Why? The Science of Athletics

218 WHY?-THE SCIENCE OF ATHLETICS the victor in what he regards as a striking attitude. The result is a posture which is nothing like the actual action the man employed in winning his event; but some wretched novice sees that picture and endeavours to mould his own style on what he fondly believes to be the style of the champion. The result is chaotic and disastrous. In any case, it is impossible to build style on a picture of one single phase of action. One must have a motion picture film, or a sequence of action pictures, taken by a battery of cameras in line, which is the method I used for the illustration of Athletes in Action, for which it was necessary to get an absolutely true sequence-series. Now, however, Messrs. Sport and General Press Ltd. have a new type of camera which takes an admirable series of action pictures in sequence. It follows, therefore, that sports instructors, in making use of action photographs when teaching, must consider carefully the angle from which each picture was taken and the height at which the camera was held, in order that they may decide whether a true record of the action involved in the particular skill has been obtained. In the early days of teaching sport by means of photographs only two means of making use of this method of instruction were available. One could either have sufficient -prints made to hand .one out to each of the pupils, an expensive process which also involved the instructor in the long task of going over each print separately with each pupil ; or one could have lantern slides made for exhibition at a lecture. Again, however, the process was expensive and postulated either the possession of a good lantern or the possibility of hiring one. Epidiascope Displaces Lantern and Slides These difficulties have now been over– come by the use of the epidiascope. With this instrument the coach or lecturer is able to project individual photographs upon a screen without the use of lantern slides, or he can take the text-book from which he is teaching, choose his page of illustrations and project