Base running

“ He encourages runners with his voice, but his orders are given primarily with his hands, because often the noise made by the crowd drowns out the shouted instructions. Last, he must be prepared to handle all sorts of base running. ”

“ Unlike a sprinter, a base-runner must be in shape to start in either direction, and this can be done best and quickest by standing upright with the feet almost together. A second qualification is speed. While, as before said, mere speed will not make a base-runner, in the full sense of the term, yet, other things being equal, the faster runner will be the better base-runner. Straight away running is something to which ball players do not devote sufficient attention. ”

“ As regards rapid running, from one hundred feet to one hundred yards may be attempted at full speed, and when the constitution is good, the body not too fat, the muscular developments fine, and the lungs sound, a quarter of a mile a minute may be accomplished, and a mile in five minutes, which is seldom done even in very good running. ”

“ Every race you engage in will increase your experience and give you confidence for the next time. Good time for 100 yards ranges from 11 seconds to 101⁄4, according to the ground, &c. The top speed is seldom obtained until 40 yards are covered. A good sprinter will generally beat two others in 200 yards, each to run 100 yards with him on end. For sprinting, wind is not such a desideratum as elasticity of muscle. The shorter the distance, the greater care and practice should be made in starting; the longer you have to sprint, the greater will be the necessity for working up the muscles. ”

“ Yet a man does not run on his toes; he runs on the ball of his foot; and in order that the spikes of his shoes may enter the track to the best advantage the sole should strike flat, that the nails may dig well in and secure a firm hold.
For a beginner who has never undertaken any systematic training in sprinting, and who desires to become proficient in it, I should recommend the following schedule, to be carefully carried out for three weeks:
Monday.—Practise the start six times, running at speed only about twenty yards from the scratch. ”

“ Those who could not sprint, leap the bars, throw hammer or discus, or do any other of the ordinary stunts, might, at least, have some chance of winning a prize in the climbing of the greased pole, the catching of the greased pig, the running of the obstacle race, or testing their ability to hop in the three-legged race, where each couple of boys would have a right and left leg bound together, and then attempt to cross a given line ahead of all like competitors. ”

“ The man who runs flat-footedly is using up steam and endurance. Run balanced well forward on the balls of your feet. Throw your heels up; travel as though you were trying to kick the backs of your thighs. Breathe through the nose, always, in running, and master to the highest degree the trick of making a great air reservoir of your lungs. ”

“ Never do much work the last few days, but have a few fast spins of 300 yards or so, to keep the muscles in form. In longer distance training, the same steady practice must be followed, with this exception, that, instead of practicing pace, rather get the condition of wind and muscle up as high as practicable, and reserve your energies for the day of the race. ”

“ A quarter of a mile is, perhaps, next to the 300 yards, the most patronized of any. Assuming our trainee to be in robust health, the muscles should be gradually accustomed to the exercise by slow spins of half a mile each, two or three times a day, taking about from 3min. to 2min. 25sec., according to the individual, to do it. When the distance is accomplished with comparative ease, practice style and pace for about 300 yards to 350 yards to within about a week of the race, when the whole distance may be run, two or three times at top speed for 400 yards, slower the last 40. ”

“ When the trial is changed to a sprint race, where great speed is required and a severe temporary strain comes on heart and lungs, the pugilist would answer the purpose better, as condition is the great point in such a match, style being secondary.
For longer running contests up to twenty miles, where economy of strength is everything, style becomes a valuable adjunct; and here the professional runner is indicated as the proper trainer.
For twenty-four-hour walks and runs the professional pedestrian is also the man to employ, as such efforts are not above the capacity of men in fair condition. ”

“ Mechanically and automatically, training had been projected into action, anticipation into realization. A spectator might as well have called to a man in a hundred-yard dash to stop running, to an oarsman in a race to jump out of his shell. ”

“ The best exercise for a crew training for a rowing-race is rowing; the next best is running.
The best exercise for a man training for a swimming-match is swimming; the next best is running.
And so with other contests: running is not only second best, but is absolutely necessary in each, for running excels all exercises for developing "the wind." This is simply because the muscular action of the runner enables him to hold and increase his wind more easily than is possible under the varied and violent arm and chest motions of the boxer, the oarsman, or the swimmer. ”

“ Ease up the practice in the last three days, merely working up pace for 100 yards or so. The same method of training will suit the half mile runner, with the exception of his spins being longer, and more attention paid to an equal pace of going. The quarter requires more speed than the half mile; consequently that point must be attended to. A steady, machine-like style of going pays best for the half mile runner. ”

“ Indeed, to speak the truth, it is the only sport that properly exercises the legs in all their parts. When you run forward one set of sinews and muscles comes{116} into play; when you jump backwards others have more work to do, and others again when you change direction sideways. In track-running on the contrary, only one sort of movement is necessary and the exercise is unequal, not affecting all parts of the legs alike.
‘And as with the legs so also with the arms, the exercise is very fairly apportioned, for the players are accustomed to catch the ball in every kind of attitude. ”

“ The watchword of the good runner will always be—at those heights and distances where so much that is ahead must remain problematical—move onward on curves, so as to approach any obstacle by means of a bend, admitting of an inspection of the obstacle, if it is above the surface, before you are upon it, and which, if it is the running surface which presents a break, even a concealed one, will prevent your hurling yourself headlong into the trap. ”

“ In starting out for a walk, one should begin slowly, and gradually increase the pace, and in returning the same rule should be observed.
Running.—The force exerted in running is enormous. In running it is the length of the step more than anything else which increases the speed of the run; hence, the runner should learn to take long steps. But the greatest speed can only be kept up for a limited time ”

