Athletics (British Sports Library)

72 ATHLETICS The shoulders should be kept square to the tape throughout the run and clearances, and the hurdler should land lightly but squarely on the ball of the foot after each clearance (Sketch 7). Fairly heavy shoes, provided with spiked heels, may be used for practice, but for competition work the hurdler should use light sprinting shoes without heels. · Something has already been said about the body dip, which both Earl Thomson, Robert Simpson, and F. R. Gaby showed to perfection, but it is felt that this phase of hurdling has not yet been sufficiently emphasized. The accompanying Sketch 6 will, however, make it plain. The athlete shown in the picture was 6 feet in height and yet was always able to clear a hurdle without touching a cross-bar over it set at 5 feet 9! inches above the ground. Games masters and coaches who are instructing hurdlers will do well to practise them over a 3-foot 6-inch hurdle with high-jump standards set up on either side of it, with a cross-bar resting on the pegs in the 6-foot holes. This cross-bar may be lowered as the athlete's proficiency increases. The things which the instructor, or the hurdlers themselves in helping each other, have to look out for are that the athlete comes cleanly up to his take-off, skims close over the hurdle with the body dipping well forward, right leg and left arm