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Today we're starting a new series together, a new column. Call it whatever you want,
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call it athletics explained and the aim is to start from the simplest things of the most basic things
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in athletics until we get to explaining and delving into even the finest
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mechanisms. detailed and particulars of this world so video after video will be a
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growing journey on the in-depth study of this sport and today the first episode let's start from the
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super basics Let's start from the simplest question of all but which requires a good explanation what
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is athletics if we want to look at what the three dogs says it says that it is the complex of
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individual or team sports tests including running, walking, jumping, throwing and multiple tests and
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up to this point I would say everything is ok Very easy very simple but we can already look into this
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thing and be even a little more Down to Earth to make us understand a little better and therefore we immediately understand
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that athletics is a mix of different disciplines with different connotations of this sport which
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in jargon are called specialties and it is a truly enormous mix that is, you see in one competition
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of any level From the youngest to international athletes you can see that there are different
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competitions within an athletics competition and you also see that the physiques and characteristics
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of the athletes vary enormously from each other also depending on the specialty practiced
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but of all these great facets of these great differences that exist between the
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various specialties there is one thing that accumulates all of them which makes them all a bit like sister cousins
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if we want to say and it is the objectivity of the result because what commands in the athletics
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is time it is the measure given by the athlete there is no personal judgment within athletics
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there is no form of athletics it does not exist The beautiful the ugly what rules in athletics
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is the mere result in athletics only that exists strong and weak exists The one who gives you the
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best time who runs the fastest who makes the greatest measurement who manages to jump higher
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the longest who manages to cover a given distance in the shortest time possible then
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let's understand for a moment there exists the 'athlete who is more beautiful to look at who has a finer, more
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elegant technique but if at the end of the race the one who has the beautiful technique, beautiful to look at, super
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elegant, super harmonious in his movements, comes behind you and someone who runs all wrong and who almost
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gets there on the knees at the end of the race the strongest one is the one who wins the race not the one
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who has the most beautiful technique Obviously then there is also the fact that usually a good technique is
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accompanied by a good result otherwise no one would do technical running technique of throws and so
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on but I think you have understood the concept that accumulates all the different specialties
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the objectivity of the result in reality this thing of athletics is an objective sport also involves
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various negative sides let's not hide it but they are not the purpose of this video we will see them
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later in the continuation of this series or a special episode. I don't know yet but we will certainly talk about it
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in other places, returning a little to athletics, given that there are so many specialties, they must be
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divided and cataloged a little to understand a little. what are we talking about? the two main macro areas into
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which athletics can be divided are stadia and non-stadia and the difference is given exactly by the name
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stadia which stands for stadium and therefore the non-stadia part includes all of the specialties
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that take place all over the world. 'open and therefore the non-stadia part includes all the specialties that
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take place for example road running road running cross-country running mountain running everything
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that doesn't have comes on an athletics track To make us understand and here's a little trick when you
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look at them the results of a competition or the registered players or something similar you can
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immediately understand whether it is a stadia or non-stadia race because the races within an
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athletics track are indicated with meters so to say if you see a 10,000 m means that
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it means the track race. If you see a 10 km it means that it is either a cross-country race
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a mountain run or a road race because if they are outside of an
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athletics track the indication given in kilometers is actually a bit of a mix as far as cross-country running is concerned
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because sometimes it is also found in meters But there there is always the word cross next to it which
