Athletes in Action

THE Q RTER-lvliL (r) FrvE pictures of G. l\1. Butler, Cambridge Uni,·crsity and reat Britain, have been chosen to illu trate this chapter, because I believe that the sprinter type of quarter-miler is more likely, than is the half-mil r type of runner, to break 440 yds. records. Butler made his championship debut by winning the 440 yds. in 49~ ecs. in 1919; in 1926 he won the . .A. 220 yd . in 21 1 °u- ecs. and, also, equalled the worlds 300 yards record f 307, sec . Figs. I and 2 n the ppositc page how th fir t pha e of Butler full-length, quarter-mile racing strid . It will be ccn that the f rward body-lean called for in this cv nt is greater than that r quired for 8o yds., as displayed by . Lowe in the next chapter. The pose hown in •ig . I and 2 allows of extreme tra ti n and drive ; Butler is 1 aning w 11 f n ard from th rear fo t, in contradistin tion t bending forward from th hip , and, in Fig. I, the r ar 1 g is fully xtendcd and the runner is getting the maximum amount f drive from th t cs f the rear fo t. The knee lift in Fig. I and the r ar-1 g hang in Fig. 2 both arc p rfcct while the arms are c ntributing their full quota t th pow r of pro- pul ion in a straight f rward-and-backward swing acti n. The head is properly s tin relation to the line f the pinal olumn, and in e the arms and 1 gs arc doing the work, th rest f the body is quite c rrc tly relaxed. It should be noted that the hand takes the initiati e g ing f rward in a lifting punch " hil the elbow snap it back again with a jab t the r ar, but the upp r portion f the rear arm i, , rightly, not all w d t ri higher than a parallrl-to-gr und position.