Athletics of To-Day 1929

r88 Athletics of To-day jumping. His contemporary in the middle nineties was a tall Irishman, ]. M. Ryan, of Tipperary, who jumped 6 ft. 4t ins. Had he developed the scientific skill of the American, he might have proved the better man, but they never met, for Ryan was unable to make the journey to America with the London A.C. team in r8g5, when Sweeney set the world record at 6ft. Si ins., his own height being but 5 ft. 8- 2 ins. Sweeney fully envisaged the fundamental principle of scientific high jumping, which other men from M. ]. Brooks onwards had been groping after. Sweeney held that to achieve the maximum height possible a man must alter the position of his trunk from upright to fiat (or vertical to horizontal) in its passage over the bar. This transposition, according to his theory, brought the heavy head and shoulders down to the proper centre of gravity and allowed all parts of the body to rise just high enough to clear the bar, but not a fraction of an inch higher. He admitted that his particular form called for the maximum amount of body control and accurate timing. He was a left-footed jumper and approached the bar with light, springy steps from directly in front. He used to throw his right foot straight up with his body facing the bar as he sprang from the left foot. Then the l ft l g was drawn up very quickly. At the nd of its upward swing the right leg was turned a quarter on to its left side and was followed by the whole body turning also to the left. Then the left leg and hip wer jerked up and the head and shoulders kept down to ffect the lay-out. Finally, as the body fell, almost facing the bar it had cl ared, the arms were thrown up and the head b nt back to draw the chest away from the bar, and the jumper alighted on the 1 ft foot, from which his spring had been made. The performance was distinctly a two part jump, first the spring upwards and then a definite break when the hitch-ki k, or hip-j rk, was introduc d to get the body to its maximum height. Sween y's world's record stood for twenty years and, ind ed, 6 ft. 6 ins. has since only b en achiev d or beat n by the invention of an entirely new method-the 11 Western Roll,' of which I shall say more pr sently.