Athletics of To-Day 1929

334 Athletics of To-day lar? The answer is that the boys should never have been allowed to use a r6 lb. shot. I admit that boys such as those just mentioned can evidently manage it, but there are hundreds upon hundreds of others, not so fully developed, who not only strain themselves by trying to juggle with so heavy a weight, but who find it impossible to propel in the proper style a missile which it is beyond their strength to control. Shot putting is a good, healthy, body-building game for a boy to practise, but the Americans and Scandinavians got to the heart of the matter when they decided to standardize shots of three weights, i.e., the 8 lb. shot for boys of fifteen years and under, the rzlb. shot for boys of sixteen to eighteen years, and the r6 lb. shot for exceptionally well-developed youths and fully grown men. The general standard of world-wide improvement is not, however, to be so readily explained. There may be something in the theory that the march of progress has endowed us with far keener nervous perceptions than were possessed by our forefathers, and so given us more complete muscular co-ordination; but, physically, and in foot-pounds of muscle value, we are no better than they were. The problem, there– fore, must reduce itself to the old formula of tt man and his methods." In the early days of weight putting the missile, in all proba– bility, was bowled more often than not, for a big, long-armed, deep-chested fellow of exceptional strength can generally tt draw" a shot further than he can tt put" it, and old pictures seem to indicate that the initial momentum was generated with a run. Then came the days in which putting took place from a 7 ft. square, and all puts were measured from the mark in the ground made by the shot to the front edge of the square, or that edge produced, so that straightness in putting was a necessary part of the athlete's technique. He was recommended to stand at the rear of the square with the right shoulder well drawn back (it is assumed throughout that the put is made with the right hand) and to raise the shot several times above the head to stretch the arm