Why? The Science of Athletics

106 WHY?-THE SCIENCE OF ATHLETICS that the training of sprinters and jumpers is such a much more delicate business than the preparation of distance runners. The muscles of the spr:inter and the jumper have to be developed and toned up to just that pitch which gives the maximum speed and explosion without carrying the muscle substance beyond the point that represents its breaking-strain. Large, strong muscles, it should be understood, do not necessarily represent a strong organism, and it is a mistake to accept with blind faith the promises held out by so called physical culture experts. Rapid development of enormous muscles is certainly practicable, and it may be that a man's appetite will increase because he has a greater bulk to feed, but if a man is not in a fit state of health to sustain the strain of such development he is very likely to upset his internal organs with disastrous results. The ancient Greeks, I fancy, had the rights of the matter when they planned the training of their athletes to produce nothing but symmetrical muscular development. This, again, is, in part at any rate, contingent upon the nature of the bony structure upon which the muscle substance must be built. If the bones are heavy in propor– tion to their length, it is not unreasonable to expect their owner to have a heavily developed musculature, while a lightly built athlete should show a lighter development, such as will fit him better for hurdling or high-jumping than for hammer-throwing or shot-putting. None the less, a man~ s physique depends far,_mor~upon the propor– tions of his bones than upon their thickness or thinness.– It is for this reason that training in general, and muscle– building exercises in particular, should be directed to the– development of a musculature suitable not only to the event that the athlete wishes to practise, but also to the natural build of the man. The type of traiping undertaken, then, governs both the endurance and the explosive force which we can develop in our muscles. But one so often hears coaches urging their charges to move more rapidly, and the