Success in Athletics and how to obtain it

12 SUCCESS IN ATHLETICS sults an excellent trainer, such as Alec Nelson, the Cambridge University coach, who finds for him first his mechanical faults, and later his proper form. " In the half-mile, about two hundred yards from home," says a half-miler, "I want to come away for the sprint.in ; I'm fit as can be, but I cannot increase my pace. What's up with me? I don't know ! " Let him consider his anatomy; there are faults that no amount of ordinary orthodox training will get over. The jumper braces himself upon his toes as he runs up to his jump; the sprinter prances about for a similar purpose. Nature and experience have taught them both. It is too late to brace oneself a few minutes before an event; why not do so scientifically, months before, in the quietude of your bedroom? Advice, however, when competent, must be taken. The athlete who suffers from that incurable disease called " swelled head," and is beyond advice, is also beyond improvement. With the coming of conceit he becomes liable to lose such art as he may possess ; he refuses to take any " tips," and is sceptical of scientific advice. An expert trainer can do nothing for him– he is, in his own opinion, already perfect ; but no one appeals to him for advice in vain, and his disease is thereby increased. To recapitulate : a lowering of the arches of the feet throws the spine out of its true alignment. Even a slight flattening of the arch may lead to what is known as "lateral curvature of the spine," though of course there are many other possible causes. But it is necessary to emphasise the evil influ-ence that a defect in one part of the human frame may have upon another part. The body, again, may be warped and lose its proper