Athletics (British Sports Library)

162 ATHLETICS - come forward until the right hip is well up and the shoulders square to the front (Sketches 10 and ll). In Sketch ll notice that the body is upright and the left leg properly straightened out and stiffened up and that the thrower is apparently making a low. delivery. This is because discus throwing calls for what looks like a low altitude in preference to a higher angle, because height (of a certain sort) automatically lessens the distance of flight since the flat face of the discus must fly face on to the air before the maximum height in flight is reached, instead of cutting its way through the air edge on. Here, however, as in javelin throwing, we come upon a feature which is hard to understand and harder still to explain. It is, however, a fact that the holding back of the right arm as shown in Sketch 8, com– bined with the upward raising of the body (Sketch ll) and the pressing of the shoulder and body up and under the discus (Sketch 12), aJ:!d the completed follow through (Sketch 13), tend to make the discus elevate after it has left the hand. It ·will then reach its greatest height at about a third of the distance of flight, rising through the air very slightly uptilted, and will thereafter fly absolutely flat for quite a long way before finally pitching steeply earthwards. It will be seen from Sketches 12 and 13 that the weight of the body is fully trans-