Why? The Science of Athletics

234 WHY?-THE SCIENCE OF ATHLETICS his mental and physical peculiarities. He used to approach the bar at almost hundred yards sprinting pace ; he would then reach his highest position in a sort of sitting attitude, but at just above bar level he shot his legs straight out, dropped his shoulders back and bobbed his hips up and so got a complete lay-out and crossed the bar in a face-upwards position. The real doyen of modern high jumpers, however, was Geo. Horine, U.S.A., who introduced the much discussed and often adversely criticized Western Roll form. This style he discovered by the purest fluke. Up to a certain time he had always jumped scissors fashion, taking off from his left foot and the maximum height he cleared in that style was 5 ft. I in. Then he found himself forced to train at a place where it was not possible for him to take h,is approach run from the right as his current method required. He tried running from the left, and unconsciously continued taking off from the left foot, which thus became the nearest foot to the bar. Horine cleared 5 ft. g ins. within a week of discovering the new jump form, in which the non-take-off leg is farthest from the bar and the arm on the take-off side is so dropped over the lath that one gets a complete lay-out, followed by a roll (as shown by H. M. Osborn, U.S.A., in Fig. 62, Plate r6). A few days later Horine topped 6 ft. I in., and then went on to carry the world's record up to 6 ft. 7 ins: Even so, the limit of record breaking had not been reached, and here comes a curious thing. H. M. Osborn, as an American schoolboy, saw a picture of Alva Richards, who won the Olympic title rgr2 with a queer balled-up clearance of his own, and tried to imitate him. Osborn's experiments led him to hit upon Horine's method off his own bat, and young Osborn, who was then clearing 5 ft. 3 ins., went straight to 5 ft. 8 I/2 ins., and that same year he made his 6 ft. In his junior year, at College, he beat 6 ft. 6 ins., and