“That’s Clifford Clyde, a Yale man.”
“Grad?”
“No; he was suspended in his sophomore year and never tried to get back.”
“He runs easy, but lifts his feet just a little too high. The man behind him is the best runner in the lot, if he didn’t have one bad fault.”
“That’s Hugh Sheldon, the University of Michigan hurdler. What’s the fault?”
“The way he carries his arms. He swings them across his body, and thus fails to get the proper lift of a direct forward swing. There is lost motion in that swing.”
“There seems to be something the matter with them all,” muttered Proctor, with a disappointed air.
“It is seldom you see a runner without faults,” smiled Frank. “And some mighty good men have bad habits in running. Many wonderfully good English long-distance runners have the fault of swinging their arms across their bodies, yet, for all of this, they generally defeat Americans in cross-country running and in other things which demand endurance.”
“That’s what Mr. Ashley says, except he has made no mention of the bad arm action of the English. If Americans run in better form, why don’t they defeat the English?”
“Because they have not the stamina—the stay. They have not been properly trained.”