Success in Athletics and how to obtain it

CHAPTER VIII THE STANDING JUMPS IN both these events the greatest asset that the jumper can possess is a cool and placid nerve, for the greatest difficulty which beginners and veterans alike have to fight against is that horrible feeling of being stuck to the ground and utterly incapable of making the effort required to lift the body for the spring. At these sports, too, the question of build enters more largely into the calculation than in any other branch of athletics; the slim, long-legged athletes have an overwhelming advantage over their shorter brethren. f The build of the standing jumper must be somewhat on the lines of the other competitors for jumps. He should be slimly made, with length of limb, and without heavy trunk development. He must possess well-formed feet, with the arches of the feet perfect. The abdominal or belly muscles must be strong and evenly cultured, for there is no athletic event which places so much strain, wellnigh overstrain, upon the lower portion of the abdomen. The landing of the jumper upon both heels gives so great a jarring to the contents of the belly that this mode of jump- ing has been frequently the cause-in the untrained -of a rupture. It behoves the jumper to cultivate, 6o