Athletics (British Sports Library)

66 ATHLETICS three-stride method between fences, and the great physical effort of lifting the body over the obstacle while travelling at the top of one's speed, are factors which are bound to produce all the best of the athlete's latent sprinting ability. The necessity for perfecting one's form over the hurdles will be readily realized when it is pointed out that any persistent fault which adds a fraction to one's clearance time is multiplied by ten in the course of the whole race. The clearance has got to be very close to the top rail of the hurdle, and must be practised so per– sistently that, whatever the clearance margin may be, it varies not at all at any one of the ten obstacles. The clearance must, in fact, be part of the stride, otherwise it will impair the athlete's sprinting form. Most hurdlers employ eight strides in coming up from their holes at the crack of the pistol to the take-off for the clearance of the first obstacle. Novices generally take from 12 to 14 feet for the clearance of the hurdle, but should aim to get their take-off 6: feet away from it and to land within 4 feet upon the far side. The real champions generally manage to land within 3 feet of the obstacle they have negqtiated. This can only be accomplished by the down-chop action of the leading leg, and then again the down-chop is not possible if the take-off is made farther than 6 feet