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means Cross Country which is the English wording to indicate cross-country running and
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then the difference lies not only in the expression of how the distance is composed with regards to
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races because it also changes how it is the time is expressed because if you are inside
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an athletics track, hundredths of a second are also expressed. While if you are outside an athletics
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track, the time is indicated only by seconds, i.e. obviously also hours
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and minutes but stop the seconds, let's not go into specifics anymore, now let's delve into the
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best-known part of athletics. That is, the specialties on the track because the stadia specialties
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are certainly the best-known ones, the ones that have the most media coverage and here too they
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can still be further divided into two different ones. macro areas on one side we have the races
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on the other side we have competitions in English Truck and field or track and field something similar
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However they are divided in this way thus dividing them Let's say for the races that take place
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on the track ring and the others which take place inside, however in the surroundings of it, I say
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surroundings because sometimes launches are made not inside the stadium but also in, let's say,
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not very close places and therefore the part of the track, the part of the Truck includes all the races
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that once again they are divided into different specialties we have the speed which includes
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100 200 400 m the Relays and also the obstacles obstacles in turn divided into short obstacles
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and long obstacles the short obstacles are the 100 obstacles for women and 110 for men and 400
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obstacles that are valid for both and here a little flying curiosity think that the 400 m race
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at the beginning of the century not of the current century but of the 10th century so we are at the beginning of
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1900 it was still considered a middle distance race and it is only with progress of the years which has
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become one of the speed races and then from the following races onwards up to the 10,000 m on the track
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which is the longest distance that is done we talk about half distance and the substantial difference
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between these two things is the fact that in speed races start and finish inside
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your own lane and the lane if you have never been around an athletics track is the part
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of the track delimited by the white borders which is approximately 1.20 m wide while in the
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middle race bottom you generally run roped or you run all together even side by side
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even in single file depending on the athlete's level and you try to stay on the innermost edge
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of the track because otherwise you risk covering a distance greater than
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your race distance small exception regarding the 800 m which has a first
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part inside its own lane and then goes to the rope or rather goes close to the curb
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then I told you that the middle distance ends with the 10,000 m which is the longest distance done
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in track actually happens very rarely but even very long races are held inside
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an athletics track there have also been marathons inside an athletics track and
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considering that the track is generally 400 m it means doing more than 100 laps of the track but
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here we are talking about prestigious races and by prestigious we mean those in major
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international competitions such as the world championships or the Olympic games. So
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yes we are talking about a maximum of 10,000 m then there is still a very particular race which is the 3000 steeplechase
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which let's say it's a bit of a mix between middle distance races and obstacles because you cover
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7 and a half laps of the track in which every 100 m more or less every 100 m there are large obstacles to
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jump called Sepi. Then if you want to know why they are called that and the legends behind
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their origin there is a video about it on the channel we discovered the countless
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competitions that are held for running let's look at the competitions which are eight in total and which
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they are further divided into throws and jumps, the throws are the shot put, the javelin, the
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discus and the hammer while the jumps are high, long, triple and with the pole, in reality
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here too there are several further variables both of throws such as the hammer which
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is a hammer that weighs twice as much as the normal hammer but has a much shorter handle or even
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jumps there are different facets such as for example all their inclinations from stationary, up
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from stationary long from stationary and so given that competitions like this are rarely found anyway. However,
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here too the same thing as before if we talk about prestigious competitions, those of the great competitions.
