Success in Athletics and how to obtain it

DISCUS-THROWING I 53 required, and saves the body to a great extent from having to do so by leaning over at an angle, which it would otherwise have to do. It is absolutely necessary for the athlete to master the throw from a stand, and to acquire the art of making the arm and body-work synchronise, and to get a certain amount of power from the leg-drive. Commencing to learn the turn, the athlete should practise with the discus in hand, but he should not make the throw until he is quite accustomed to the turn, · can · be sure of controlling all his movements during the evolutions, and can turn with rapidity and smoothness, letting the feet pass close to the ground with a sliding movement, the knees being· slightly bent in the first part of the turn and straightened violently up as the right shoulder comes round to the front. The thrower must be careful that he does not cross the circle with a leap; the whole art is to pass from side to side as smoothly as possible. It will be understood that much practice is required to master all the mov~ments, and that these must be done so that they will knit into each other with perfect smoothness. One other .point must be dealt with before going on to describe the full throw with the turn-i.e. the carriage of the arms; these should hang as nearly as possible at right angles to the body during the turn (see fig. 66, nos. 3 and 4), but the final sweep should come from below upwards, and th~ correct trajectory is given to the flight of the discus when the legs are straightened out and the arms (parallel to the ground) are thus raised to a higher level. The reader is asked to study carefully the cinemato– graph cut (fig. 66) of W. E. B. Henderson, the English