Success in Athletics and how to obtain it

THE BUILD OF THE ATHLETE 7 Diagram 6 will show the somewhat obtuse angle formed by the junction of the thigh and leg, and the overstrain which would occur if the angle is made less obtuse. If elastic be placed on one or other side of the angle, the resulting disorder of tension of muscles will be noted. It is a well-known fact that some long– distance runners occasionally knock one knee against the other, but in sprinting this must surely be very rare, one might almost say unheard of. It is presumed that the long-distance runner, with even Diagram 5· slight "knock-knee," would have little or no chance of success as .a sprinter. He is probably disqualified by his own lack of adaptability to sprint-running, by mechanical defects of the lower limbs. Let us see that the future generation of athletes are cared for from early youth upwards. It behoves parents, and sports-masters at our Public Schools, to see to the culture of our boys' physique. There is a great tax upon youth, for not only has the human frame to grow, but it has to develop. By development we mean that every structure of the body has to improve in quality un£– formly. Youths who grow rapidly usually grow ill-shaped ; development does not always keep pace with growth, and faults becom~ manifest, especially in the lower limbs. The feet flatten, and with the sinking of the foundation there is a tendency to " knock-knee." Diagram 6. There is much to be said in recognition of hereditary tendencies in man as in horses. The horse which