Why? The Science of Athletics

il 220 Wi:IY?-THE SCIENCE OF ATHLETICS The Cine camera is truthful and utterly ruthless, and its utility grows year by year as we come to understand more fully its almost boundless possibilities as both coach and critic. When the First English Summer School for Athletes was held at Loughborough College, Leicestershire, in I 934 I was able, through the keen and enthusiastic co-operation of Messrs. Pathescope Ltd., to arrange a regular film service, which proved to be of incalculable value in the instruction of the hundred-odd students. In the first place, my son and I were able to show the films we have taken in various parts of the world of some of the greatest of the present-day athletes in action. These films were really instructive, because we have known what to look for and have been careful to make films, not only of the whole action, but of the actual foot– work, from the knees downwards, of such men as Dr. Pat O'Callaghan, the Olympic Champion Hammer Thrower; Erling Hirschfeldt, the German who formerly held the world's shot putting record, and of the Hungarian A. Madarasz, who won the English Discus Throwing Championship in 1933, to name but a few. At the School we had Armas Valste, the famous all-round Finnish athlete helping with the coaching, and many pictures of him were taken so that the students could study his action over and over again in relation to the instructions he had given them. Some of such pictures will be found in Plates 6 and 7· We also filmed the students themselves and had the films back from London within forty-eight hours to show the men their faults. Now, I hear, an actual slow-motion cine camera has been put on the market at a very cheap price and the use of that is bound to take the scientific study of athletics yet another stride forward. There is one characteristic of running in which athletes often go wrong, with disastrous results ; for the athlete who does not use his head, in more senses of the word than one, is like a boat without a rudder. You can,