How to Yell Like Tarzan - Time to Prepare

Tarzan is the main protagonist of Edgar Rice Burrough’s 1912 novel, The Jungle Book. In it, he uses a vocalization called “Tarzan yell”. It is unintelligible to humans and consists mainly of guttural sounds produced by the back of his throat. Differentiating between male and female Tarzans was also difficult because they share a similar cry (usually with minor variations).

Tarzan’s yell is a combination of the words “tar” and “zoo.” The word “Tarzan” was originally spelled with an E at the end of the word, but it became popular in the late 1800s to spell it without that letter.

Tarzan of the Apes has thrilled and fascinated men in book, radio, and cinema for over a century. Tarzan offers the idea of channeling one’s primal nature and escaping into the wild to revive one’s man spirit for men who feel trapped in an iron cage of corporate and suburban existence. In truth, Edgar Rice Burroughs developed the Tarzan persona as a means of escaping his unhappy and mundane existence. Burroughs recognized this reason in an interview:

“Not only do we want to flee the constrictions of city streets for the freedom of the wilderness, but we also want to flee the constraints of man-made rules and the restraints that civilization has imposed on us.” We want to see ourselves as free spirits who rule over ourselves and our surroundings; in other words, we all want to be Tarzan. At the very least, I acknowledge it.”

Tarzan is the archetypal “noble savage.” When his parents are marooned and die on the coast of West Africa, he is adopted by a tribe of apes and nurtured by them. Later, Tarzan finds an American lady named Jane, whom he marries, and the two strive to live a regular life in England. Tarzan is drawn back to the forest by the suffocating limitations and vexing hypocrisies of civilized life. Only the wilderness, virtuous, heroic, and athletic, could provide the sense of freedom and adventure that felt like home.

Burroughs developed one of the earliest superheroes in America when he published Tarzan in a pulp magazine in 1912. Tarzan had unique skills and powers that enabled him to flourish in the jungle. He was equally as swift and adept at climbing trees and swinging from branches in the forest as the monkeys who nurtured him. Tarzan was a superb swimmer, unlike his ape “family,” which converted him into an amphibious murderer. He’d jump from incredible heights and swim long distances. Tarzan gained a number of cerebral abilities in addition to his physical abilities. He could pick up new languages quickly and even communicate with animals.

At the turn of the century, boys and men aspired to be like Tarzan the Ape Man. For over a century, Tarzan’s physical prowess has encouraged men to get in shape and channel their inner wild man. Today, we’ll go through how to improve four of Tarzan’s most important abilities: swimming, diving, climbing, and swinging. While you may never need to hang from a vine to rescue your girlfriend or climb a tree to save your own life, it’s nice to know you can!

Tarzan’s Swimming Techniques

The Ape Man plunging into a river and swimming quickly to confront an alligator around Jane is a common sequence in Tarzan movies. Tarzan fights the big reptile underwater and defeats him by breaking its neck or stabbing it with a knife. Tarzan, on the other hand, must swim quickly to reach the alligator before it devours his bride.

Tarzan usually performs the front crawl stroke in the movies (what we often call the freestyle). And rightfully so. The front crawl (also known as the front or American/Australian crawl) is the most efficient and quickest of all the swimming strokes. Swimming is such an important Tarzan ability that in the 1930s, the movie producers hired Johnny Weissmuller, a five-time Olympic gold winner in swimming, to portray Tarzan.

The Tarzan front crawl is a very simple method. Float in the water face down with both arms straight out in front of you. This is where you’ll begin. Alternate brief, up and down thrashes with your legs. Sweeping strokes alternate between the arms. There are three elements to the arm movement: pull, push, and recovery.

Lower your hand into the water, starting with your thumb. This is known as “catching the water,” and it helps you prepare for the draw. Underwater, the pull action follows a semicircle pattern. It comes to an end in front of the chest, as seen here:

When your hand reaches the area around your ribs, the push starts. Instead of dragging the water towards you, your hand will push it away from you. Your arm should be at the side of your body at the conclusion of the push.

After the push, the recuperation starts. Pull your hand out of the water, bend your elbow, and circle your forearm outward until it points in the direction you want it to go. The arm flies out straight in front of you, reaching maximum reach.

Keep your face in the water while doing the front crawl.

Breathing is accomplished by turning your head to one side and raising your face above the water’s surface. After inhaling, the swimmer’s face is submerged again, and he exhales via his nose underwater. The frequency with which you breathe is a matter of personal taste. Some swimmers will inhale every other arm stroke, while others will inhale every third arm stroke.

How to Do a Tarzan-Style Dive

Tarzan is often jumping into rivers to rescue one of his monkey pals or Jane, his perpetual damsel in distress. In Tarzan’s New York Adventure, he dives to his death from the Brooklyn Bridge to elude the cops so that he may free a jungle youngster kidnapped by the circus.

Tarzan was able to get to his destination swiftly by diving headfirst into the ocean. Plus, doing a swan dive from a tree branch simply looks amazing.

We’re not going to go overboard with this. Just a quick rundown on how to do a basic headfirst dive is required. Back up approximately three steps from the water’s edge. Take three rapid steps, then plant your feet, bend your knees, and leap up and out towards the ocean when you reach the edge of solid ground. Extend your arms all the way over your head with your hands straight above your head. In order to produce a clean entrance, extend your body into a straight, stiff line before entering the water. When entering the water, aim for a 70-85 degree angle.

