Coaching and Care of Athletes

HURDLING rise from 2!, to 3 ins. above his normal stature when standing up– right. Jesse Owens, however, used sufficient body-dip to keep the top of his head down to the height of his normal standing stature. The perfection of Owens' style is shown admirably in Plates XXX and XXXI. There is some difference of opinion also concerning the action of the leading leg in the l;:mding phase of hurdle clearance. Gerald H. Ayres insists that the foot of the leading leg "should be snapped to .the track, making contact within 2 ft. of the hurdle." Lawson Robertson argues that the quick snap-over leg action . . . is both superfluous and detri– mental in the low hurdles. Inasmuch as seven strides are used be– tween the obstacles, it will be found that these strides are long ones, and an athlete has to stretch, beginning from his seventh to hil? final hurdle. If a snap-over movement is used this would require additional stretching and consequent disaster. In the matter of clearance distance, from take-off to landing, recogqiz,ed authorities are more or less in agreement. Bresnahan and Tuttle say that the athlete should take off 7 ft. 9 ins. in front of the first hurdle, and land 4ft. 3 ins. beyond it= I2 ft., and should take off 8 ft. I in. from the second and subsequent hurdles, landing 3 ft. I I in~?,. beyond each barrier= I2 ft. clearance. T. E. ]ones, Physical Director; University of Wisconsin, U.S.A., advocates a clearilnce of approximately I3 ft., while actual measurements of spike-marks made by the American hurdler R. I. Simpson proved •that he cleared I I ft. 8 ins. in taking the first hurdle and I 2 ft. 4 ins. over the second and subsequent hurdles. Here is a brief description of the event. The athlete uses one of the .recognized starting styles (see Chapters XIV and XV), and may cover the approach run, which is 52ft. 3 ins. from the starting– line to the take-off for the first hurdle clearance, at a fast clip in nine, ten, or eleven strides, using a quicker cadence for the larger number of strides and greater stride-length if the number is les– sened. The low hurdler gains the true sprinting angle a little sooner than do some sprinters, but not quite so quickly as does the high hurdler. His approach to the first hurdle is often faster than that of the high hurdler, simply because·he has 5 yds. greater dis– tance in which to gain momentum, and less preliminary action is needed for the clearance of a 30 ins. than a 42 ins. barrier. The points the coach must watch for in the foregoing connection 30I