This is much harder to do than to learn the simple motions of hands or feet that makes us keep afloat and swim.  Nothing will help to give us this confidence more quickly than to take a few lessons from some one in whom we have confidence and who will above all things not frighten us and so get us into danger.  With a good teacher, a boy should be able to learn how to swim in two or three lessons.  Of course he will take only a few strokes at first, but those few strokes, which carry with them self-confidence and which make us feel that swimming is not so hard an art after all, is really half the battle.  After we are at least sure that we can get to shore somehow, we can take up all the finished strokes which make a fancy swimmer.

There are a number of strokes used in swimming and especially in racing.  The common breast stroke is the first one to learn.  In this the swimmer should lie flat on his breast in the water and either be supported by the hand of his teacher or by an inflated air cushion.  The hands are principally used to maintain the balance and to keep afloat.  The real work should be done with the legs.  We learn to use the hands properly in a very short time, but the beginner always shows a tendency to forget to kick properly.  For this reason swimming teachers lay great stress on the leg motion and in a measure let the hands take care of themselves.  In swimming the important thing is to keep our heads above the water, a simple statement, but one that beginners may take a long time to learn.  The impulse is not only to keep our heads but our shoulders out of the water also, and this is a feat that even an expert can not accomplish for very long.  If we can allow ourselves to sink low in the water without fear, and if we can also remember to kick and, above all, to make our strokes slowly and evenly, we shall very soon learn to swim.  I have frequently seen boys learn to swim in a single afternoon.  Another tendency of the beginner is to hold his breath while swimming.  Of course we cannot swim very far or exert ourselves unless we can breathe.  We should take a breath at each stroke, inhaling though the mouth and exhaling through the nose, which is just the opposite to the hygienic method of land breathing.  Whatever may be our methods, however, the main thing is not to forget to breathe, which always results in finishing our five or ten strokes out of breath and terrified.

A great deal may be learned about swimming strokes by practice on land.  In fact some swimming teachers always follow the practice of teaching the pupil ashore how to make the stroke and how to breathe correctly.  A small camp stool or a box will give us the support we need.  The three things to keep in mind are the leg motion and the taking in of the breath through the mouth as the arms are being drawn in and exhaling as they are pushed forward.  It is better to learn to swim in salt water, for the reason that it will support the body better.  An additional advantage is that we always feel more refreshed after a salt-water bath.