on big arms (overarm) and regular breathing. the shoulders of the swimmers and coaches who had gone before them. However, holding to traditional ways Dick Cavill and uncritical following of false trails have often delayed The Crawl was a skill acquired at first by only a handful competitive progress. of Australians who became the modern forerunners with a new racing style, at first successful only in sprint events Early Progress or for the closing stages of a race. In 1902 Dick Cavill Competitors soon found they swam faster when they made the long journey from Sydney and in Manchester, changed from the first racing stroke ... the Breaststroke demonstrated his vigorous, spectacular style of ... to Breaststroke swum on the side - the English swimming. He soon beat all comers, splashing his way sidestroke. Both arms stayed under water. Then around over the 100 yards world record in just over 58 seconds. 1855 there followed the one-arm-over the water, single arm sidestroke. It came from Australia. The Championship The Australian Crawl of England was first won with this stroke in 1859 and the Although Dick Cavill’s stroke caught on with some there single arm sidestroke continued to be used in major were champions like Barney Kieren and competitions in the UK, even at the Olympic Games for who excelled with the scissors kick. Others successfully another 46 years. used the Australian Crawl, which was demonstrated by the swimmer, writer, and teacher , a relay A major advance in the 1880s was the narrowing of the gold medal winning Olympian in 1912. Healy also taught kick, and the retarding wide Breaststroke leg action gave regular breathing with the crawl. This was an innovation. way to a sweep of the legs with the knees straightened, In this now stylised Australian crawl stroke the legs made with a more streamlined sweeping together of the legs, very definite two beats to the arm cycle, left leg timed the scissors kick. This stroke became known as the North with the right arm pull, right leg with the left arm. The of England style. knees were bent to such an extent that the plonk of each leg as it thrashed down was said often to be loud The Trudgen enough to be heard in the road outside the training pool. The Trudgen stroke presented a formidable challenge to sustain over more than short distances as the recovery continued on page 4 >>>

3 <<< continued from page 3 Billy Longworth and were amongst the and new knowledge were greatly inhibited by their outstanding exponents of the Australian crawl stroke. This techniques. developed into Trudgen-crawl with the composite scissor and crawl kicks used by many Australians. Then came Effective Crawl Stroke Technique the American Crawl of Charles Daniels, the Hawaiian 1. Keeping the body horizontal and not raising the Duke Kahanarnoku and later , all with shoulders in concert with arm entries. The body should independent flutter kicks. in 1948 in London only be rotated on a horizontal, longitudinal axis. was the first to win an Olympic medal using a continuous 6-beat leg action. 2. Keeping the head down, looking at the bottom and then to the side of the pool when breathing, so that A more detailed history of changes in the evolution of rotation on a horizontal, longitudinal axis is achieved. It is swimming techniques will appear in the Proceedings of detrimental to streamlining to look forward and/or to raise this 2002 ASCTA Conference. the head at any time, particularly when breathing.

At this point I think we should “get technical” and make an 3. Keeping the legs and kick within the body shadow so attempt to answer the following very pertinent question. that form resistance is minimised. The only time the legs should emerge from the position of maximum What should be the criteria for assessing good crawl is when detrimental effects are more than offset by arm- stroke technique? propulsion gains. This clearly should be an important consideration for every thinking coach. As well as using the stop watch it 4. Reducing downward pressure after the arms enter the is necessary for coaches to decide on justifiable criteria water and achieving a horizontal pull component earlier. whereby the effectiveness of crawl techniques may be Bending at the elbow, soon after entry, would assist in judged and improvements in swimming skills taught. faster directional force change. If this can be achieved, Such judgements are probably best arrived at on the basis there is every likelihood that streamlining will be better of reliable knowledge gained from studying swimmers maintained underwater, optimally with sequential pictures using frame-by-frame analysis. 5. Rotating the hips and shoulders together to the same degree in a streamlined position. This will reduce form All can learn from the common threads (Marshall Adams, resistance. Swimming Technique, JulySeptember 2000) what the most successful swimmers are doing - in particular the 6. Allowing the kick to rotate on a longitudinal axis in big three - Perkins, Hackett and Thorpe. They follow concert with hip rotation. Vertical kicking increases form closely the principles set out in the other important paper resistance whereas rotation has the potential to decrease referred to below. it without any loss in propulsion.

