Why? The Science of Athletics

SOME MATHEMATICS IN ATHLETICS 251 and long-striding distance runners, while the second point deals with the question of the degree of marked and material difference in the mode of progression of good and bad runners. · · Both matters have been the subject of exhaustive experimentation at the Physiological Institute of the University of Breslau. By the making of slow-motion films it was possible to dissect and analyse the running action of three of the world's greatest middle distance runners, Erling Wide, Sweden, and the Finns, Ville Ritola and Paavo Nurmi, who are I I I I I I I I I I I I I L I I I I I I I I I 0 shown in Fig 5 I, FIG. 79 Plate I3. The method of making the cine– matograph films, of Cl):rC! I t n r rll'rn:rx1 FIG. Bo both good and bad runners, produced a record of the graphic curves described by certain parts of the body in the function of progression by running. The parts of the body selected for recording graphically in their path were the head, the pelvis (representing the runner's centre of gravity), the knees, the feet and the toes. Very little variation in physiological movement was discoverable in the action of athletes with differing stride lengths. This was especially pronounced in the initial strides of progression from a stationary start. Such variation as there was bore direct relationship to speed and stride-length rather than to style. The divergence between the action of educa.ted and athletically uneducated runners was, however, very pro– nounced. Fig. 79 shows the smooth action of a good runner, Fig. So the uneven action of a novice. Incidental to the main motive of the experiments were certain discoveries concerning the much-debated question as to whether or not first-class runners do, in fact, first make contact with the track by placing down the heel at the termination of each stride. The theory in