Jasper County Democrat, Volume 4, Number 31, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 9 November 1901 — THE ART OF STARTING. [ARTICLE]

THE ART OF STARTING.

Tbe Personal Element Cat* Quite * Figure in Foot Racing. Skillful starting, says Pearson** Magazine, like most instances of physical prowess, is a matter partly of natural aptitude, partly, in a foot race, of cultivation. Men differ in what may be called personal error; in. the duration of the interval between the act of will and the translation of it into action. Some men have to aim further in front of a driven partridge than others because it takes them longer to pull their triggers. Similarly, one runner takes longer than another to set his limbs in motion; both hear the bang of the pistol at the same moment, but the one actually move* his legs, or jumps into his stride, appreciably the sooner. And personal error, in this sense, ia found to vary from day to day in the same man, being distinctly more pronounced when he is stale or jaded than when he is fresh and fit No amount of cultivation will altogether remove this personal difference between individuals; but each may reduce his own error to hit own minimum by continued practice of a right method. By an incessant repetition an action becomes so habitual that it is done without conscious volition. The feet of an expert dancer thread of themselves the complicated steps of a jig or hornpipe; and in a similar way a sprinter’s limbs after due practice seem to start of their own accord at the sound of the pistol, the muscles of his legs aeem to hear the bang direct. An expert starter when in position on the mark, or when “set,”a» it is called, is in a concentrated, strained state from which the detonation releases him automatically; his highly educated muscles fall at once into the requisite actions, and knowing they will do so he can fix hia whole attention upon reaching the tape. Hewill arrive there all the more quickly for having but one idea to govern hi* body.