Athletics of To-Day 1929

--- -~-- 354 Athletics of To-day from a circle in discus throwing. If the feet are wrongly disposed at the end of the turning movement a delivery to the right is indicated and a further conscious effort will be required of the thrower if he is to make the delivery properly in front of the body; ergo-study pictures, work at style, and learn the foot-work. Throwing men in particular must take care to relate their events. Some muscles are antagonistic to others. For exam– ple, the muscles that bend the arms are in opposition to those that extend it, so that when one set is flexed the other is relaxed. For this reason the hammer thrower very seldom excels also as a shot putter and vice versa. By careful experiment, by deep thought and by constantly seeking after first causes, we can learn a great deal about ourselves and can turn that knowledge to full account in the improvement of our athletic ability. But one can also learn a lot from nature. One never knows where this sort of seeking after knowledge is going to lead. The study of the conduction of gases through electricity 1 d to the discov ry of X-rays. It was the work of physiologists in studying the heart beat that, adapt d to the particular requirem nts, led to the location of gun position during the war, while th di covery of the '' W tern Roll, method of high jumping was qually for– tuitous. We cannot hope to acquire the jumping power of a flea or the fleetne of an antelope; but all life had probably a single source and did not start separat ly in a hundred different ways. It is r asonable to assume, ther fore, that there must still be much which the athlete could learn from the obser– vation of wild animals to his great advantage. Just one instance of this has come recently to my notice through the study of a film which was taken to show how a cat, dropped back-downwards, will turn in mid-air so that it may alight upon its feet. The point of interest to athletes which this motion picture rev aled is that the cat, in the moment of completing its turning movement, arches its body in exactly the same way as does the expert pole vaulter when he clears the crossbar.