Walking

Source: The Book Of Sports
Category: GYMNASTICS.



These preliminary exercises having been practised, the young pupil will
commence a course of more advanced exercises, such as walking, running,
leaping, balancing, vaulting, and climbing. Walking is common to all,
but few persons have a good walk, and nothing exhibits the person to so
much disadvantage as a slovenly bad gait. It is true, that the walk of a
person will indicate much of his character. Nervous people walk
hurriedly, sometimes quick, sometimes slow, with a tripping and
sometimes a running step; phlegmatic people have a heavy, solid, and
loitering step; the sanguine man walks rapidly, treads somewhat briskly
and firmly; while the melancholic wanders, and seems almost unconscious
of touching the ground which he seems to slide over. But the qualities
of the mind itself manifest themselves in the gait. The man of high
moral principle and virtuous integrity, walks with a very different step
to the low sensualist, or the cunning and unprincipled knave; therefore
the young pupil will be sure that even the art of walking, which seems
to be an exertion purely physical, will not be acquired properly if his
mind has taken a vicious and unprincipled bias: it will either indicate
his pride or his dastardly humility, his haughty self-sufficiency, or
his mean truckling to the opinion of others, his honest independence, or
his cringing servility. But he who has been blessed with the full use of
his muscular powers, in proportion as he is virtuous, will, with a very
little attention, indicate by his bearing, step, and carriage, the
nobility of his mind.

In walking, the arms should move freely by the side--they act like the
fly-wheel of an engine, to equalise the motion of the body, and to
balance it. One hand in the breeches pocket, or both, indicates the sot,
and has a very bad appearance. The head should be upright, without,
however, any particular call being made upon the muscles of the neck to
support it in that position, so that it may move freely in all
directions. The body should be upright, and the shoulders thrown
moderately backwards, displaying a graceful fall. When the foot reaches
the ground, it should support the body, not on the toe or heel, but on
the ball of the foot. This manner of walking should be practised daily,
sometimes in a slow, sometimes in a moderate walk, and sometimes in a
quick pace, until each is performed with elegance and ease.

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