Our assessments then can be made rationally after 7. Aligning the upper arm during the pull and recovery consideration of what we see, biomechanical analysis and with the line of the shoulders to increase the musculature hydrodynamic and other insights gained over the years. used to generate force as well as maintain the integrity of the shoulder joint. An emphasis on, and tolerance Made on this basis, it is suggested that the well-articulated of, internal rotator muscle group activity will eventually criteria of scientists, biomechanists Rushall, Sprigings, cause problems. This proposal will introduce a greater role Cappaert, and King, be applied. An itemisation of these for the external rotator muscles during the arm pull. criteria set out in their analytical paper, which can be found in Swimming Science Journal on the Website of Dr. 8. Maintaining streamlined feet when kicking so that Brent Rushall, an Australian and a professor at the San minimal drag is created Diego State University at http://www.rohan.sdsu.edu/ dept/coachsci/swimming/index.htm Whilst training a number of other factors have played their parts in the progress we have seen. There can be Dr. Rushall and some other swimming thinkers such as little doubt that in technique, coupled with maintaining Dr. Ernie Maglischo “Swimming Faster”, etc., strongly a horizontal streamlined position in the water, the other, refute the proposition that lift forces and the Bernoulli most important factor has been the full mobilisation of Principle in swimming play any significant part in providing the muscles of the back, chest, and the shoulder complex propulsion. to produce optimum adduction of the upper arm as the source of propulsive force. The effectiveness of those Two major factors in the technique of speed swimming major muscles, the latissimus dorsi, teres major and are addressed in the Rushall et al paper - streamlining and pectoralis major are made possible with shoulder rotation the most effective application of muscular power, based around the central axis of the body and medial rotation of on scientific principles and on observations of champion the upper arm. performers performing in their gold medal races. With permission, I reprint from this paper. Adducting and stabilising muscles, attached to the spinal column, are said to provide core strength. These The following criteria are clearly applicable not only for muscles work most effectively only after large amounts assessing the techniques of today’s swimmers but also of judicious practice. The large adductor muscles, pulling applicable to crawl stroke swimmers of the past, many of on the humerus, need to be trained over years (into the whom we understand now with the benefit of hindsight late 20s’?) to bring about optimum recruitment of muscle

4 fibres to effect the strongest and most efficient arm pull, the age of 33 won the bronze medal behind Andrew “Boy” using the propelling surface of the hands and forearms, Charlton’s gold in the 1500m. Taylor and Beaurepaire and to some extent the upper arms. The intent, I suggest, in 1908 both swam the Trudgen double overarm style, in carrying out the modem most efficient swimming but Beaurepaire later went on, like Charlton, to very actions is that they should be made to produce direct successfully use a Trudgen-crawl. forward motion, mainly governed by Newton’s third law of motion - for every action there is an equal and opposite In an early sequence you will see our famous Sarah reaction - without contrived and exaggerated S-shaped (Fanny) Durack in 1912 at , using her Australian and other divergent sideways or downwards pressing crawl stroke defeat Mina Wylie also from Australia in the movements effected by minor muscles. first ever women’s Olympic swimming race. Her winning time of 1 minute 22.2 seconds was nearly 29 seconds In the future, performances that are seemingly slower that Inge de Bruijn’s Olympic record in Sydney ... unattainable now may be reached when coaches learn to 29 seconds! more effectively teach the following... We shall be concentrating on techniques, how people 1. The application of the principles of streamlining. swam, but I think you will be interested in some other glimpses of swimming history, of early Olympic swimming 2. The use of the appropriate movements, by constant venues when conditions were often Spartan, with very repetition, facilitating the most effective use of upper arm cold unfiltered water and no lane ropes which did not adduction as the source of propulsive force. appear until the 1924 Games.

