Why? The Science of Athletics

92 WHY?-THE SCIENCE OF ATHLETICS positiOns makes the proper performance of their functions irregular and difficult, since they are thrown, as it were, out of gear. Very few athletes, unfortunately, have perfect feet, but the degree in lowering of the arches varies, as does the power to raise the arches. A vicious reaction spring– ing from ill-formed feet, or feet that have been allowed to take wrong formations, ascends upwards from the foundations of the body-structure ; even headaches are produced by the lack of spring in the feet, due to the fall– ing of the arches, and the consequent shock given to the spine and cranium when feet that lack "spring" are placed down heavily. "Shin-soreness", of which athletes so often complain, is due to the over-stretching of the muscles on the outer side of the leg below the knee, and is often, but not always, caused by the lowering of the arches of the foot. Again, so called "weak ankles" and alleged "rheumatic pains" in various situations of the foot are generally due, in the first case, to fallen arches, and in the second case to the stretching of the ligaments, or "fibrous bandages", of the foot through the lowering of the arches. The arches of the foot are retained in their proper position by muscles and tendons and any slackening of the muscles lets down the arches. Training, and espe– cially specific exercises, will to a great extent give tone to the muscles and thereby preserve, or restore, balance to the body and spring to the athlete's step. That there are abnormalities to be observed in the build of various types of athletes has been pointed out already, and there are even more variations within the range of what is called the normal or natural. They are exemplified particularly in such places as the ankle, and the knee. One athlete, for example, may possess a leg in which the foot is so articulated that the distance between the heel and the point of attachment to the leg is as shown in Fig. 7, IA, which indicates strength, but not much capacity for speed. The articulation of