Democratic Sentinel, Volume 12, Number 2, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 3 February 1888 — HURDLING. [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

HURDLING.

A fascinating Pastime Much in Vogue Among Our British Cousins. "The Qualities and Training Requisite for a Successful Hurdler. [NEW YORK CORRESPONDENCE.] Mr. M. J. Melefont is thoroughly familiar with field games and pastimes, and contests on race track or cinder path. He takes a keen interest in the advancement of American sport, and looks to any athletic exercise which will develop American . brawn and cope successfully with British records in the matter of muscle and nerve with the greatest interest. “What sort of a position does hurdling claim in American sports?” he was asked. “Hurdling has not yet won for itself the position or the attention which it deserves,” he replied, “ft requires a combination of three qualities—wind, muscle and judgment, with an amount of training which all are not willing to bestow. But as an athletic exercise, it is most valuable in bringing out that firm poise, confidence and quick movement which is of such incomparable advantage to any one who wishes to shine as an amateur athlete. While we have produced some of the best sprinters in the world, we have not taken up hurdling with anything like interest until the past eight or ten years. Sprinting is an athletic pastime that especially commends itself to healthy young fellows, because it is literally full of breathless interest to the participants. The distance to be

covered by a ‘sprinter’ may not exceed a quarter of a mile, or four hundred and forty yards. A longer space than that is in the province of the runner, not of the sprinter, whose essential aim is to cover a short distance in the briefest amount of time. Of course, wind tells, but staying powers are not demanded as they are in long distance runs, c~ long pedestrian contests. The sprint t, lets all he has out from the very start and keeps letting it out at its very best until the finish. Having to carry such a short distance, he need not economize his wind or his legs. High pressure is the rate all along the short line of his course.

“Hurdling is a fascinating variety of sprinting. The sprinting requires for a successful endeavor, or at least a brilliant effort, whether it captures the prize or not, only speed. Any ordinarily healthy fellow, especially after his training, has wind enough to hold out, and he doesn’t care much if he brings up panting and breathless, and tumbles up against a friend quite done up, as they often do after reaching the goal, provided he gets there. But the hurdler must be an elastic, springy fellow, and exercise good judgment. The distance of a hurdle race rarely exceeds two hundred and twenty yards, while one hundred and twenty is the more usual and the favorite length. In this space a number of hurdles are ■erected at regular intervals, allowing about the same space for a start before the first hurdle is reached, and a long •distance between the last gate and the string, to allow of a spurt just before the triumphant runner breaks through the hempen barrier. The height of the hurdles may vary. Three feet and a half is the highest that is employed, and it is far more common to

only three feet in height. This is high enough, and the two feet and a half height is regarded as a condescension and not to be considered except by associations which have as much dude as athlete in their make-up. A hurdle race with three-feet hurdles, at ten or twelve feet apart, in a one-hundred-an d-twenty-y ar d spurt, is a very pretty contest, interesting to the spectator and equally so to the hurdler. It is a breathless, bounding

rush, in which the competitor is so engrossed by the task that is cut out for him that he has no time to turn and look to see if anybody is picking up. He simply forges ahead for all he is worth, and tries to reach the string in about as lively a passage from the starting point as his legs can make. “The movement a hurdler adopts is more like a dance movement than anything else. It is a pedestrian rhythmic run with as many steps as notes in so many equal measures—a passage of ten bars. The reason for this is obvious. The runner must bring himself at a

good point to spring from and clear the hurdle. If his steps are so timed that he fetches up for the last leap too near the hurdle, a much greater effort is needed to hurl himself across the barrier. The same is true, to a degree, if he brings to for the jump at a little too great a distance from the pole. “Springing and recovery from the descent so as to resume his course are the naturally retarding points in his action, and the good hurdler tries to bring his spring as smoothly and correctly, so to speak, into his motion as he possibly may, so that the upward rise, which calls for so different a movement of the muscles, may not arrest him a second more than is necessary. In watching a hurdle race one cannot fail to note the slight pause, infinitesimal almost, yet still a noticeable pause, as the hurdler flings himself over the rail and touches the ground. Quick recovery tells so much in the final result. In the hurdle race the longer stretch coming between the last hurdle and the string offers some slight possibility of a spurt. True, not much allowance is made for this, but where only a yard or two separate the second runner from the one in front, he may, if he has a reserve force to call into requisition, force himself and by a spurt forge ahead and burst the string. “The hurdler, like the high jumper, in rising from the spring, throws his whole body horizontally over the bar. It is far easier than than the straight perpendicular rise. It takes much more effort to rise straight in the air so as to clear the bar with the body perpendicularly held. This could be done, since Paige, in making his high jump, really gets over a height which shows that a three-feet hurdle could be so cleared. The effect on a spectator would be farmore entertaining, as the appearance of such a spring would be more brilliant. But it is a practical law with athletes to economize strength in a contest, not to spend it prodigally and uselessly.” “How does one train for hurdling?” “The general system is much the same as that adopted for short-dis-tance running. While, as I have said,

