Success in Athletics and how to obtain it

THROWING THE JAVELIN 183 graph (fig. 78) of Oswald Pirow, English Champion, 1913, and figs. 76 and 77· Much of the preliminary training may be done in the gymnasium during the winter months. At this stage of the training the athlete must carefully avoid exercises which will entail the moving of heavy weights, for these will only tend to make him slow in his movements, and should therefore be studiously avoided. The exercises he wants are those which will develop his abdominal muscles, and -for this purpose the movements set forth in Lieutenant Muller's bo'ok, "My System," are particularly recom– mended. Skipping, jumping, and exercises on the apparatus which necessitate the sudden twisting of the body are good. Such games as fencing, boxing, and rowing will break the tedium of training, and will give the athlete both quickness of action and the right sort of muscular development. As soon as the weather is fit for the athlete to go on to the track, he shollld jog around for a few days in order to get his legs thoroughly into trim to with– stand the strain of a sudden effort, and tfien he should commence to practise sprinting. The distance should vary from starting-practice (fifteen yards) up to fifty yards, with an occasional hundred to give him power. The javelin-thrower should not practise his running in the way laid down for the sprinter. In the first place, he must learn to start standing with his shoulders square to the front, and the throwing hand held over the right shoulder; nor does he travel at full speed ail the way. When it comes to the actual thing, the distance he will really run will be twenty or twenty– five yards less two yards at the end; he should there-