THE KNACK OF JUMPING.

Otago Witness, Issue 2675, 21 June 1905, Page 62

THE KNACK OF JUMPING.

(By C. B. Fry.)

BROAD JUMPING. You may call it method, cr art, or simnly knack. But, whatever the name, tiiere is much more of it in jumping— high or long — than you may be aware of. unless you aro yourself an expert, and rather analytical at that. P." O'Connor covers 24 ft long, or M. F. Sweeney clears 6ft high, and you exclaim : "What tremendous spring!" Spring, sheer spring is what strikes you. In the main. too. you sure right. Sprang is the essential factor in all jumping; jumpers differ from one another chiefly in their power of spring. No amount of art or knack makes un for deficiency of spring, or equalises those wiho are clearly separated in this natural ability. Yet in all good jumping there is something' besides spring — namely, the special adroitness with which the spring is applied 1 , is managed, is eked oiit. A ma.n may possess enoiTgh spring to lift himself sft clear of the ground, and yet. not be able to jump a latli set at that height. Most long 1 junipers -who eo'ncass 20ft &r «>. and regard this as their limit, possess really enougih spring for 21ft or more. A gain, when a iumper fail? to accomplish a height f«r length of which he ie known to be capable, the faihire is often due, not to his springing with less power than usual, but to his misapplying the same -power as, vrell applied, would have ensured success. A ]ong jump, even of fiiTt-c^ass merit, looks a simple enough feat. Indeed, the bstteir the jump the simpler it looks. You see the man run up as fast as he can, and then, jump as far as he can, that is all. Eyen the expert theory of lexng jumping is sianplfl enough. It is evident that ability to jump "long" is made up of two factors, pace and spring. Pace in the run vp — that is to say, the pace with which the jumper is travelling at the moment lie takes off — supplies forward impetus; spring adds to this impetus ; and also arives trajectory by enabling the jumper to rise high enough in the air for the impetus from pace and spring to take full effect. The practical rules deduced from this quite correct theory are drummed into every novice. "Bun up at full speed, and go high.''* Them, of course, since the length of fche jump is measured from the edge of the take-off board, no matter how far behind it the juniper actually takes off. it i© clearly advantageous to be as accurate as possible in planting the foot plumb on the "mark." Yet to overstep the "mark" is painfully fatal, because, thoug-h" the board is fixed flus-h with the surface of the track on the near side, there ie a sheer drop of several inches on the far side, and toe over mark means head over heals. Aheader into the pit does not count— except the marks on your snow-white vest. "Run up at full speed." How simple, yet how difficult. It means that you are to be running headlong, iust as at the finish of a sprint race, and then, at a given instant, without altering your stride, you are to plant your foot — the particular one, too, from which you iump — precisely on a strip. of board only 3in or so in width. Nofaltering, no shortening, no changing stride. This is quite contrary to nature-. Horses and dogs, and other animals, as well ac men, when approaching a jump are inclined, by natural instinct, to iies-itate in their speed, and, co to speak, manoeuvre for a takei-off. And the more accurate the take-off needs to be. the greater the tendency to manoeuvre for it. In high jumping you see everyone, noyioo and expert, manoeuvre for his takeoff, as he trots or sidlea up to the bar. In long jumping the novice almost invariably changes his stride, lengthens or shortens it, in the last 10 yards before the takeoff. Even the expert who, by much practice, teaches himself not to do co, may to the end of his athletic days have to make an effort of will in ordor to prevent himself changing stride or slowing up. Indeed!, I do not think it is incorrect to say that running up a'; full specd 1 is a kind of menial knack — a knack of not doing what you feel inclined to do. The books tell you that a full-speed run up may best bei acquired by habituatingyourself to a run up of uniform length, carefully measured and practised, so that you may feel confident that, provided you do not shorten or lengthen your normal stride, you cannot help taking off on or near the mark. This is quite light. The confidence of habit helps much : and a man's stride, or pair of strides, ia practically always uniform. But tho laet stride, the stride that brings your foot down for the jump, is not a sprinting stride at all ; it is shorter, and the jumping foot is thrown across outside the other, and is not sot down in lin© with the foot-marks mdde in the run, white the heel, and not the baJl oi the tops, strikes the ground first. In a word, jt is a jirninns or a tukiiis-

