THE ARTWORK

A tremendous amount of thought and effort went into the more than 150 pieces of art in this book—particularly in Chapters 6 through 10. The illustrations have been carefully designed to enhance your learning of the strokes.

Ethan Berry, the illustrator, brings a unique background to this challenge: he is an artist who has won wide acclaim for his innovative and provocative work at exhibits and installations throughout the nation, a teacher of art at Montserrat College of Art and the Massachusetts College of Art for over twenty years, and an outstanding Masters swimmer in his own right.

Ethan was not content to rely on his own expertise in creating the book’s illustrations. With me, he analyzed dozens of videotapes of some of the world’s top swimmers. Then he did his own observations of collegiate, Masters, and age-group swimmers, photographing and videotaping them underwater. He then used the photos and video freeze-frames as the basis for his drawings.

The result is a unique style that imparts a maximum amount of information without overloading the reader. The style conveys a feeling of the actual motion of each stroke pattern. The arrows illustrate not only how the arms and legs should move—the pattern of the strokes—but, through shading, where power should be exerted. By providing a kinesthetic feeling of how your body should be moving through the water, these illustrations not only communicate factual information simply and directly but also transmit a feel for the sensuous nature of swimming.