Sprinter

“ Here the first requisite is a track for practice, and the directions for sprinter's training will serve in all respects as to diet and medicine. The period of training however needs to be longer, the mile walker needing more time to perfect his style and speed. The margin of difference between a green sprinter and a trained one is only a few seconds, but the green walker has to overcome a difference of several minutes before he can hope for success in a mile match. His exercise has one great advantage about it, that it aids him to train himself into first class condition. ”

“ Sprinting.—Not many athletes can excel in all kinds of running, and the champion sprinter is not generally a winner of long-distance races. Moreover, it is necessary for each runner to decide which he will be, for the training for each is different. ”

“ This will make the muscles begin to harden. Then run steadily for a quarter of a mile at a time, not troubling much about the speed. Cultivate the use of the toes and stride straight forward. Towards the end of the run the speed may be increased, for the muscles will then be in working order. Even now, Pg 24 however, the young sprinter should not tire himself. A week should be employed in this way before the more severe training is undertaken. ”

“ 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 ”

“ The sprinters and quarter-milers, whose events come first, are slipping into their scanty jeans and lacing up spiked shoes, every muscle quivering with that deathly nervousness which even veteran runners feel before a race.
Mike, the grim old trainer, is trotting around with a fixed smile on his face that he fondly imagines to be reassuring, answering numberless questions, encouraging this man, advising that, looking up lost articles—in short, giving backbone to the whole team by his presence. ”

“ You may boast of your fine horses and beautiful women, but give me an athlete in perfect training, particularly if I have had the handling of him, and have seen the fat disappear and the strong, clean muscle take its place.
The boys are seated on the long benches or standing in front of the lockers. Here is the slender figure of a sprinter, not an ounce of superfluous flesh or unused muscle, the cords of his shapely legs standing out clear and firm through the satin skin. There is a [Pg 142] shot-putter, stopping a moment to chaff with a friend, stripped to the waist, his shirt in his hand. ”

“ The sprinter starts down the track, measuring his strides carefully so as to come properly upon the first mark, and then he sprints at his greatest speed down the track to the take-off. If he has measured his distances correctly, he will land, as is shown in No. 3, with his jumping foot squarely upon the take-off. If he feels that he has gotten out of his stride, it is better not to make the jump at all, but to stop, for over-stepping the mark by a few inches will ruin the jump, and under-reaching the mark will detract just that much from the measure of his effort. ”

“ 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. ”

“ The boys, as a rule, looked very much like lithe grayhounds, for your natural runner is light of body, and can course along like the wind. Still, this applies more to short-distance sprinters than those whose specialty is endurance in a fifteen- or twenty-mile race.
Several of the fellows were quite muscular in build, and gave evidence of a grim determination such as the bulldog possesses. These chaps might be easily distanced in the start, but they would keep doggedly on, under the spur of the knowledge contained in that old adage that "the race is not always to the swift." ”

“ Though similar walks are sometimes given in America as a preliminary "seasoning," our training, for months before a meeting, is confined to the track. This is not unwise as long as a runner's stride needs developing; and in the heat of our summers such walks as the English take might sometimes prove exhausting. Yet my personal observations convinced me that for distance runners—and for sprinters, too, perhaps—the English method is far better. Under our training the muscles often seem overpowered by nervous lassitude; at the start of a race I have often felt it an effort to stand. ”

“ True it is running, but runners are divided into three classes—the sprinters, the middle-distance men, and the long-distance or cross-country men. Those adapted for the second class named, or who have won records or events in that class, find it more easy to become cross-country men than do those of the first class. ”

“ 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 training for the 100 yards and that for the 220 are almost identical, for an athlete who runs one of these events almost invariably becomes proficient in the other. In fact, the 220 is a long sprint—the word sprint meaning to run at full speed the entire distance of a race. The most important feature of sprinting, of course, is the start, and no runner can become too proficient in this. Up to within five or six years the standing start was universal, but in 1889 or 1890 Lee of the New York Athletic Club introduced the crouching start, and since then that has become the standard in America. ”

“ Running at the present day is divided into sprinting (distances up to one-quarter of a mile) , middle-distance running (from one-quarter of a mile to 1000 yds.) and long-distance running (over 1000 yds.) .
Sprinting consists of running over short distances with a full and continuous burst of speed, the chief distances being 100 yds., 220 yds. and quarter-mile. Distances up to and including 220 yds. are in America called dashes. The course for sprinting races, when run in the open air, is marked off in lanes for the individual runners by means of cords stretched upon short iron rods. ”

