Success in Athletics and how to obtain it

IO SUCCESS IN ATHLETICS exigences of their profession. Practice and trammg must be made a pleasure, a delight, and not a task. The mediocre sprinter can become first-class ; he will deceive the handicapper and soon become a " back-marker" if he perseveres with strenuousness and regularity. So much is to be gained in various branches of athletics by careful consideration of what may be called scientific detail! It often happens that when the trainer has done all that his ingenuity and experience can do to bring a man " on," his man lacks something; he cannot excel his present performances, he ought to be "out of his holes quicker.'' The candidate for sprinting honours i explains, much as the Old Hound in the fable pleads with his master, "Spare your old servant! It was the poy.rer not the will that failed me." The will, the endeavour, the endurance, even the condition, the freedom from discomfort or distress of breathing-all were there, but the power seemed to have vanished. " I tried to gather myself with a final effort for the run home; I was all right, I was not distressed-but my legs failed to respond to my will power. I cannot understand it! I was as fresh at the finish as when I started! I was not by any means run out I" Many· an athlete will bring to mind such a position and similar expressions. "OuT OF THE HoLES."-Feet, if not yards, are lost by some sprinters at the start of the 100 yards race. Although the competitor "stands like a greyhound in the slips straining upon the start," when the pistol goes there is a latent period before he is "off the mark." This latent period is a "hang-fire" (not of the pistol, but of the competitor). He loses a period of time, he has the unpleasant experien<:e of seeing