In order to swim on your back, you must, of course, first turn over.
This is done exactly as you turn in bed. Drop the arm and leg opposite
to the side to which you turn, and embrace, as it were, the water with
the other. This movement seems very difficult, but it is a perfectly
_natural_ one, and you have only to obey the impulse of your will in
order to perform it.
Having turned over, let your head lie well back, no other part of your
body being out of the water, the hands close to the hips, and then
strike out with the feet as directed in your first lesson in breast
swimming.
In swimming on your back you can use your hands in various ways, as you
may desire to go faster or slower. If in no haste, merely paddling with
them by the sides of your hips will greatly assist, or you can push them
down from the waist toward your thighs, bringing them back edgewise, so
as to offer as little resistance as possible to the water. But the
greatest speed while swimming on your back is to be attained by
stretching both hands as far as possible out of the water behind your
head, and bringing them with a rapid sweep edgewise into the water
again, opposing your palms to the water, so as to get as great a
pressure as possible. You can, of course, at the same time use your
legs, though you can progress by the use of your arms alone, but with
nothing like the same speed.