Richmond Press, Inc.                          Richmond, VA                          1938

The Old Overhand Stroke

Speaking of Richmond's old boy swimmers, I remember that all of them used the overhand, or Indian stroke, in swimming. When boys from a distance came to our swimming holes, they would nearly always, use the breast stroke, or sailor stroke, as we called it. That stroke was well adapted for swimming long distances in still water; but in the hurly-burly of the Falls, one would surely be washed down and hung on a rock, after breaking several shins.

So at Richmond, in the "Noble Jeems," the boys from time immemorial swam with the showy Indian stroke that carried them more over than through the water. They would try, sometimes, to see who could stand highest out of the water, showing not only the shoulders, but the breast as well. Ben Owen (late the Governor's Secretary) could stand higher than anybody I ever saw.

This small cat-fish, who began to swim "when his arms had seven years pith," had to content himself with swimming dog-paddle for a long time. He found it hard to learn the overhand style, owing principally to not being able to put his arms in without splashing water all over his head and into his ears, eyes and mouth. At last Stump Calligan showed me how to put the wrist and hand in first, by raising the shoulder a little. And from that time on I could throw the old overhand stroke just as easy! The reason I asked Stump, he was the most graceful of all overhand swimmers.

In after years, an English swimmer named Trudgeon went to South America and saw the Indians throw the overhand stroke and learned it (after a fashion). He brought it home and spread it to the northern part of this country where it was known as the Trudgeon stroke. It became the favorite racing stroke, as most racers learned it--after a fashion, like Trudgeon. The most of them I have seen made two strokes of the arms to one kick; while the true style is to kick both feet backward for every stroke of either arm.

None of them have ever mastered it like the old Richmond gang.