Athletics (British Sports Library)

ATHLETICS spikes, and then, with a trowel, dig out the holes. These must give firm support to the balls of the feet . In the " on the marks " position (Sketch l) it ·will appear to the athlete that a slanting back wall to the holes is the more comfortable ; in reality a perpendicular back wall is better, because, when the athlete "gets set," the ball of the foot will come away from the back wall if it is .sloped, and there will be a slight retrograde movement in push– ing off (see dotted right foot position, Sketch 2). Care must be taken that the rear hole is sufficiently to the right of the forward hole to admit of a com– fortable leg spread, by which I mean that a straight line travels up from the toe of each foot to the rear centre of each hip-bone. The holes should never be so arranged that the rear leg has to be swung around before it can be brought through to the front. When the athletes have prepared their holes, the starter will order them to get "on their marks." Each man will then step into his holes and lower the right knee on to the track ; the left knee is raised from the track under the left shoulder and on a line with the hips (Sketch 1). There is one important point to remember here. If the right knee is too far back, a long, forward action, wl.:lich means loss of time, will occur in the first stride, . whereas the position in which the rear knee is level