off stride, and it is part of the action of collecting iho whole body into the effort of springNow m point of fact much knack i? required in order to get this last .stride in— ihe stride yon mint make to gather spring 1 —at the end. or rather in continuation, of a set of top-spe?d sprinting strides. Knack is required to got it in at all, and mere knack to »lo s:> without any pause or selfdrag on your paco. For thi-> stride is not a <trif?o for pare, but a ctride for lift Whon you ociwiiler how difficult it is for a man going at 100-yardrc speed to altei even tbe direction of bis straight-ahead course within a ,-pace of sytls or 6yds, you sre pI. onoe liow greatly knack (or natural skill) is nfodrd to manage this taking-cif stride, and yet t>ipj<mvp- full speed, so that tli<s run-up flows full flood into the actxial jump. Indeed, the natural ttndsrcy to change the stride, as mentioned above, when approaching the take-off. _is really an attempt to a r ranee this taking-off stride. The jumper, as he runs up. knows, perhaps subconsciously, but he knows — or his body knows for him — that this, difficult little stride, so ail-iitipcrtant, has to be negotiated ; yet his instinct, to collect himself has to be sacrificed in favoui of vheipr pace. It is really rati'pr interesting when you come to analyse i* all. But tlie little las+ stridSs is only one part of the jump itself. If it is difficult to get the stride in, how much more co to geife in the whole action of a big jumping effort — and this without a pause, and at full forward speed. Stand hi front of a low chair, and shape to jump it. Ycra will feel at once that the process of collecting the body and the limbs 'ct a jump is complicated and ratlieir elat>oraie. Judge, then, how much knack — it is knack — is required to put in tins "collection" instantaneously, and -without any suspicion of pulling up, when you are travelling 1 at 100-yards speed. Note, too, that the action of full-speed running is very different from the action o! jumping ; yefc tbe one has to flow unhesitatingly into the other. There are senna jumpers who have not, and never acquire, this knack of getting the jump in at full speed ; either they run slow and lose full impetus, or else they run full .speed and inits "their full spring. There is knack, too, quite apart from tho forward spring, in obtaining a take-off which gives a high upward spring. Indeed", in this resppot :in<--Tt lons*-" jumpers fail. Only the really good ones rise high enough. It is a safe rule to try to jump twioa as high as you feel inclined; and then, likely enough, you go too slow. And the rule» holds good' practically, even though theoretically ir is possible to jump too high, just as a cricket ball may be thrown tco high to make distance. Apart from the impetus of speed and of spring, there is much in how the body and! limbs aw managed in the air. It is knack that enables the first-rate jumi>er to gather himeelf up into a ball «s he rises, with, his knees tucked up near his chin, andl with fais arms co swiing up as to gain poise and balance in the air. Any sprawling in the air is fatal to good long jumping. Inetaatansous pictures which, catch th® jumpei in the early part of the process of gathering up the limbs do not correctly indicate the "balline:" of the legs ovd body in th© finai mid-afr position, which occura in the case of a really firstr&te performer. Unless a long jumper gathers himse-lf compactly (and there is knack in this) he cannot do -what is usually called "the wriggle in the air." The "wriggle is not exactly a wriggle ; it is a knack of efcing out in mid-air, if not of increasing, the impetus acquired by speed and spring at the take-off. It is not easy to describe; no genuine knack ie. -It amounts, however, to this: During the first part of the rise the jumper's legs and hips are up in front of his body, so that if forward! motion ceased and he fell he would fall on the small of his back. At a certain point in the rise, the jumper, without drawing his legs and hing down, works his body up and over them by a maiscular lift from the waist. Then the moment his body has been urged thus iin and- forward, he works his legs and hips upward with a similar action from the "wast. Then, as he reaches the top of his rise, he- again re-covers his poise by jerking the upper part cf his body \ip and forward. I cannot describe tlie socalled wriggle better than by saying that the first part of it resembles just the very beginning of a eomersault backwards, and the la«t part of it just the very beginning of a somersault forwards. Lastly, there is considerable knack in landing in the pit «o as t> gain the utmost distance, and at the same time avoid falling backwards. The natural tendency, when you begin to fall from tho top of your rise, is to drop the legs or straighten them oufe somewhat in front of you. But this gives you less time in the air, and pulls you down too boon, and shortens the jump. Them is a knack in keening your limbs compactly collected in a lump, till your heels are all but touching the ground, and then in just easing your compactness enough to relievo the shock of landing. There is knack, 100. in so landing that you avoid falling back, and yet gain every half-inch of forward thrust with your tuoked-up feet. When you analyse it, long jumping is a concatenation of knack?, eaoh one of which contributes in an important degree to the rpt*ult. It should be known, too. that every jump, long or high, demands a most distinct and concentrated effort of the will. Even when a man is in his finest fettle and form he has to screw himself t.p with no little severity to each effort. It is notorious that some jumDW who can do excellently in practice fail altogether "on the day." This is explained as due to nervousness, and correctly, if nervousness dissipates power of concentration, and determined, active attention

It is understood that one object of tha meeting of magistrates in Wellington at present is to make representations to the Government in favour of inoreasod salaries to mapistiates who are acting as wardens of goldfields. The Grey Star says that, notwithstanding 1 the fact that winter is upon us, the demand for ooal is so limited that, not only at th© State mine, but at Brunner, a shortening of bane's is taking p?ace. There is a ecre-vy loose somewhere, and the sooner our "King" looks into the matter and either rrslricts or stops by some means the intf** 1 *- 1 tatiou of Newcastle coal the better*