exactly as they walk, that is by moving the feet alternately forward;
and this is the very way one is inclined to try it at the start.

If you can go dog fashion with some confidence, it will be well to
learn the "breast stroke," which, though not the fastest, is perhaps
the most general, as it is the most graceful, among non-professionals.
But first a word as to the management of the legs.

THE LEGS

While the arm movements can be greatly varied, there can be, in the
nature of things, no such variation in the action of the legs. It is
said, and truthfully, that the motion of the legs of a human swimmer
are much like the motion of a frog's hind legs when swimming. That is,
the boy draws his legs up simultaneously and kicks them out in the
same way, but in so doing he is not imitating a frog, for if he works
the limbs together there is no other possible way in which he can do
it under water. The frog's breast stroke is another story. A man
swims very much as does a frog, though he cannot do so well under
water as the amphibian. The legs are kicked in the same way and there
is the same motion of the arms of one as of the forelegs of the other.

Some swimming teachers believe that the main reliance is the legs, but
this has not been my experience, and I have seen many swimmers in many
waters. The legs steady the body, but it is the arms that make for
speed as well as for steering, though on the back it is the legs that
do the business.

HOW TO DO IT