3. Arm domination of the timing of the crawl stroke We will finally review some recent historic swimming action. races where today’s champions well demonstrate their successful techniques. The common threads, I believe, in For the champion swimmer today all this needs to be line with the “8 points” set out above, will be evident. incorporated in individuals probably best identified when young, as possessing unusual physical and mental First then to consider the changes from the early racing aptitudes. It would seem generally they should be tall strokes, the sidestroke to the double overarm trudgen, with high power to body-weight ratio. and then to the Australian crawl stroke.

Charles Silvia of Springfield College (Mass.) and Dr. An Expanded “History” James “Doc” Counsilman of Indiana have contributed This is for inclusion in the proceedings of this ASCTA greatly to our understanding of swimming propulsion. Conference. Standing by the pool with a young coach, “Doc” Counsilman is probably the most influential as I was musing about the historical development of swimming coach ever with his scientific treatment of the crawl stroke, he remarked - “I thought they always swimming technique and many other aspects of training swam like this.” Of course, that is not so. Crawl stroke and coaching, but today inevitably, he is considered by swimming today is very much different from the past. many to be in error with some of his theories. In particular We have learned a lot about the stroke in recent years. one such error is most likely the importance Counsilman, Today champions could swim like the famous Johnny from the early 1970s, ascribed to lift forces explained by Weissmuller. I often wonder whether even the strokes an application of the Bernoulli Principle which he believed of , , or Shane Gould would take to be very significant in providing propulsion by means them to being world record holders today. Since their of exaggerated S-shaped pulls and inward and outwards era there have been important technical changes in sweeps. streamlining and in effecting maximum propelling force of the arm pull. However, he was certainly not wrong when he stressed that the elbows should be kept up throughout the pulling Stepping back in time we can trace how thinking on and recovery phases of the arm-stroke. From the 1960s swimming evolved and consider what have been the most Counsilman wrote and spoke extensively about the significant changes. common fault of dropped elbows. Competitively, it all started with the Breaststroke in the This simple concept of keeping high elbows in the arm 1830s in London. Although Breaststroke was the first pull was much easier said than done. Only gradually did stroke swum in formal races with governing rules, there the importance of the message get through to coaches is clear evidence from ancient mosaics and coins that and swimmers. As swimmers learned to stroke with the in antiquity (2,000-3,000 BC) swimmers used what has forearm and hand assuming more perpendicular positions been called the human stroke, with a vertical, alternate, relative to the upper arm during the catch, have crawl upwards and downward kicking of the legs. The head was stroke performances rapidly improved. held high and arms pulled back alternately with an arm stroke similar to a young child’s of today. The video first traces through the evolution of the stroke from the sidestroke to the double overarm of Freddy There is at least one ancient coin that depicts a hand Lane who won Australia’s first swimming gold medal in - over-hand overarm action used by ancient Assyrians. the River Seine in 1900. We see England’s But those who bathed in lakes and rivers and in London’s at the 1908 London Games under extremely primitive growing number of artificial pools in the 1830s swam conditions winning the 400m from 17-year-old Australian Breaststroke. They raced with Breaststroke, and Matthew Frank Beaurepaire who, 16 years later in Paris in 1924, at continued on page 6 >>>

