What is athletics?This sport includes a whole mass of separate competitive disciplines. Currently athletics is one of the most popular, popular sports.
History of athletics
It dates back to the time of the AncientGreece. Traditional Olympic games in antiquity consisted exclusively of track and field disciplines. According to the historical data that have survived to our time, the first Olympiads were held on the basis of short-distance racing competitions. Later the program of such competitions was somewhat different with the appearance of running in several stages, mainly round trip. After that, there was a discipline called dovhodromos, which was a fairly long run for endurance.
A new twist of the history of development falls on 12century, when this sport has gained popularity among the inhabitants of the British Isles. It was here for the first time that the first major competitions in track and field athletics began, which included races on individual distances, jumps in height and length, throwing sports equipment. It was these competitions that gave a significant impetus to the development of modern sports.
Competitions in athletics, as much as possibleapproximate in nature to modern, began to be carried out, starting from the second half of the 19th century, when the Greeks made their first attempts to revive the old, long-forgotten tradition. Later similar championships were held in the most numerous countries of the world.
Basic track and field disciplines
What is athletics?The basis of this sport is running disciplines: sprint, running for medium, long distances, relay races, barrier races. A separate kind, deserving special attention, is sport walking, where the main emphasis, in comparison with running, is on observing the correct technique of movement.
At present, track and field athletics competitions for running and walking are held not only in the conditions of sports arenas, but also often go beyond the stadiums.
Running disciplines are by no means the only thing on which a great sport and physical culture are based. Athletics today unites a wide range of technical disciplines:
- jumping with a pole, vertical jumps through obstacles;
- horizontal jumps;
- throwing a disc, a hammer, a spear, a shot put.
All of the above athleticsdisciplines form the structure of the compulsory Olympic program at men's competitions, beginning in 1908. Many technical disciplines are included in the program of competitions in track and field athletics.
Run
To understand what is athletics,it is enough to look at competitions in running disciplines, which occupy the main part of the competitive athletics program. To date, there are several types of running programs:
- Smooth sprint - races at a distance of 50 to 400m, which are the basis of major international competitions. Beginning of the races is held at the command of the judge: "At the start, attention", - then a shot is heard from the signal pistol. In case of premature start of one of the athletes, a run is stopped, and the violator of the rules is counted with a false start and a warning is issued. Repeated admission of the error at the start leads to disqualification. The same rules apply to other running disciplines.
- The barrier sprint - the main difference from the sprintis the need to overcome obstacles. Movement of athletes takes place on separate tracks, each of which is placed a certain number of barriers, depending on the length of the distance.
- Races on average and long distances - concernto the most dynamic and fascinating disciplines in track and field athletics. The spectacularity of the races is not only the need to choose the right strategy for the athletes, but also the high probability of a whole mass of unforeseen moments.
Walking
At one time, the International Federation of Lightathletics included athletic walking in the list of Olympic disciplines. To achieve victory in the competition in race walking, not only demonstration of the fastest result is required, but also full compliance with technology. So, speed skaters are prohibited from running to jog or lose contact with the ground, that is, go to the stage of flying the body above the ground. Provision of technical shortcomings in athletic walking provides for temporary fines and disqualifications.
Throwing sports equipment
What is athletics, what else is included in thisconcept? In the competitive track and field athletics program, along with running and jumping disciplines, throwing all sorts of shells: a nucleus, a hammer, a disk, sometimes tennis balls and sham grenades. The last two disciplines have the character of preparatory, auxiliary and are used in the order of training.
All throwing disciplines allow for the preliminary inertial acceleration of sporting shells, which allows to increase the speed of flight when clearing from contact with the thrower's hands when flying.
All-around
As for women's heptathlon, this is the discipline of the 100, 200, 800 m race, jumps in height and length, shot put and javelin throwing.
Formation of results and determination of the winnerboth in men's and women's all-around occurs by counting the total number of points scored, which are awarded for demonstrating certain results in individual disciplines.
