Athletics (British Sports Library)

50 ATHLETICS that there is no point in discussing any other posi– tion. There are, however, good and bad methods of crouching, and it has been held that in nine hundred and ninety-nine cases out of a thousand the sprinter shows bad form in the position of the hands. The start for a sprint is made fro:t:n behind a scratch line, in front of which no portion of the sprinter's anatomy must touch the ground before the pistol is fired. Many runners get into the starting position with the thumbs and index fingers of their hands resting on the scratch line or mark; the other fingers are in a row to the rear, and it is the palm of the hand which presses upon the track. In this position the arms afford no real support to the body, to which they should act as two forward props, with such a positive purchase as will lessen the inclination of the body to fall forward before the pistol is fired. The correct position of the hands i's one in which the first two fingers touch the line, with the thumbs and other fingers disposed farther back, and the whole hand forming a tripod, as will be seen from the illustrations (Sketches l and 2) . It is of the greatest importance that there should be no setting of the muscles in t.he crouch position. Tensing in the position of readiness to start is usually due to over-anxiety on the part of the