Why? The Science of Athletics

I 72 WHY?-THE SCIENCE OF ATHLETICS It is, moreover, the fact · that, up to a certain point, there is a slight increase in the average speed commen– surate with the increase in distance. This circumstance is accounted for by a purely mechanical factor, i.e. starting inertia of the body. If a means can be found of overcoming this time lag of about one second in starting then there can be no question that sprint records will be reduced by; a startling amount. We have seen already how other experiments of which Williams was the subject at Amsterdam proved that he had a lower viscosity of muscle than any other man tested at the I928 Olympic Games and therefore produced a faster pick-up. It is also true that the old systems of starting races by dropping a flag or touching a man off were replaced by pistol starting, because the sense of hear– ing allows the athlete to react more quickly than do his senses of sight and feeling. · In making the foregoing statements I am careful to add the qualification that the increase in average speed is maintained only up to a certain point. Thus, the fur– long is run at a higher average speed than the hundred yards, but not at so great a real speed. If we allow I second for time lag, then a man covering IOO yards in g.6 secs. is showing I 1.6 yards per sec., but if a man running 220 yards in 20.8 secs. takes, as he would do g.8 secs. for the initial Ioo yards, then he covers the ultimate I20 yards in Io.g secs., and is returning less than I I .6 yards per second. According to Professor Hill, the velocity at 88o yards is only some three-quarters of what it is at 220 yards, but a man may run almost the Marathon distance of just over 26 miles before it drops to half. In other words fatigue ensues in proportion to the rapidity of action, so that athletic feats performed at "half effort" can be continued for hours or minutes instead of for minutes and seconds. That is why all the training tables given in Athletic Training for Men and Boys (Webster and Heys; John F. Shaw & Co., Ltd., London) are