Success in Athletics and how to obtain it
2 SUCCESS IN ATHLETICS to rely upon their speed and nimbleness of foot to escape from terrible monsters such as those whose skeletons we find in our museums to-day. Every one has experienced that terrible nightmare of falling through limitless space. This, it is suggested, is an hereditary sensation transmitted to us from our dis– tant ancestors, who, in climbing the branches of trees to escape annihilation by the prehistoric monsters, fell, but saved themselves by clinging to the lower branches in their downward progress. There are to-day, in our territory in British East Africa, fellow-subjects who are so light of foot that they are capable of jumping with ease 9 feet high from a slightly raised grass mound. Nature and natural .environment, without the cramping and distorting engines of civilisation in the shape of ill-made and badly fitting footwear, have allowed the feet full play for development and growth, and flexibility and spring have been retained unimpaired. We have, therefore, in considering the build of the athlete, to begin with the foot. The arches of the foot are very largely responsible for the well-being of the whole of the limb; and if there is any defectwhich lowers the arch, a reaction is set up and the whole skeleton is thrown "out of true." If both feet are affected, the reaction, of course, is greater. Carriage and balance are altered; the whole bony framework and the muscles have to adapt themselves to a compensatory position ; and the natural curves and contours are thrown into disorder. The pernicious effect upon the internal organs is obvious. The alteration in their positions makes the proper performance of their functions irregular and difficult; they are thrown, as it were, out of gear. The locomotion of a person
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