5 <<< continued from page 5 Webb in 1875, the first to conquer the English Channel, a giant leap forward in competitive swimming. The first not surprisingly did so swimming Breaststroke. was in 1844 when two North American Indians, Flying Gull and Tobacco, raced in London but were easily beaten with Despite the popularity of the frog stroke, in other parts their “totally unEuropean strokes where the water was of the world, we know that in South America, the South lashed violently with arms like the sails of a windmill as Seas, including in the Hawaiian Islands, where it was the feet beat downward with great force”. necessary to rapidly accelerate to crest the wave to body surf, a vigorous overarm stroke with legs thrashing Then 33 years later, in August of 1873, local swimmers vertically was used for generations. believed they had nothing to learn from John Trudgen’s appearance in London. However from a practical viewpoint, in order to survive drowning, Breaststroke was used by soldiers to keep Trudgen, an Englishman who had lived abroad, told how themselves afloat. he had learned his stroke from the South African natives. He brought both arms over the water in their recovery In the Japanese military a form of Breaststroke was and won races over short distances. Swimming flat on adopted to successfully cross rivers whilst weighed down his chest with his head carried high, Trudgen maintained with weapons and armour. Until comparatively recent a horizontal Breaststroke kick. Competitive swimmers of years in a number of European countries, traditionally the day remained unconvinced that the ungainly style of the first stroke learned was Breaststroke - in Holland Trudgen represented any advance and stuck to the more known as the School stroke. Forty years ago, whilst graceful single-arm-over sidestroke. John Jarvis from coaching the Dutch National Team, my wife Ursula and I Lancashire won the distance event (the 1000m Freestyle) argued continually with the Dutch Swimming Federation at the 1900 Paris Olympics, still using the North of England advocating that the first stroke taught should be the crawl version of the single-arm-over sidestroke, with the knees stroke. drawn up minimally before his legs were swished together with a horizontal scissors action. The so-called Northern Breaststroke, the stroke that represented swimming in sidestroke as a successful advance on the earlier English England, and on the Continent, was swum with the so- sidestroke became clear. called frog kick. Actually the kicking action of the frog does not closely approximate the human kick because a There is no record of successful use either in the UK or frog pushes backwards and downwards with its webbed in Australia of the Trudgen-style overarm in competitive feet. swimming until after 1889 when the first of regular Australian championships were held. Gradually, over As a racing stroke, the flat-in-the-water Breaststroke short distances, more double-over-arm competitors gave way to the faster English sidestroke with the body were pitting themselves against the sidestrokers of the on one side. After drawing both knees up towards the day who included several members of the Cavill family body, the legs made an outward kick followed by their of swimmers who had emigrated from England. A Peter closing together in a wedge-squeeze. The action was said, Murphy swam with both arms recovering over the water “to look like a man running with all the limbs working for the complete distance in the 1896 Australasian 880 independently” (Thomas, 1904). yards championship at the Cockatoo Dock in Sydney. This attracted much comment. In The Referee, a Sydney In 1855 a Sydney swimming instructor, “Professor” C. W. sporting newspaper of the day, their swimming expert Wallis, demonstrated in London a new swimming style he wrote, “Murphy’s feat was without parallel”, reckoning had seen the aborigines using as they glided through the it to be an almost superhuman performance. But the water in the Lane Cove River at Fig Tree near Sydney. The swimmer finished third. spot happens to be only a few miles from our home at Ryde. We pass these calm, mangrove-surrounded waters Around the many bays of Sydney Harbour a few almost daily. The new style was the single-arm-over youngsters, including the elf-like F.C.V. “Freddy” Lane, sidestroke. were practicing with this fatiguing stroke by now widely known as the overarm-with the action of drawing up the Wallis’s pupil, Fred Beckwith, won the 1859 Championship knees abandoned for the more streamlined, sweeping of England with this English sidestroke and for 46 years together of straightened legs. Both arms recovered over the long-distance championship of England was won with the water with a horizontal sweeping action of straightened this single-arm-over recovery. legs and this became the stroke of choice for Australian competitors and the narrowed scissors kick persisted for At first, the English sidestroke was virtually Breaststroke another 30 years in a stroke wrongly called the “Trudgen”. swum on the side but by 1880 (Thomas 1904) a new In 1965, Freddy Lane told me he always knew his stroke version of the stroke, the North of England sidestroke was as the Double Overarm. In 1899, Lane performed the widely adopted. It featured a narrowed leg action, there unprecedented feat of swimming the complete distance being considerably less drawing up of the knees before overarm with a narrow scissor kick when he won the straightened legs were brought together and the body NSW Championship for the mile at Wagga Wagga on the was kept more streamlined by remaining on its side. Murrumbidgee River.

