h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Lying on one's side, stretch out the lower arm above the head and cup it round a handfull of water then bring this down th ebody to about waist height where it is trasnferred to the othyer arm and pushed on downwards. The legs kick in a demented sideways frog kick.

This stroke has the advantage that you can dispense with the upper arm, using it instead to drag anyone who had attempted a butterfly stroke to the nearest pool edge.

It is also useful to those types of people who like to keep their heads out of the water whilst swimming in a dignified manner i.e. toffs

Sounds like a one-armed (legged) doggie-paddle to me. Women's side-stroke seems to be a sort of sideways breast-stroke. I haven't fathomed how it works as I've never needed to keep my hair dry to that extent

Hi guys! I guess I'm a toff but I never knew it. I have done side stroke for about 55 years now and find it by far the easiest swimming stroke of all. It keeps your face out of water all the time so you can even do it with your glasses on. You can take your time about it so you don't get out of puff and I can travel over a metre with each kick (but it was over a yard in my days!) Lie on your left side and as you kick both arms go forward, Keep the left(lower) arm forward with the open hand resting on the surface and as you pull back with the right arm you pull both legs up towards the waist. When you feel you are about to sink you drop the left hand downwards and back, lifting the face further out of the water then kick, and take both hands forward together to start again. It is in this position just after the kick that you can glide across the water before starting to move the right hand again.Simple!

What a lovely thread. !!

Swimming was my forte. I have swum since I was five years old, and even now, at the age of nearly 82 love to swim in a heated pool.

However. having won a few races at the age of ten, I soon decided that competitive swimming was what I wanted to do.

I joined a club and was soon winning cups and medals and all sorts of things. However, as my parents were totally against my doing any sort of sport competitively - they would have preferred me to be a concert pianist. but although I was reasonable I was not THAT GOOD.

However. in 1946 I was one of 10 swimmers chosen by the S.A .Swimming Federation to train for inclusion in the first OLympic games to be held in London since the WW2 ended.

For three years I trained every day in freezing cold water in winter and slightly warmer water in summer. I did well in the annual Currie cup champinonships, and when the trials for the team came, another backstroke swimmer and myself both swam faster times in our finals than the swimmers did later in the Oympic games in England.

South Africa still being in a faintly chauvinistic stage sent four male swimmers to the games in London, whilst no women swimmers were sent. The four male swimmers were all eliminated in their first heats. Margaret Peckover and myself would have got into the finals in London on the times we did in our Trials in South Africa;

It took me a very long time to get over that disappointment - at least ten years I think.!!(What a waste of time....) I only hope that I am still alive in the 2012 ganes in London. I would like to be at the poolside cheering on the backstroke swimmers from all countries. !! That would be wonderful. !!

However, as it happened, I was obliged to work when I was young, so instead of doing what |I was trained to do i.e. being a radiographer 0 I becaume a swimming coach. |I formed a marvellous swimming club in Salisbury, (now Harare ) in Zimbabwe, then(S . Rhodesia called the Seals swimming club. I reckon my health is due to the fact that for four and a half years I swam nearly a mile and a half every day of my life. so really I have had a good long life even if |I did not win my coveted Springbok blazer. !!

so keep up your swimming. surely the finest sport for all - at both ends of the age scale, infant and second childhood. !!

With affection

Christiane.
AR80

22/III/2010 16.50 GMT

Gosh, what a tale, Christiane! I knew you were a good swimmer but I had no idea *how* good!