What is athletics? This sport includes the whole mass of individual competitive disciplines. Athletics is currently one of the most popular, popular sports.
Track and field development history
It has been counting since the days of Ancient Greece. In ancient times , the traditional Olympic Games consisted exclusively of athletics. According to historical information that has been preserved to our time, the first Olympiads were held on the basis of short-distance running competitions . Later, the program of such competitions was somewhat diversified by the appearance of running in several stages, mainly back and forth. After that, a discipline called dolichodromos arose, which was a rather long endurance race.
A new round of development history falls on the 12th century, when this sport gained popularity among residents of the British Isles. It was here that the first major athletics competitions began for the first time, which included individual distance races, high and long jumps, and throwing of sports equipment. It was these competitions that gave a significant impetus to the development of modern sports.
Athletics competitions, as close as possible to modern ones, began to be held starting from the second half of the 19th century, when the Greeks made their first attempts to revive an old, long-forgotten tradition. Later similar championships began to be held in the most numerous countries of the world.
Basic track and field disciplines
What is athletics? The basis of this sport consists of running disciplines: sprint, middle and long distance running, relay races, hurdles. A separate view that deserves special attention is walking, where the main emphasis, in comparison with running, is on observing the correct technique of movement.
Athletics for running and walking are currently held not only in sports arenas, but also often go beyond the stadiums.
Running disciplines are far from the only thing on which great sport and physical culture are based. Athletics today combines a wide range of technical disciplines:
- pole vaulting, vertical jumping over obstacles;
- horizontal jumps;
- discus, hammer, spear, shot put.
All of the above athletics disciplines form the structure of the mandatory Olympic program in competitions among men, starting in 1908. Many technical disciplines are included in the track and field athletics competition program.
Run
To understand what athletics is, just look at the competitions in running disciplines, which occupy the bulk of the competitive athletics program. Today, there are several varieties of running programs:
- Smooth sprint - runs from 50 to 400 m, which are the basis of major international competitions. The start of the races is carried out at the judge’s command: “To the start, attention”, after which a shot from the signal pistol is heard . When one of the athletes starts prematurely, the run stops, and the offender is counted as a false start and a warning is issued. Repeated error at the start leads to disqualification. The same rules apply to other running disciplines.
- Barrier sprint - the main difference from the sprint is the need to overcome obstacles. Athletes move along separate tracks, each of which contains a certain number of barriers, depending on the length of the distance.
- Medium and long distance runs are among the most dynamic and exciting disciplines in athletics. The entertainment of the races consists not only in the need for the athletes to choose the right strategy, but also in the high probability of a whole mass of unforeseen moments.
Walking
At one time, the International Athletics Federation included walking in the list of Olympic disciplines. To achieve victory in race walking competitions, not only a demonstration of the fastest result is required, but also full compliance with the technique. So, walkers are forbidden to resort to jogging or lose contact of the feet with the ground, that is, go to the stage of the body’s flight above the ground. Subject to technical shortcomings in race walking, temporary fines and disqualifications are provided.
Throwing sports equipment
What is athletics, what else is included in this concept? Along with running and jumping disciplines, the competitive track and field program includes throwing all kinds of shells: a core, a hammer, a disk, sometimes tennis balls and fake grenades. The last two disciplines are preparatory, auxiliary, and are applied in the order of training.
All throwing disciplines allow preliminary inertial acceleration of sports equipment, which allows you to increase flight speed when released from contact with the thrower at departure.
All-around
All-around is considered to be a separate, one of the most interesting disciplines in track and field athletics. The classic men's decathlon includes short and medium distances, hurdling, long and high jumps, and throwing sports equipment.
As for the women's heptathlon, this discipline is the competition for running 100, 200, 800 meters, high and long jumps, shot put and javelin throwing.
Formation of results and determination of the winner in both men's and women's all-around events takes place by counting the total number of points scored that are awarded for demonstrating certain results in individual disciplines.