As Cecil Colwin has pointed out (Swimming Dynamics, The story of how the vertical kicking action of the legs was 1998) that twice there had been opportunities for the re-discovered, being called in Australia the crawl stroke, British to see and adopt the double overarm and make and how it was introduced to the modern world by Dick

6 Cavill, has been told and retold many times; how 10-year- the USA at the New York Athletic Club in trying to copy old South Sea islander Alick Wickham in a boy’s handicap the Australian Crawl, the independent, continuous flutter race at the Bronte ocean pool in 1898 had startled the kicking of the legs was developed. This style came to be Sydney swimming fraternity with his speed; and how Dick called the American Crawl. Cavill practiced the new stroke in his family’s floating baths at Farm Cove on the shore of Sydney’s Botanic Charles Daniels in 1905 was the first famous American Gardens, and in 1902 amazed the British in Manchester swimmer. He became the world record holder for the with his new splash stroke. It was then clear to some 100m and won the sprint at the London Olympics in that this fluent crawl stroke, at first shown to be fastest 1908 with an independent continuous that for short distances, would come to be the stroke of the was also used by famous Hawaiian future. Cecil Healy, Olympic 100m silver medallist in who won the Olympic 100m events in 1912 and again 1912, also a teacher and writer, used and taught a heavily in 1920. Kahanamoku claimed the stroke was natural to accented 2-beat crawl where the knees were well bent Polynesians who in used the strong leg beat to help before making two characteristic heavy downward kicks them catch a wave. He said he had never been taught his from the knees at each arm entry. This stroke was called stroke. Following after Daniels and Kahanamoku, Johnny the Australian Crawl and was adopted by a number of Weissmuller (1924 and 1928 100m Olympic winner) Australian competitors. These included Fanny Durack, the burst on to the swimming scene, and with a succession winner of the first Olympic swimming event for women, at of outstanding sprinters from a number of countries, used the Stockholm Games in 1912. Also from Australia, Mina independent, regular 6 beats, and even 8-beat kicking Wylie finished second, and she also swam the Australian actions. Crawl. It is remarkable that for the Olympic Freestyle events, Healy taught regular breathing which was a step forward especially for the 100m, with the men from 1928 to 1952, from the earlier crawl swimmers who only intermittently and women from 1932 to 1952, for 20 years the winning lifted their heads to snatch a breath. However, with the times improved only minimally, by not much over a success of the Americans Daniels and Kahanamoku, second. Doubtless, there were other factors involved but with their continuous independent kicking actions, the I believe that traditional ideas on technique were holding Australian Crawl became obsolete. Nevertheless the back the sport and the time was right for rethinking basic scissors kick in the modified Trudgen stroke remained a concepts. successful technique for many years, especially in distance swimming. This was the stroke of Australian trailblazers, The Japanese swimmers of the 1930’s were outstandingly Barney Kieren and Frank Beaurepaire. When Andrew successful, explained largely, for the times by their “Boy” Charlton at 16 years of age became famous in very hard training and by the use of a crawl technique Australia by winning the 1500m at the 1924 Paris Olympic characterised by lowering the head (as distinct from the Games, he too used a scissors kick. Later he and others Weissmuller model) and with arm and shoulder muscles added vertical crawl kicks to the scissors action in what better mobilised for propulsion in their stroke which had was erroneously called the “Trudgen” crawl, which Fred significant body roll. These innovations were significant Lane more accurately called the double overarm. The kick steps forward. John Trudgen had used was essentially the Breaststroke leg action. In the 1930’s the concept of timing legs with the arms in a definite 1-2-3 4-5-6 rhythm, became popular with most During the first few years of the 20th century, a Sydney coaches. Also, in the 1930s and persisting through into the boy, Barney Kieren, was credited with world records 1950s, many leading coaches in the USA and in Australia at all distances from 200m to the mile in the pre-FINA were teaching that the arms should be kept straight in days, before his untimely death at 19 in 1905 after an the pull on the specious biomechanical, scientific grounds operation for appendicitis. He used the double overarm that using the arm as a long lever throughout the pull was with the scissors kick similar to the original leg action more effective in propulsion than a bent arm. That was of Freddy Lane. Even after the introduction of the crawl wrong, as the Australians well demonstrated in 1956. stroke in the early 1900s, Frank Beaurepaire won Olympic medals between 1908 and 1924 using a scissors kick. In 1949, Japanese distance swimmers notably Shiro Late in his career both he and Charlton incorporated, Hashizume and Hironoshin Furuhashi, later a long-time with the scissors, some vertical kicks. It was not until President of Japanese Swimming burst onto the scene 1948 at the London Olympic Games that John Marshall, with their radical irregular leg kicks. These leg actions an Australian who later trained under Bob Kiphuth at with a fast arm rating broke right away from the regular the Yale University, became the first Australian Olympic and continuous, strong 6-beats which had previously been medallist to swim with a continuous 6beat leg kick without the trademark of Japanese swimmers and top American any scissors action. swimmers of the time.