Don’t collapse your body when you eventually strike the water. This is a common blunder made by newcomers. Carry your dive as deep as you can under the water’s surface.

The greater the risk, the higher the position from which you plunge. If you leap from a 32-foot cliff, you’ll strike the water at 35 miles per hour; if you jump from a 70-foot cliff, you’ll hit the water at 46 miles per hour. The water won’t be able to soften your fall at such speed, and you’ll almost certainly be gravely injured. If you have to leap into the sea from a considerable height, the “pin dive” is recommended. It’s not a dive in the traditional sense; rather, you leap feet first, arms at your sides, feet directed downward. Maintain a firm and rigid posture, and avoid leaning forward or backwards. When you reach the water’s surface, the goal is to minimize the points of contact between your body and the water. Even professional cliff divers often start their dive headfirst, then flip in the air to land in the pin dive posture.

Tarzan’s Climbing Techniques

Tarzan developed climbing skills that no ordinary man could match because he was raised by apes. Tarzan could mount a jungle tree in seconds to combat a jaguar or flee a herd of furious rhinoceros.

Most guys attempt to depend only on their upper-body power while climbing a tree or a wall. The trick to effectively climbing any thing, though, lies in the legs. Not only are your legs stronger than your arms, but they can also support your body weight better. So, to keep yourself balanced, utilize your arms and hands, and let your legs be the motor of your effort.

Climbing a tree with many of low-hanging branches is one thing; climbing a tree without branches is quite another. Wrap your arms around the tree and position the soles of your feet on either side of the tree, with your legs bent outward, while climbing a branchless tree. Then walk or jump upwards with your feet. These incredible Tarzan great-grandchildren, who may or may not have been reared by apes, will demonstrate how it’s done:

How to Swing Like Tarzan is a video that shows you how to swing like Tarzan.

Tarzan’s ability to cross the jungle by hanging from vine to vine under the forest canopy was perhaps his most famous talent. Edgar Burroughs, on the other hand, never mentioned Tarzan completing this accomplishment. Perhaps he realized what Hollywood didn’t: in reality, Tarzan’s vines (lianas) are linked to the bottoms of trees, not the tops, as shown in the movies. So, in the actual world, swinging from vine to vine isn’t conceivable.

Tarzan did, however, perform his fair amount of swinging. He’d utilize tree limbs and branches as parallel or uneven bars, similar to what you’d see in gymnastics. Tarzan would swing his body back and forth in order to gain speed and propel himself through space to the next limb. In the same way as primates in the wild navigate the treetops. And, in some ways, like the folks in the video above.

I’ll tell you the truth. The movie rendition of Tarzan swinging is one of my favorites. When I was a kid, I’d immediately rush towards a rope hanging from a fixed object, jump into the air, take hold of the rope, and swing as high as I could while delivering my best Tarzan cry. I’m sure I’m not the only youngster who has done anything like this.

While you may never have to do an uneven bars routine in a tree, you’ll almost certainly have to show off your rope swinging talents at some time in your life, even if it’s only at a team-building ropes course or at the local pool.

If you’re a mature guy, it’s possible that you haven’t swung like Tarzan in a long time. The last time I attempted to swing from a rope into a river, I knew my rope swinging abilities were a little rusty. In my initial effort, I didn’t let go when I should have and ended up landing close to a strew of pebbles at the water’s edge. This isn’t good. It’s also a little awkward.

A few takeaways from my experience… Make sure you grip the rope in the center first. Keep a firm grip on the rope. Wraping your legs around the rope increases the likelihood of being tangled with the rope when you let go with your hands. Timing is the key to swinging from a rope. The sweet spot for me is letting go just in the midst of the ascending trajectory. You’ll receive more distance in your descent if you let go too early in the ascending arc, but not as much height. Your descent will have more height but less distance if you let go at the exact top of the arc. And, of course, if you don’t let go, your swing will wind up on YouTube, where millions will see it.

How to Yell Like Tarzan is a bonus skill.

We couldn’t close a piece about Tarzan talents without demonstrating how to shout like the Lord of the Apes.

During his time as Tarzan, actor Johnny Weissmuller created the Tarzan Yell. There are several theories on how the cry came to be. “Blended in with that voice are the snarl of a dog, a trill sung by a soprano, a note played on a violin’s G string, and the cry of a hyena recorded backward,” according to one newspaper story. Another theory claims that the cry is really the reversed voice of an Austrian yodel. Weissmuller, on the other hand, was certain that the shout was his own, and that it was based on a yell he uttered as a youngster.

To do the Tarzan Yell, just follow the official instructions included in Edgar Rice Burrough’s Tarzan Yell trademark application:

The sound of the legendary Tarzan cry serves as the mark. The mark is a cry that consists of around 10 sounds that alternate between the chest and falsetto registers of the voice, as follows:

a chest register sound that is semi-long,
a brief sound that is one octave plus a fifth higher than the previous sound,
a brief sound that is a Major 3rd lower than the previous sound,
a brief sound that is a Major 3rd higher than the previous sound,
a lengthy sound that is one octave lower and a Major 3rd lower than the previous sound,
a brief sound that is one octave higher than the previous sound,
a brief sound that is a Major 3rd higher than the previous sound,
a brief sound that is a Major 3rd lower than the previous sound,
a brief sound that is a Major 3rd higher than the previous sound,
a lengthy sound that is an octave plus a fifth lower than the previous sound

Is that clear? Now it’s your turn to control the jungle!