Why? The Science of Athletics

202 WHY?-THE SCIENCE OF ATHLETICS and to retard the speed of the muscles which naturally move more quickly. In other words, timing and rhythm have to be introduced into our actions before the perfect evolution can be produced in its entirety. Note. Plates 6 and 7 should be carefully studied in connection with what is said in the immediately preceding paragraphs. That means that · physical skill must be built up stage by stage. Where the shot put is concerned, for example, the man must first learn to cradle the shot comfortably on the three middle fingers of his hand, because he cannot give the missile the final flick . if he holds it in any other way, but, in order to do that, he must build up the strength of certain muscles in the arm, wrist, hand and fingers before he is able to support the weight in the proper position without feeling strain. Next, assuming that he puts with the right hand, he must learn . to balance himself on the right leg while the left leg swings freely. . Then he must master the drive forward from the right leg and synchronize that with the lifting power of the forward swing of the left leg and the balance action of the left arm. In the final phase of that particular pro– cess, he must so manage his forward glide that his right foot will land at exactly the right s'pot on the line of direction, and neither to the right nor to t.he left of that line. At the same period that he is perfecting this initial phase'·';of the total technique he must be working on the standing put which combines the body and arm action in the final delivery. After which he must work long and patiently until he has succeeded in knitting the two processes of shot putting into one concrete whole. Even then he has by no means finished his job; for, as Valste said in his instructions to javelin throwers, "during the throw there must be acceleration". Perhaps that is the most difficult part of all athletic technique to master. We have known for long enough that all the field events call for cumulative effort, in which every action flows smoothly into the next, until the final explosive