When Syd Cavill arrived in America from Australia via The high tempo, arm-dominated Japanese distance the Solomon Islands in the South Seas as a swimming swimmers, used their legs mainly it seemed as balancers instructor at the San Francisco Olympic Club, he preached in reaction to non forward-propelling forces produced in that any retarding, stop-and-start, knees-drawn-up their strokes. This trend to uneven leg actions was soon action should be eliminated from the stroke even to the seen in many leading distance swimmers from several extent of not using the legs at all. Americans attempted countries. The seal of approval, it seems, had been given. to master the Australian stroke, and on the East coast of

continued on page 8 >>>

7 <<< continued from page 7 At the Melbourne Olympic Games dual Olympic Champion pointed feet. We made no attempt to have her increase in 1956 varied his kicking action between a her kicking rate as she went on to breaking world records 2-beat and a 4-beat action whilst American George Breen for the 400m and 800m. Then followed Shane Gould, who swam to a world 1500m record with a trailing 2-beat joined our squad at Ryde as a 13-year old swimming with crossover kick. a six beat leg action. We immediately brought Shane back to a 2-beat, and this was how she swam every stroke The theory of pulling with straight arms in Crawl and of the 100m when she equalled and later broke Dawn was not evident in the top Australians by the Fraser’s long-standing world record. She finally claimed mid 1950s in multiple world record holders Dawn Fraser, world marks at all five freestyle world record distances Murray Rose, and Lorraine Crapp who swept and the 200m Individual Medley. The two-beat seemed the Freestyle events in the Olympics with record to prove successful with Shane so when Jenny Turrall, times with distinctly bent arm pulls. To me and others, the four years after she could first swim 200m in our tadpole styles of the Japanese in the early 1950s were straws in squad followed on just as Shane, was dropping out, to my the wind, suggesting that arm-dominated strokes with mind there was no question that Jenny’s natural 2-beat 2-beat, 4-beat cross-over, broken tempo kicking action, should be encouraged. This was confirmed by her winning might well be the direction technical changes would take the 800m at the second FINA World Championships in for distance swimming. Certainly it seemed to some of 1975 and breaking and re-breaking world records over us, the heavy, regular 6-beat kick, timed so that the arm the 800m and 1500m distances. That the 2-beat stroke action fitted in with it, which for years had been holding has been very suitable for distance swimmers, especially back progress in Australia, was to be avoided. for women, would seem to have been confirmed by the great who in 1988 set her so far (May 2002) It became clear to me that the legs should not dominate unbeaten 800m and 1500m world records, and many the timing of the stroke but should “dance attendance other female distance swimmers who came after Ryde’s on the arms” as Frank Beaurepaire had perceptively big three (Moras, Gould and Turrall) of the 1970s. observed in an article written in 1915. In the 1960s and 1970s a number of top swimmers, even Australian American Brooke Bennett and others today have , a sprinter who won both the 100m and cemented my belief that kicks, predominately 2- or 200m Olympic titles in 1968 with the 100m world record 4-beat in the long run will most likely prove to be the to his credit, swam with a 2-beat cross-over. Americans most effective leg actions for most outstanding female Patty Caretto, then , outstanding female distance swimmers. This seemed to be borne out by the swimmers of the 1970s and also distance swimmers results of the by far the fastest women’s 1500m race, in , (Australia), , depth, of all time in the World Championships at Fukuoka , , Tim Shaw (all American) in 2001. Here I could see only one 6-beat swimmer and Vladamir Salnikov (USSR), and a number of others - Australian Amanda Pascoe who recorded the credible (including 1968 3 individual gold Olympic winner “Pokey” time of 16m 16.80 for fourth place which may well be Watson), were cross-over swimmers who used two or four the fastest ever for a regular 6-beater. The correctness of beats to a full arm cycle, with sometimes a period of six my contention regarding the suitability of the 2-beat for beat kicking thrown in when the swimmer came in or out women’s distance swimmers, time will or will not confirm. of the turn or the aim was to increase swimming speed However with nearly all to-day’s outstanding males and into the finish. the majority of the women swimmers, up to 200m using continuous 6-beats, and considering Amanda Pascoe’s It is now appreciated that crossover kicks in the leg action success ... I begin to wonder. acted as compensating reactions for sideways, misapplied forces tending to throw the body out of alignment. Such There can be no argument however, both for males and compensating leg actions are rarely seen in most of today’s females, for sprint and middle distance swimming that it top crawl swimmers because of the biomechanically more is a great advantage to be tall. I have read some statistics advantageous hand and arm positioning in the arm pulls from the Barcelona Olympics where of the men in the which maximise forward propelling drag forces. Although 100m Freestyle final, three of the first five were over 6 I may appear to be placing too much emphasis on leg feet 7 1/2 inches with Popov only 6 feet 6 inches. The actions, the nature of the kick can tell us a lot about the smallest finalist was reported to be 6 feet 3 1/2 inches. application of a swimmer’s propulsive power. Erroneous New performance heights will be reached in the future ideas have been held advocating forcible use of the legs, - alone, the appearance of those with ever-greater talent that they must beat hard continuously with the aim of should ensure this. We can hardly guess what lies ahead contributing significantly to propulsion. This notion I as technology and scientific knowledge increase almost believe helped hold back swimming progress for many exponentially. In concluding, to strike a sour note. years producing kick-dominated strokes. Certainly this was so in Australia where the Australian 100m record Let us hope and pray that future record breaking will remained at a modest 60.6 seconds until the mid-1940s. not be due, even in part, to the undetectable effects of Australian swimming remained in the doldrums through doping or genetic engineering, and that efforts to wipe the 1930s and 1940s with coaches insisting on the out such cheating from the sport are finally successful. performing of a vigorous 6-beat kicking action. Together with the emergence of rare talents, many ideas as yet unconceived and seemingly way out may become In the late 1960s, Karen Moras, who developed from the widely held truths of tomorrow and will lead to further a 6-year-old in my wife Ursula’s squad at Ryde, made improvements with performances leaping forward to now just two kicks with no crossover and with streamlined even undreamed of levels.n

