Why? The Science of Athletics

Making Use of Calculations SOME MATHEMATICS IN ATHLETICS 263 This type of calculation is of the greatest practical value. A coach, using a stop– watch, can time the approach run of the athlete he is teaching from the start of the run to the instant of take-off, and from that time ·obtained he may deduce how high the pupil should be able to vault. He knows, also, from the kind of calcu– lation given above, what should be the contribution of the pull and what the contribution of the push, but how is he to assess the contributions of these two integral parts of the vault? · He should stand on a pair of steps to the side of the jump, so that his eyes are on a level with the bar. If the feet shoot up, as the feet of F. R. Webster, English Record Holder, are doing in Fig. Ss, Plate Ig, then the coach may be sure that the vaulter has put in the maximum amount of pull in exactly the right part of the vault. If the seat rises in the way shown by an American athlete vaulting over easily at a low height in Fig. S4, Plate I g, the cqach may know that full advantage is being taken of the athlete's ability to push his body up. Or, if vaulting is at maximum heights, then the form shown by L. T. Bond, former English Record Holder, in Fig. S6, Plate Ig, is not bad, for he has managed a full arm-extension in the push up, despite the fact that his leg action is unbalanced. If, on the other hand, the coach, perched up on his pair of steps, sees the sort of flat lay-out Bond is showing in Fig. S7, Plate Ig, then he will know that the left leg has not aided the swing with a follow-up kick, that the pull has not been hard enough, and consequently the athlete has not found himself in a good enough position to make any use of his push-up. If the reader will make a careful study of Plate I g he will see from the picture ofF. R. Webster (Fig. Ss) that the pull-up from a hang from the hands to the position he is in, when no push has started, does really account for fully 24 inches of the vault, while the study of Figs. S4 of the American, and Fig. S6 of Bond, proves equally well that