Why? The Science of Athletics

CHAPTER XII ELIMINATION OF HUMAN ERROR Eliminating Time-Lag- Timing- Conditions Affecting Decisions of Judges-Eliminating Timing and Judging Errors-The "Kirby Two-Eyed Camera"-Sports Clocks- Scientific Study by Accurate Timing. WHERE starting and time-keeping are concerned the human element, and therefore human error, enter very largely into our calculations. Eliminating Time-Lag can return No. 2.) Something has been said already con– cerning the time-lag, of approximately I second, which is such a decidedly detri– mental factor to the time which a sprinter for the I oo-yards distance. (See Fig. 17, According to John J. McHugh, the American expert who has been starting races for upwards of five-and-thirty years and was particularly successful in this capadty at the I924 Olympic Games, there are two types of start. The one may be termed the Amateur Start, in which the starter makes sure that all the men are ready on their marks and without movement of any kind before he fires the gun, and the Professional or Rolling Start, which calls for the closest co-operation between the man with the gun and the athletes themselves. In the latter event the starter tells the men to get to their marks and then gives the order "Get Set !" Instead of getting set as the amateurs do, however, the men gradually keep moving the weight of the body forward over the tripod of the fingers and the advanced foot, until they are upon th€ point of overbalancing., -Just as they are about to topple over the starter fires his pistol. In this way the men have the 182