Why? The Science of Athletics

DIAGRAM AND DEDUCTIONAL CALCULATION 233 hand and the peculiar rotation of the left arm are essential contributory factors to the vital action of turning the chest towards the cross-bar in the clearance phase of the JUmp. The evolution of perfect form m any Evolution of athletic event is largely a matter of dis– Perfect Form · covery, through deductions made by the medium of human trial and error. For example, Fig. 59, Plate 16, portrays five small figures whose different styles represent the whole evolution of the technique of high jumping since 1876, in which year the Hon. M. J. Brooks, O.U.A.C., became the first man ever to clear 6 ft. The first man to realize that the main secret of suc– cessful high jumping is to be found in the athlete's ability to get all the heavy parts of his body down to the level of his centre of gravity in clearing the bar was an American named W. Byrd-Page. He stood but 5 ft. 8 I/2 ins. and yet succeeded in raising the world's record to 6 ft. 3 I/4 ins., a stupendous jump for so small a man. Byrd-Page approached the jump with a series of bounds from foot to foot and, on the last bound, struck his heel with great force into the ground, shot his legs straight in front of him and crossed the bar in a horizontal position and at right angles to the lath. When in this position he twisted his body right round and landed with his face towards the bar and his body almost under it. Byrd-Page laid the foundations for the style which is now standardized as the Eastern Cut-off and no material improvement was made upon his record until pure chance led to the discovery of an entirely new style of jumping. Before that new style came into vogue, however, something midway between the old and what was to be the entirely new had been evolved. Clinton Larsen, U.S .A. (the third of the small figures in Fig. 59, Plate I 6), although not naturally athletically gifted and standing no more than 5 ft . 9 I/2 ins., cleared 6 ft. 6 ins. because he worked out a process suitable to