Why? The Science of Athletics

232 WHY?-THE SCIENCE OF ATHLETICS was the matter with his form. The first thing I realized, when I saw the films we had taken, was that no matter how experienced, or naturally talented, an athletic coach may be, the evolutions of the athlete are far too rapid for the human eye to follow what is taking place in accurate detail. With cinematograph projection, however, each fault stood out clearly, and it then became simply a question of correction and of building up per– fection stage by stage and one phase at a time. Solution by Cinema– tography The jump was made from the right foot and the first obvious fault was that of failure to fully straighten the left leg in the sweeping kick that should lift the hips to bar level. We worked on that for a week, and although practically every jump was a failure, no matter what height was attempted, the Pathe pictures showed clearly that the buttocks were reaching ever higher levels. Then we spent the second week working on the secondary lifting kick of the right, or take-off, leg, which should finally raise the right buttock well clear of the bar. A competition intervened before the film of that phase of the training was ready ; but, to our no small surprise, Richard went up to and cleared 5 ft. 7 r/2 ins. without a failure at any height, and repeated the performance in his next three competitions. The film came the next day and the reason for the sudden improvement of nearly half a foot in height– performance was at once plain, for the film showed clearly that a much delayed but intensely strong and sudden straightening of the take-off leg in the secondary lifting kick literally shot the jumper's buttocks above the bar in a most amazing manner. At present the process of building up the turn, or pivotal movement, above the bar, which should ultimately produce a 6-ft. jump, is in progress, and Fig. 58, Plate 15, shows how the use of the cinematograph film has also revealed the all-important coincidence of arm and leg action and how the balance action of the raised right