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Then the classic ones are eight four jumps and four throws and here I have to repeat myself because I must
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say that there is another very particular competition which if you think about it from the outside is strange and very particular
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as a race but which has its own logic for existing and which is neither a speed race
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nor a competition of competitions because it is both and it involves multiple tests or rather a race that
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gives a score for each of your performances in different specialties for example men do
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the Decathlon therefore 10 specialties over two days and women do the ept or
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seven specialties over two days and then the final ranking is created by adding
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the scores assigned to each performance of these different specialties which, when explained in this way,
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actually appears very complicated, it seems very difficult to understand but I promise you that it is
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super easy. You remember the very first piece of video. You certainly remember it because
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not even 10 minutes have passed and otherwise in in case you forgot You are goldfish
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I'm sorry to tell you but you are goldfish anyway I said that for the three-dog
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athletics is made up of both individual and team disciplines and therefore I didn't tell you these
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teams with the term of team discipline means the Relays which are
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speed races but no longer just speed because we can distinguish In my opinion two other different
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inclinations of the Relays we have the classic ones and we have the modern innovative
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recent ones CH let's call them modern because they have been seen in the times recent classic races are
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those that for better or worse have always been within the world of athletics, these are the 4x 100
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m and the 4x 400 m or rather each of the four participants in these races covers the distance
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of either 100 m or 400 m depending on the specialty while passing the baton that this tube
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of about 30 cm which is going to establish Who is currently active within the relay while
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there are modern relays born in very recent times. Even they are less
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than 10 years old, both of them. Even one has not not even the first year yet and in fact we
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recently had the mixed 4x 400 m in which there are exactly the same rules as the
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4x 400 m but instead of having four members of the same sex there are two men and two
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women and in 2024 because we will only really see it this year, the mixed
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race walking relay was also born. Over a distance of 42 km which probably, by the time you finish saying the name, the
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race has already ended and it is a race walking relay in which there are only two runners a man and
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a woman who alternate for fractions of approximately 10 km each over a total distance of the marathon
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of 42.195 m and here too, as we have already said 42 times, there are various variables also
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in the staff f such as for example the 4x 100 hurdles or the 3x 1500 which however are rarely seen and
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are not part of the major competitions there would still be other things many things to say
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about each single specialty I would probably talk about it for hours about each specialty but let's send
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these insights to further videos because we still have two to go topics to understand
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at least in general what athletics is And what it entails one of the two topics on which
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we must focus is where the track athletics part actually takes place because the surface
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of the track is strange you don't see it around anywhere part you probably have never
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walked on it if you haven't had anything to do with athletics because the surface of the track is
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commonly called tartan which is a synthetic material based on polyurethane which to put it
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simply is a truly super versatile material, it can be used in many ways in many
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facets such as for example athletics tracks and then it's not like there is a real
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formula beyond How is the athletics track made because there are different types
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There is even a slight difference between an indoor and an outdoor athletics track Why
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yes I would add that there are also indoor athletics tracks which are called
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up in 2023 indoors they are now also called short trucks because the track is a little smaller
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as far as indoors are concerned and then even among the outdoor tracks not all are the same there is
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the stiffest one the most elastic one and there are really many many variables in this regard and then
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among other things the thing that stands out most is the color of the track because the tartan can be
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colored with every color imaginable most of the tracks on our planet are red there
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are also many with shades of blue and then in any case they are also found in other colors
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for example until a few years ago in Chiari in the province of Brescia there was a track with
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lanes of three different colors one lane was red The other was blue and the 'another yellow era you
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can really indulge yourself and here, speaking of track, I introduce you to the last concept to understand
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athletics or the material used because the most technical material par excellence that exists
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within athletics are the spiked shoes whose particularity consists precisely in having
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nails, a kind of nails on the forefoot, obviously not above but below
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the sole, the number of nails varies for the shoes. Generally, however, there are between four
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and nine nails and the length of the nails as regards for track races it is 6 mm then
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obviously here too there are various exceptions also for the specialty for example if you do the
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cross-country race you can also have 15 mm studs because when there is mud it is better to have
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a little studs longer than those on the track which you cannot use on the track
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such long nails otherwise you will destroy it then other exceptions are for example the shoes
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of the hammer of the disc and the weight which do not have nails but are completely smooth underneath because
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due to the Technique used to throw you need to be able to slide on the platform and an exception
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to the contrary of this rule are high jump shoes in which the nails are also under
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the heel part and not just on the forefoot. Arrived here I ask you to leave a like
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and subscribe
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to the channel if
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these topics interest you
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that is, I imagine that this video is of absolutely no use
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to someone who has been doing athletics for 10 years or even three or four. But perhaps it could be useful
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to some parent who wants to take their child to athletics without the faintest idea
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. what to do or has a young athlete who has just discovered athletics and wants to find out a little
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but don't worry as we move forward we also get to really
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specific things that maybe even if you have always been involved in athletics you don't know or then if you know well done
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good for you I don't know what to say I hope this video has been useful to you and you are interested And
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all I can do is wish you a lot of fun in training and good luck in the competitions Bye bye