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9 Letter to the Editor

John Slow motion analysis shows that many, if not most, older backstrokers in major competitions have since the I reworded slightly my ideas on the backstroke turn. new turning rule was introduced before the Barcelona Olympics, kicked themselves in to the wall (albeit often The Backstroke Turn just a little) when past the vertical With the backstroke turn it is clear that in major competitions some competitors get away with turning off The backstroke “stay on the back throughout the race” the back and kicking into the wall to a greater or lesser concept has already been bastardized to some extent extent. Seldom if ever are these “big fellows” picked up so why not in fairness to all admit a rule change by stroke judges and DQed for being on the front, kicking moving in the same direction as for breaststroke and in, at least just a little. This certainly IS happening and it allow something which will serve to remedy this often is unfair that some swimmers do benefit. occurring unfair situation on which it is clearly difficult to adjudicate. The claim by stroke judges that “we can see Why not allow a” 5m rule”, allowing the swimmer to be it” is no more true for the backstroke turn today than on the front and kick into the wall after the head passes it was for consistent judging on the unfair use of the under the 5m rope. To kick in (with no arm propulsion) dolphin underwater kick in the breaststroke. from nearly 5m out would obviously be slower than continuing to swim in on the back and turn over closer Cheers to the wall, but it would recognize what is happening and is difficult to judge without slow motion video.. A 5m BK Forbes turning rule would protect the young swimmer from being DQed when swimmers are caught in “no man's land” making an unwitting, premature turn on to the front ---which by kicking in can only slow them down..

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