any man of good physique and limber limbs can become a hurdler, there is, nevertheless, a certain adaptability for the sport that must not be overlooked. A fat man, for instance, with all the training in the world, could not ever become a sprinter or a hurdler; but it is not leanness of physique alone that fits a man for this peculiar sport. I do not know that there is any rule by which the natural qualities of a man as regards running may be determined without actual experiment with him, Looking at the broad back and heavy arms of a pugilist, you see at once that he is well fitted by nature for the sport in which he indulges, but nothing similar can be said about runners. As a general thing, however, a man whose legs are piled thick with muscles will not be able to run speedily, although he may be immensely strong. Agility is generally accompanied by comparatively light muscles, and then, besides the formation of a man’s limbs, the question of wind enters into the problem. There are some men who make splendid runners who could never do anything in a short distance contest. So far as I know, the only way in which a man’s ability as a sprinter and hurdler can be determined, is to adopt the course advised by Lon Myers, the champion sprinter. He declares that one must try experiments with himself in running to determine in which stage cf the exercise he is best qualified to compete. No one without some essential training can run a mile or two

without stopping, unless at the expense of considerable fatigue, but after once training by running, say a few bloc’s the first day, and a ' v more the second, and so on for a Week or two, he can then readily make up his mind whether he is adapted for long distance or not. If he is not, it is then well to try the one hundred yard dash a few times, and see whether he naturally exerts all his frdm one end of the race to the other without bringing about undue exhaustion. If a man can start off and make one hundred yards in thirteen seconds the first trial, he ought to feel encouraged to adopt that style of running for his specialty. If he has determined to do this and also to ma’e hurdling a fejture of it, what he should do should be to practice daily upon a track at short distance runs, and in general, after a few days of essential work, during which he should be very careful not to overdo himself, ho should run a distance one-third longer than that for which a race should be set. That is, if he proposed to enter a contest lor a hundred yards or a hundred and twenty at hurdles, he should practice at a distance of about one hundred and fifty. The idea of this is to accustom himself to a considerable strain, and, if he is in the habit of massing all his strength for one hundred and fifty yards, he will find eventually that he can cover the shorter distance in less time and with less exhaustion. Of course, the only way to train for hurdle-jumping is to jump hurdles. Beyond that, the general manner of dieting and comparatively light exercise in the gymnasium are things that every student of sport knows all about. “In training for hurdle-running, perhaps the most important thing to practice is the recovery after the jump, and this should be done over and over again, until a man is perfectly familiar

with the operation, and can start off on the run the minute his feet touch the ground. Training should be continued daily, if possible, especially before a contest. It should always be done in racing costume. “In England the custom is to have hurdles rather higher than they have in America, and frequently to have longer races, but the records for this event are usually counted on a basis of three-feet hurdles, and a distance of two hundred and twenty yards. “It is seldom that any serious accident occurs in a sport of this kind. Of course, a runner may stumble just before reaching a hurdle and collide with it, or he may catch his toe upon a top rail and fall to the ground, but in either case the fall is very short, and is not likely to cause even so much inconvenience as the strain of running so rapidly for the distance itself. It not often happens that amateurs who have not been trained properly for a sprinting contest are so completely exhausted at the end of the race that they do not recover for two or three days, and it seldom 1 a >pens that an accident at hurdle jumping has such serious results as that. As a matter of fact, the accident will be always due to improper methods of racing, for one who has studied the matter of hurdle jumping will never be in any danger of injuring himself. “The champion hurdler is 0. T. Wiegand, a crack athlete of the New York Athletic Club. He has been champion at this style of race, which is a specialty of his, for a number of years. He holds the record for a hurdle race of two hundred and twenty yards with three feet hurdles, covering the ground and leaping the hurdles in twentyeight and four-fifths seconds. He is a fine sprinter and makes a brilliant hundred yard dash, having made a record of this of ten and three-fifths seconds. He is very good in broad jumps, as well as general gymnasium work. Five feet eight inches is not a bad high jump for a fellow who is an inch and a half less than that in height, and who tips the beam at one hundred and fifteen pounds. Wiegand is a light, spare build, and is twenty-one years of age.”

THE AMERICAN HURDLE.

A CLOSE RACE.

SPRINTING BETWEEN THE HURDLES.

OVER HIGH ENGLISH HURDLES.

A SPILL.