Voni Oreman English Channel Swimmer!

IS there someone out there that still swims the english channel doing breastroke. I believe that from what I read that the 19th century crossing were mainly doing breastroke.

The first crossing of the Channel, by Matthew Webb in 1875, was done using the breaststroke. Indeed, the breaststoke was the predominant stroke in England through much of the 19th century. But other than Webb, no one else swam the Channel until the 1900's (1911, if memory serves me) and by then the crawl was the standard. I believe that there is still the occasional person who tries it using breaststoke (and butterfly!). There are currently two groups sanctioning Channel swims: www.channelswimmingassociation.com (The original group) and www.channelswimming.net (The breakaway group) You can poke through their sites for more info. Also, A Google search will net you some interesting links. In open water races in England they still often have a breaststroke division. See www.bldsa.org.uk (British Long Distance Swimming Association) -LBJ

The most upto date and full list is being kept on www.channelswimming.com if you explore this you might be able to pull off all the breaststroke swims since 1875 its is maintained by the CSPF .. just a slight correction the CSA LTD is not the original group , this was the CSA .... a few members disagreed with it becoming a LTD company with a board of directors and were kicked out for dissenting , so had no choice but to form another group to sanction swims for the good of the sport We believe this has led to the swimmer getting a better service all round with freedom of choice and releasing the monopoly stranglehold the CSA LTD thought it was going to have so it might have been a blessing in disguise XXX

Aliswim - Hmmmm.... Assuming that you know, what is the issue with what the CSA was and becoming LTD? And why would this be a problem causing a second group to arise? To the curious bystander, it has only looked to be a snitty p@ssing contest. IMWTK, LBJ

As with all things , it comes down to power and money , there was a definate split on the committee with those who wanted to listen to swimmers needs and wants and address them and those who did not .. .. wanting to milk the fact there was a monopoly wetsuit swims were also a strong sticking point in the last couple of years and whether to keep it 'pure ' or not The two groups now reflect that split of opinions , and like I say healthy competition can only result in the swimmers getting treated better so the sport has won in the end hope that helps a bit

When they did breastroke for long distance so many years ago, what kind of kick did the swimmers use? Just curious. I think it would be a tough challenge regardless of the stroke!

Effi - From what I have read, it was a "standard" breaststoke kick. Think breaststroke as it was taught 20 or 30 years or more ago. What I believe they used to call a "frog kick." From what I have read of Webb's Channel crossing, I suspect that the focus of his style was actually the pull since there is commentary about the frequency and strength/weakness of the arm action and little of the kick. Of course, that may be the case since water opacity may have prevented seeing much of the kick. Also, keep in mind that the crawl wasn't really in use and the butterfly hadn't been invented yet. Other strokes, such as sidearm and Trudgeon (sp?) would come into vogue and fade, during and after the time of Webb, but they had little sway on the "standard" breaststroke style of the period. -LBJ