Success in Athletics and how to obtain it

150 SUCCESS IN ATHLETICS There are any amount of throwers at the present day who can turn perfectly and with tremendous rapidity, but they cannot knit their throw in with the turn. As a rule, they forget to sweep the flinging arm round as the right shoulder comes around, their method being to make the turn and then to sweep the throwing arm round after the body has practically stopped turning ; consequently, they do not throw as far with the turn as they would do without it. Their fault arises directly from the fact that they have tried, from the first day they took up the art, to throw with the turn instead of first acquiring the knack of throwing from a stand. It is important that the discus-thrower should always do his throwing from a circle properly set out upon the ground, otherwise, if he has not the lines within which the discus must fall to guide him, it may be that he will become careless of direction, which is so im– portant in this particular event. The athlete's stand in the circle is also important. Diagram 22 is therefore given, from which it will be seen that the thrower's back foot, the centre of the circle, and the centre line which bisects the 90° sector, are all in one and the same straight line. The athlete having taken his stand and got the feeling of being comfortably balanced, commences to swing ,the discus across the body at arm's length. When it is felt that .sufficient momentum has been generated in the swing, he gets the throwing arm back as far as possible by turning the body slightly to the right to elongate the swing (see fig. 53). As the arm reaches the limit of its backward swing, the right knee is bent a little in order that a strong leg– prive may aid the effort, while the left arm is held