Coaching and Care of Athletes

THE SHOT PUT stage of the evolution is the fatal error of allowing his weight to go forward on to his left leg too soon. When this happens the shot inevitably beats the man, by getting ahead of him, and con– sequently he loses more than half his proper power of propulsion. In my opinion the right foot, at the end of the shift, should be put down at R2 (Fig. 164) a fraction of a second before the left foot reaches L2. I realize that some coaches recommend their athletes to complete the shift by landing simultaneously on both feet, but the effect is usually as disastrous as is overbalancing forward. The whole purpose of the shift is to overcome the inertia of the shot, and I think that the man who lands simultaneously on both feet does so flat-footed, and is bound to check his progress, which means that he must overcome the inertia of the shot all over again, and might therefore just as well make his put from a standing position, without wasting energy in the shift. With the body-weight kept well back over the right leg, there– fore, the left foot is put down at L2 (Fig. 164), or a little to the left-of the line of direction, as shown in Plate LII, Fig. 168, by R. Clark, U.S.A., runner-up in the Olympic Decathlon in 1936. As soon as the left foot is down the centre of gravity moves forward, and for a fraction of a second the weight is equally dis– tributed over both legs, which are flexed an equal amount at the knees. This is important, because shot-putting is really a weight– lifting proposition: a man must 'lift' straight from the legs, and not with the body and arm, which will play their parts later. Clark has his left foot down to form a point of resistance; his right heel is raised so that he is on the ball of the right foot, with the partly flexed right leg in a fine position for a powerful drive. The drive must come from the right leg, and come right through. Note the inversion of his left arm, 1 which keeps the left shoulder well up, and the way the right elbow is ~ept directly in rear of the shot, preparatory tc:> a full-powered and perfectly direct arm-drive. Again one gets the impression of a _powerful spring properly compressed for a sudden strong release of pent-up force. It will be not-iced that Clark has his right foot 12 ins. to 18 ins. behind the centre of the circle and his left foot against the stop– board. There is a tendency among coaches at present to have tall athletes cut down the shift, so that the right foot does not 1 The inversion of the left arm is a mannerism which suits some shot-putters, but not all. With some men this action seems to aid the subsequent rapid rotation of the hips from right to left.