Success in Athletics and how to obtain it

68 SUCCESS IN ATHLETICS The object of the athlete should be to attain correct styl~, rather than to clear great heights at first. It is most important that the athlete should acquire an accurate knowledge of the distance from the bar at which he should take up his stand when the bar is placed at various heights. The distance from the bar at which a jumper should take up his stand is such that he will be jumping at an angle of 70° from the ground. This distance can be obtained by the formula : "' . Cot. 70° x he1ght of bar. (Cot. 70° = ·363.) So that in jumping a height of 5 feet the distance would be 5 x ·363 = I ft. 9 in. An easy method of making a rapid calculation to Diagram u. obtain the correct distance from the bar is to multiply the het'ght by '4 (really ·363). The following case, in which two men, each weigh– ing 140 pounds, one standing 6 feet and the other 5 feet, and 'each jumping 5 feet in height, will be of interest. The shorter man (diagram n) is obliged to exert a much greater effort in jumping, inasmuch as he has not the same length of muscle to contract ; but the effort made must produce exactly the same force of impulse if they bdth weigh the same and clear the same height. This will show that there is a vast