Rowing and Track Athletics (extract)

Competitive Walking 399 requires an enormous amount of endurance and skill, the proficiency which it brings about cannot be used in any normal, natural way. If you learn to run fast and well, the strength and skill and confidence that you acquire to-day you can use to-morrow in beating out an approaching rain storm or overhauling a trolley car; but if you are going to take a tramp across country you will never do it in heel-and-toe form, and if you want to go faster than four miles an hour, you will either trot or take some other means of travelling. Aside from their cesthetic and athletic disadvan– tages, the long-distance walks were also undesir– able because of the tendency they had to encourage petty deception on the part of contestants. To maintain a fair gait in heel-and-toe walking the contestant must see to it that one foot is on the ground before the other leaves it, and that the knee is bent only on the leg that is being put forward. After the stride is made and the foot is on the ground, the knee must be kept perfectly straight and unbent until the foot is lifted from the ground. Obviously this unnatural position is hard to main– tain, and it is trebly so when the stress of contest is driving the contestant to quicken his pace and run. It takes not only complete honesty, but an unusual self-control, on the part of the athlete, not to walk unfairly- not, now and then, to " skip" for a stride or two. The mental strain of the