Track Athletics in Detail (extract)

50 TRACK ATHLETICS IN DETAIL up to about three hundred times. An expert high jumper can lift himself five hundred times without much fatigue. A second exercise is the " frog motion." This consists of placing the heels, close together and of squatting and rising. Do this a few times only to start with, and gradually bring yourself up to the hundreds. Exercise the chest with weights and dumb-bells. Strengthen the back by bending over with the legs stiff, the arms thrown out in front until the finger-tips touch the floor easily. Do not attempt any high jumping in the winter months when learning, for running ona hard board floor is not a good things as one is liable to slip and get injured. One week of practice in the open air is worth a month of indoor work. For out-of-door practice the jumper should have two square posts about two inches thick, made of almost any kind of wood, and bored with holes one inch apart up to 5 ft. 8 in., and half an inch apart above that. The pegs should be three inches long, and the bar, made of pine, should be about twelve feet long and one inch square. The posts are placed eight feet apart, and it is usual to hang a handkerchief over the centre of the cross-bar so that the latter may be seen better. A jumper must ahuays keep his eye on the bar from the time he starts to run until he lands safely on the other side of it. The runway should be eight feet wide and about forty feet long. It should be