Success in Athletics and how to obtain it

84 SUCCESS IN ATHLETICS distance, and the ultimate results will not be so good. He will, moreover, impair his springing powers by placing too great and frequent a strain upon the muscles. In training, it is absolutely essential that the jumper should learn to throw his body well up into the air, and to gather his limbs under him in full flight. This gathering together of the body is, however, a gradual performance, and must be mastered detail by detail. The first thing to be learned may be termed " taking off and getting into the air" ; these two movements must of necessity be combined and treated of together. At the end of the run the jumper puts down the heel of the left foot (from which for the purpose of description we will assume that he jumps) in front of the board, so that the ball of the foot rests fairly on the board, the outside edge of which the toes just overlap. The action then passes through from the heel to the toes as the thrust is made which lifts the jumper on his flight. As the left leg, aided by the movements of the foot, thrusts the body up from the board, the right knee is thrown up to the front (sketch r, p. 88, and fig. 24), and the rise of the body further aided by flinging up the arms, raising the shoulders and looking up, while the left leg is at present allowed to trail. This part of the jump must be practised until the athlete can be sure of always passing through a certain elevation in his flight_.:.the elevation to which he should rise will be dealt with a little later. When the rise has been mastered, he must learn to draw the take-off leg up slowly, until, when at the top of the rise, he has his legs well gathered up under him, so that if he were taken in this position and placed upon the ground, he would