Transcript history of athletics

History of Athletics
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The history of athletics traces back to the first Olympic Games, held in Athens in 776
BC. These Olympics involved only one event, this being the ‘stade foot race’, which
covered the length of the Athenian Olympic Stadium.
The Olympic games continued to be held in Athens every four years, and over time
events such as distance running, the discus, javelin, jumping and wrestling.
Training for Ancient Athletics
Ever since Ancient times, successful athletes have been greatly admired. In the ancient times
of the sport, athletes that were competing in the Olympics would start to train 10 months
before the event, with three different trainers. These trainers were paidotribes, who were
responsible for the physical training; the gymnastes, who were responsible for exercise
training and the aleiptes, who were responsible for massaging and relaxing the athletes’
body. When training for the Olympics, the athlete would start training 10 months before the
event, and was allowed to train in the hosting stadium to train one month before the event.
In the begging of the introduction of the sport, training consisted of mainly either short,
intense running sessions, or long and consistent running sessions. However, over time, The
athletes began to use training methods including stamina, cardiovascular and strength
They used routines such as long distance running, quick sprints and weight lifting.
Training for Modern Athletics
In the modern world of athletics, training is a necessity for success. Many
professional athletes have no other job, so therefore some of the worldclass athletes train up to 23 hours a week. Modern athletics training often
consists of specific strengthening of the hips, ankles, calves and quads. To
do this, many athletes spend around 30% of their training times building
strength in these areas, and many others. Modern athletes can have up to
five trainers, varying from physiotherapists, to fitness trainers, to speed
trainers. Athletes often train by weightlifting/ ankle weight running, sprint
repetitions/ time trials and endurance running.
Clothing and footwear
In early ancient times, athletes would race on grass tracks.
Male runners would compete in bare feet, and clothe-less.
However, over time, they began to wear shorts. Many,
many years later, the runners began to wear lightweight
shoes and clothes (this tradition is still valid for today).
Nowadays, many designs of light weight, muscle-lining
outfits have been designed for athletes to run in. For men,
this usually consists of skin-tight, knee-length shorts and a
skin-tight singlet. And for women, a skin-tight sports bra
and skin-tight short-shorts/ undies. Modern athletes wear
flat shoes, with specially placed spikes lined along the
sole. These shoes are handy for gripping the track, so
athletes can push off the ground faster, and avoid slipping
over.
Techniques
Throughout the modernization of athletics, the techniques of athletes
and their running styles has been dramatically changed. In early
athletics, many athletes had their own was of starting, as block starts
were not introduced until 1948. Many early athletes would start
standing, lunging, or even standing side-on. As little knowledge of biomechanics was present in the early athletics, many athletes were not
able to truly perform to what could have been their full potential.
Throughout modern times however, we have discovered many
techniques and bio-mechanical ideas to help us perform to our best.
These include, adaption of timers, clothing and footwear, crouchstarting, acceleration and the physics of running. We have discovered
that long strides, high knees lifts, and many other physical techniques
can effect our performance. Because of this knowledge, many trainers
teach their athletes how to maintain posture, balance and techniques
that will get them one step further to success. A lot of this knowledge
was not known in historical times, meaning that the modern world of
athletics is much more technique- based than it was in the olden days.
bibliography
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http://library.thinkquest.org/CR0215451/Thinkquest%2002/ancient%20page.htm
http://strengthplanet.com/other/15-surprising-facts-about-world-classathletes.htm
http://www.brianmac.co.uk/articles/scni31a4.htm
http://www.coolrunning.com/engine/2/2_1/a-new-approach-to-strengt.shtml
http://www.sport-fitness-advisor.com/athletics-training.html
http://www.oztrack.com/devsp.html
http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/Olympics/faq6.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Running_in_Ancient_Greece#Training
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http://physicstt.tripod.com/id6.html