Athletics of To-Day 1929

Some Points in Athletic Science 353 by careful education. Professor Pavlov, a great Russian physiologist, proved this by an experiment with a dog. In this case the stimulus for the conditioned reflex \ as supplied by teaching the dog to expect food when he heard the sound of a tuning fork vibrating roo times per second. On h aring this, the animal's mouth would water, but the sound of a tuning fork vibrating at any other speed did not produce salivation. Man, by similar educational means, can be trained to produce a ~~competition condition of mind" in certain given circum– stances. This indicates that the whole of hi training should b done in competition conditions, and as nearly as possible each day at the hour at which the contest for which he is pre– paring will probably take place. We come now to the question of balance and body posture. The adjustment of balance has much to do with the semi– circular canals, thr e to each ear, which tell us about the rota– tion of the body. Ev ry one is familiar with the expr ssion ~~getting his sea-legs." This is m r ly a matter of becoming accustomed to a constant adjustment of balance, required mor fr quently than it would be if we were on dry land. It is the same thing with hammer and discus throwers who are called upon to practise a fast rotary movem nt which does not form a part of a man's normal everyday life, but to which he will become accustomed in training. The jumping, throwing, and pole vault ev nts are made up of a number of quickly changing po tures, ach of which is maintain d by a tonic contraction of the mu cles, but the tone must harmoniz with th voluntary and refi x contractions. Everything that on do sin x cuting a fi ld ev nt volution has, or should have, ad finit purpos . Th r fore, v ryvoluntary action must be mad to suit th po ition it i de ir d to assume. If ther i only one po ible r spon to a certain reflex action that action will take pla e v ry quickly. Therefore, if th~ position th athl t h sa urn d is uch that th logical ensuing action is suggest d, that action will take place more quickly and with a b tter r sult than if a wrong preliminary posture has be n reached. Take, for example, the tang ntial departure sA