Coaching and Care of Athletes

THE POLE VAULT later, Stones visited the United States. They used long, heavy wooden poles terminating in a 3 ins. spiked tripod. At the end of a slow run the athlete used to plant his pole and swing up, climbing the pole hand over hand. As ~he pole passed the perpendicular the athlete would raise his knees and go over the bar in a sitting position. Using this style, Stones won the American Champion- - ship in I 889 at I o ft. A new rule was then passed which provided that after the athlete had left the ground his upper hand must not shift its grip, nor might the lower pass above the upper hand. The next advance was made with the introduction of bamboo vaulting-poles by A. C. Gilbert, Yale, U.S.A., early in the present century. The lightness of the bamboo pole allows the athlete to run at greater speed. It is safer than the old-time, heavy pole of hickory or ash, which sometimes broke transversally and impaled the unfortunate athlete. In America the sport progressed rapidly. N. Dole beat I 2 ft. in 1904, M. S. Wright cleared 13 ft. 2! ins. in 1912, Sabin Carr vaulted 14ft. in 1927, and in 1937 Bill Sefton and Earle Meadows, aptly nicknamed 'the Heavenly Twins,' staged a sensational tie at 14 ft. I I ins. They might well have cleared 15 ft ., but the standards were already raised to their limit. No one outside America has yet beaten 14 ft., except the Japanese S. Nishida and S. Oe, although Charles Hoff, Norway, was near to doing so when he vaulted 13 ft. Id- ins., in 1925. This is still the European record. In Great Britain affairs came to a standstill after R. D. Dickin– son in 1891 made what was then the world's record of I I ft. 9 ins. This remained the English native record until I 928, in which year L. T. Bond, of Cambridge University, cleared I I ft. rot ins. This record he raised to 12ft. 6i ins. in 1930, Bond being the first British athlete to beat 12 ft. In 1934 F. R. Webster, also of Cambridge University, vaulted 12 ft . 6! ins., to break Bond's English record. In 1936 he increased the English record to 12 ft. 9 ins. out of doors and I2 ft . 9! ins. indoors, and, vaulting 13 ft. rt ins., to tie for sixth place in the Olympic Games in the same year, he became the first British athlete to vault higher than I 3 ft. Until comparatively recent years the opinion prevailed that the ideal build of pole-vaulter would be found among muscular gymnasts standing under 6 ft. in height. Gymnastic ability cer– tainly is required, but the balance of preference swung first to tall, rather thin athletes, like F. Sturdy, of Yale, who was in the 3 1 9