Track Athletics in Detail (extract)
THE POLE VAULT 89 advantage of jersey trousers or tights, however, is that they keep the legs warm, and, consequently, the muscles more limber. The shoes are the reg ular jumping shoes, made of kangaroo-skin, and fitted with six spikes in the toes and two spikes in the heel of the foot that takes off. These two spikes should be fixed at the extremities of a di agonal drawn through the centre of the heel, to prevent stone-bruising. The best vaulting-poles are made of selected, straight-grained spruce, and are somewhat expen sive, on account of the number of sticks that have to be destroyed in the making of one good one. A good pole costs from ^4 to $5. It should be sixteen feet long, and fitted with an iron spike at the lower end. Having purchased your pole, wind it with tape for a distance of three or four feet along that part where it is to be held by the hands in vault ing. When you first begin to vault, it is best to place the bar at about 6 feet, and to work over this height un til you have mastered the knack of the event, which is undeniably a complicated one. MEASURING
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