Swimming Fundamentals Book

SWIMMING PRENTICE-HALL BOOKS ON HEALTH AND SPORTS EDITED BY ELMER D. MITCHELL SWIMMING FUNDAMENTALS by MATT . MANN II Coach of the University of Michigan Swimming Tfam, Former Mem her of the Olympic Swimming Committee of the United States and CHARLES C. FRIES Projessor of English, University of Michigan New York PRENTICE-HALL, INC. J APPRECIATE the honor of being asked to write a fore word to this new book on Swimming. Matt Mann and I have been in friendly association for many years and have had a mu tual interest in this sport. It is a pleasure to have him at last put down in writing his ideas on swimming. The book reflects the personality of a master coach as inter preted by the collaborator, Professor Fries, who can boast of a swimming family Himself a finished swimmer, he has three sons Chucky, age 16, who won swimming laurels in Germany last year, Robby, who started swimming at 18 months, and Peter, the youngest, who was swimming when only 8 months old. There is a distinct mark of originality in this book. It rep resents one mans pattern, tried and proven through successful teaching of thousands of beginners. The book is simple, direct, and omits all non-essentials. The authors go directly to their job, which is that of teaching the fundamentals. The illustra tions are from actual situations and bring out clearly the es sential body movements in. the swimming strokes that are explained. Swimming is one sport about which many books have been written, but there is a definite place for this modern and timely book by Coach Mann and Dr. Fries. It represents a contribu tion to the literature on swimming. EDWARD T. KENNEDY Coach o Swimming, Columbia University. Editor, National Collegiate Athletic Associa tion Swimming Guide, 1932-1939. Matt Alastst Coach VER SINCE Matt Mann first took a team to the National Collegiate Swimming Championships in 1927, his teams from the University of Michigan have consistently been winners. His team had the highest score in the following years 1939, 1938, 1937, 1936, 1935, 1934, 1932, 1931, 1928, 1927. In each of the three years in which his team did not have the highest score it had the second-highest score 1929, 1930, 1933. Dur ing this same period Matt Manns team also won ten of the annual Swimming Championships of the Big Ten Universities of the Middle West. As one reads the record of the swimming championships he finds an ever-increasing number of the names of men who have been taught by Matt Mann. And coaches and teachers throughout the country have wanted to know the secret of his magic. That secret is not a single matter it is a complex of many factors, but all of them understandable in themselves. Matt Manns whole life has been identified with swimming. He began appearing as a contestant in swimming matches when he was only eight years of age. At nine he won the boys cham pionship of England. From nine until he was seventeen he swam for the Leeds Swimming Club. After that, in London, he swam for the Ravensbourne Club and was on that team when they won the City of London Championship in 1903-04. He not only has been, but, at fifty, he still a swimmer. He uses all the strokes and himself tries out the new ideas that are viii MATT MANJV TEACHER AND COACH constantly being proposed for the increasing of speed and effi ciency. Adventurous in spirit, strongly believing in the possi bility of continued improvement, he welcomes every new suggestion and experiments with all those that seem in any way promising. Matt Mann has great genius as a teacher. He has an uncanny ability in analyzing the practice of his pupils whether they be beginners or varsity stars and in putting his finger on the exact point that needs attention. He seems to feel very sensi tively every motion of the swimmer and not only to see the re sult against a pattern of an ideal stroke but to sense in detail the relation of each motion to some feature of the stroke. As a result there is nothing rigid about his teaching...Read More