“ In a trial for a sprint race, which of course must be run through to know the time, if the day is any way near at hand, suppose a week or ten days off, total rest should be taken the following day until the afternoon, when another trial should take place, when a difference 14 in favor of the pedestrian will in most instances be found to have been accomplished. In Westhall’s experience in sprint racing there has been invariably the above successful result. ”

“ The longest sprint race, and the most severe of all, is the furlong dash—two hundred and twenty yards. This kind of racing is a tremendous strain on the lungs and heart, as the same pace which carries the runner over the hundred yard track has to be kept up and even increased. It requires a broad deep chest in the runner, with little flesh, and that hard and firm. To train for such a race requires at least a year's practice, and amateurs would do well to leave it alone altogether. ”

“ 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. ”

“ After a thorough rest of an hour’s duration, the pedestrian should stroll about for an hour or two, and then, divesting himself of his ordinary attire, don his racing gear and shoes, and practice his distance, or, at any rate, some portion of the same, whether he is training either for running or walking. This portion of the day’s work must be regulated by the judgment and advice of the trainer, who of course is the holder of the watch by which the athlete is timed, and is the only person capable of knowing how far towards success the trained man has progressed in his preparation. ”

“ Is ski-running merely a pretty form of athletics for the few, or is it a noble sport for the people, leading them forth from stuffy houses and narrow roads to the glories of the winter landscape? Surely the latter; and we would rather the runner sat on his pole at every hill and visited the woods and mountains than that he was the cleverest performer on the practice ground and went nowhere else. “But,” it is said, “if the beginner accustoms himself to run with a stick in his hand he will be quite helpless when he loses it or breaks it, or when he wishes to jump.” ”

“ As the last coach comes by I sprint in the same direction with it. It is a swift, short sprint. I cannot hope to equal the speed of the train, but I can reduce the difference of our speed to the minimum, and, hence, reduce the shock of impact, when I leap on board. In the fleeting instant of darkness I do not see the iron hand-rail of the last platform; nor is there time for me to locate it. I reach for where I think it ought to be, and at the same instant my feet leave the ground. It is all in the toss. The next moment I may be rolling in the gravel with broken ribs, or arms, or head. ”

“ The rate of speed in the afternoon should go up from thirty-five strokes a minute when commencing training to racing gait during the last two weeks, and pulling over the proposed course once “on time” will be plenty of work for this last period.
A three or four mile walk, at a four-mile gait, starting an hour after breakfast, will not, unless in extremely hot weather, prove too much for a vigorous young man with ordinarily good legs. The speed of this walk should be reached gradually, and after, perhaps, if a man in the start is much out of condition, say two weeks slower going. ”

“ A First Class runner turns as little as possible and slows up as little as possible before each turn. His turns are done at a high speed on all but very steep ground.
The candidate must satisfy the Judges that his running combines high speed, thorough steadiness on difficult ground and difficult snow, and an easy, effortless control of his ski.
SKI-JUMPING TESTS. GENERAL REGULATIONS. 1. The length of a jump shall be measured with a taut tape from the edge of the take-off to that point at which the hindermost ski touches the alighting track with the part immediately below the binding. ”

“ Those who knew better saw that the good runners did not start at headlong pace. They held back in a bunch, and were saving their wind. In a run that covers five or ten miles it is the height of folly to make any effort at great speed at the start. By degrees experienced and knowing runners get into their stride, and in this fashion are able to finish strongly. ”

“ It is a competition between the two ends of the alley to see which end can make the most of what energy it has. Let the athlete exert all his strength to propel the spheres; see them arrive at the end of the alley after their journey of four hundred feet, with sluggish speed; the boy lifts them to a height of five feet to the chute, gives them a gentle push, and they are returned to the athlete’s end, arriving, not as sluggards, but as filled with energy. A short tack up and a long tack down is what does it. ”

“ 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. ”

“ Running and leaping, however, are nearly always combined on every occasion in two descriptions of contests, viz., steeplechasing and hurdle-racing. Race-walking finds most votaries in London, the northern counties of England, and in Ireland, all distances, from 1 mile to 7, being in vogue amongst amateurs. Running comprises all distances from 100 yards up to 4 miles. Leaping may be divided into three principal heads, viz., running high-leaping, running wide-leaping, and running pole-leaping, which are found to be included in nearly every athletic programme. ”