“ Neither attempt long or short strides, no matter what your 39 gait, clumsy or otherwise, for it is the distance to be got over that will land you a winner, not your shape or traveling on your “pretty,” however people may criticise. An old car-horse will keep up the same jog-trot nearly all day apparently undistressed, while a terrible three-mile dash at full speed will perhaps use the fast horse up. It was not natural for the car-horse to go that gait at first, but he was broke to it, and men are pretty much like horses in this respect, except that they can endure more in the long run. ”

“ On levels, where there was good, solid road and all went well, the teams proceeded at a fast walk; up the hills they generally went faster, because it was only by a good running start that they could get to the top at all. As it was, the big horses had to strain every muscle in ascending the grades. ”

“ In the winter, when there was but little doing in the fields, we organized running-matches. A dozen or so of us would start out on races that were simply tests of endurance, running on and on along a public road over the breezy hills like hounds, without stopping or getting tired. ”

“ Gerald read, “should try to develop a long, easy stride. He should not, however, exhaust himself seeking to attain a length of stride which his build naturally prohibits. An unnatural stride results in exhaustion. By careful practice he may add to the length of stride by just that little within his power, and which may mean a great deal in a contest. Remember that in distance running every inch added to the stride means seconds gained at the finish.” ”

“ Fourthly, if he misses a ball in the field, standing still and allowing some more remote fielder to run after it, or else running after it himself at about the same pace as if he were just starting on a five-mile race. ”

“ In practicing long-distance running, style is nothing—wind and freshness everything—let your arms, therefore, swing easy which ever way comes most natural, as the legs are the motors for this kind of work. ”

“ No fear need be entertained of falling back on alighting if the run is sufficiently fast and the landing place level and soft; the impetus derived from the run gives the heaviest part of the jumper, the trunk, sufficient momentum to carry itself forward when the progress of the feet and legs is arrested. ”

“ Again, the tendency of all young runners to watch their adversary at the start is counteracted, the opponent in this way being in advance, with a straight course only left open for the novice to the goal. So many sprinters, from standing in a wrong position at the scratch, or from taking a longer stride with one leg than the other, jostle or run across their opponent in the spin, thereby either losing their own chance of success or depriving others of it. ”

“ In practicing for a mile race and upwards, a long, steady course of slow running must be gone through to get the limbs and the wind gradually accustomed to the work. As they improve, quicken your pace, and for mile running practice half a mile or so in about 2min. ”

“ After this, increase the distance half a mile every day, until five miles are gone over at each row. Then, if there are no blisters on the hands, row the whole distance at racing pace. Every other day, row eight or ten miles, up to within twenty-four hours of the race. Less rowing than this should not be taken; more will not hurt.
Clerks, bookkeepers, etc., generally require two weeks more of training than men who have been always used to heavy lifting; but, when a man once does get into good training, his race becomes an easy matter for him. ”

“ Let the novice, some five weeks or so before the day of his race, begin his practice by a steady run, three or four times a day, of a quarter of a mile or so; so gently at first as to produce no stiffness of the muscles when the temperature produced by the exercise has subsided, and the circulation has recovered its usual condition. When the novice has got his legs into moderate good fettle, so that they could stand a little sharp work, he might quicken up for about 50 yards in each of his quarter spins ”

“ The man training for a match should walk some portion of his distance, if weather permits, daily, in his walking-dress, which should consist of a light elastic shirt, short drawers, and light Oxford ties. On starting, he must go off at his very best pace, and continue it for at least three hundred yards or a quarter of a mile, by which time he will have begun to blow very freely, and then, getting into a good, long, regular stride, his principal aim must be to keep his legs well in advance of his body. ”

“ HINTS IN, BEFORE, AND AFTER THE RACE.
In sprinting, a good start is of such importance that we would suggest a careful practice in it. It is a curious fact that a novice will invariably start with one foot a yard or so behind the other, either with the body bent down low, or with the body erect, and swinging the arms as if they were the means of propulsion about to be trusted to. In the former case, he runs one yard more than his distance, in the latter he exhausts and unsteadies himself. ”

“ The practice of this kind of exercise must, therefore, be beneficial to those whose lungs and heart are too delicate to stand any of those sports, such as rowing, running, etc., which so particularly tax their working powers. Commence practicing with a hammer about 7lb., until the art of swinging while running is acquired; to learn this the run should be taken at first only six or seven yards from the scratch ”

“ You made a nice start to-day in the two-twenty and you used a nice stride when you found it, which wasn’t until you were pretty nearly to the tape, but you waved your arms all over the lot and never once used them to help your running. Now if you’re ever going to do anything in the sprints, or in the distances, either, you’ve got to learn how to use your arms. A sprinter runs with three things, Perry; his legs, his arms and his head. You use your legs fairly well, although you’re trying to get too long a stride for a chap with legs the length yours are ”

“ Most exercise physiologists claim that the physical, and very likely also the psychological, effects of other aerobic forms of exercise, such as bicycling, swimming, and cross-country skiing, are essentially equivalent to running. So, until we know otherwise, we will assume that what is true of running is likely to be true of other types of exercise that make similar demands on the body, and we will focus here on running. ”

“ Well, in our country you’d generally get to somewhere else—if you ran very fast for a long time as we’ve been doing.
Red Queen
A slow sort of country. Now here you see, it takes all the running you can do, to keep in the same place. If you want to get somewhere else, you must run at least twice as fast as that. ”

“ Somebody running after him all the time, and then ... running on ahead? And, of course, on a broad pavement there would be plenty of room for this running gentleman to run round; but on an eight- or nine-inch kerb, such as that of the new road out Lewisham way ... but perhaps he was a jumping gentleman too, and could jump over a man's head. You'd think he'd have to get past some way, wouldn't you?... I remember vaguely wondering whether the name of that Runner was not Conscience; but Conscience isn't a matter of molecules and osmosis.... ”