Athletics (British Sports Library)

13? ATHLETICS should be a good judge of pace, a good hurdler, and able to take the water jump in correct form ; he must certainly be possessed also of considerable staying power: The athlete who thinks of going in for steeple– chasing should study the chapters of this book dealing with half-mile and mile running, that part of Chapter Ill which deals with low hurdling, and should also practise the hurdler's exercises, except those designed to produce the high hurdler's exaggerated body dip. Steeplechasers should run to time schedule and endeavour to preserve uniformity of pace until they begin to stretch out in the final, or possibly the last two laps. Never should they on any account allow a " heady " runner to lure them into breaking the uniformity of stride for the sake of mixing it up in a series of spasmodic sprints. Not only will such a practice completely use up the reserve of power which should be conserved for the finishing spurt, but it will also prevent them striding evenly between obstacles, and will cause them to chop the stride unnecessarily as they approach such obstacles and to clear them in such bad form that they will either stumble into them or, havirig crossed them, land with a bad backward lean, which again will upset their striding evenly through .to the take-off for the next obstacle.