NNEX
 
 LIBRARY 
 
 f 
 CAU 
 SAN ' 
 
 V. __
 
 TRAINING FOR SPORTS
 
 BOOKS ON SPORT 
 
 Each 12mo Profusely illustrated 
 
 TRAINING FOR SPORTS. 
 ATHLETES ALL. 
 By Walter Camp. 
 
 BASKET BALL. A Handbook for Coaches and 
 Players. 
 By C. D. Wardlaw and W. R. Morrison. 
 
 BASKET BALL AND INDOOR BASEBALL FOR 
 WOMEN. 
 By Helen Frost and C. D. Wardlaw. 
 
 BASEBALL. Individual Play and Team Play in 
 Detail. 
 By W. J. Clarke and F. T. Dawson. 
 
 ATHLETIC TRAINING. 
 By Michael C. Murphy. 
 
 CAMP CRAFT. Modern Practice and Equipment. 
 By W. H. Miller. 
 
 CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS
 
 From a photograph copyrighted by " International.' 
 
 From a photograph by " International." 
 
 BLOCKING AND STARTING PRACTICE.
 
 SCHOOL, COLLEGE, AND SERVICE ATHLETICS 
 
 TRAINING /or SPORTS 
 
 BY 
 
 WALTER CAMP 
 
 ILLUSTRATED 
 
 NEW YORK 
 
 CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS 
 1921
 
 COPTRIOHT. 10S1, BT 
 
 CHARLES SCRIBNEB'S SONS 
 
 Published February, 1921
 
 To 
 Mr. and Mrs. E. T. Stotesbury 
 
 in recognition 
 
 of their work for the boys 
 in the Service
 
 PREFACE 
 
 No country in the world has carried the art 
 of training athletes to anything like the degree 
 of perfection attained in the United States. 
 It has become the recognized profession of 
 hundreds of men like the late lamented Mike 
 Murphy, who carried it to an exceptional de- 
 gree of success. The victories of our teams in 
 the Olympic games bear tribute to the skill of 
 the men who have specialized in this work. 
 At the time of the World War, men of this 
 profession volunteered, were commissioned and 
 succeeded in effecting the greatest improve- 
 ment in the condition of the fliers on some 
 forty aviation fields. The author of this book 
 has known most of our best men in this branch 
 and would unhesitatingly intrust his son to 
 these men, not alone for his physical training, 
 but for the moral effect as well. Many a boy 
 in this country, however, may not be so situ- 
 ated as to have the oversight and advice of one 
 of these experienced men. Many a coach or 
 director may not have the opportunities for 
 
 vii
 
 viii PREFACE 
 
 studying these metihods through first hand. 
 Hence this book is written to help on the way 
 and to give some idea of the principles involved 
 in the conditioning of athletes. As one would 
 say of the doctor so I would say of the 
 trainer if you can get a good one, go to him 
 at once if you cannot, then you may find in 
 the columns of this book some " first aid " 
 suggestions that will save your men from 
 disaster.
 
 CONTENTS 
 
 CHAPTER PAGE 
 
 I. GENERAL PHYSICAL CONDITION . . 3 
 
 II. GENERAL TRAINING ACCORDING TO AGE 11 
 
 III. WHY ATHLETES Go STALE ... 24 
 
 IV. MENTAL AND NERVOUS CONDITION . 38 
 V. TAKING CARE OF INJURIES ... 52 
 
 VI. DIET 68 
 
 VII. SLEEP . 81 
 
 VIII. EXERCISE AS DISTINGUISHED FROM 
 
 PRACTICE 95 
 
 IX. EFFECT OF DRIVING BOYS TOO YOUNG 
 AND THE EFFECT OF AGE ON CON- 
 DITION 104 
 
 X. STORING UP ENERGY . . . .114 
 
 XI. SPECIALIZED TRAINING FOR FOOTBALL 126 
 
 XII. SPECIALIZED TRAINING FOR BASEBALL 136 
 
 XIII. SPECIALIZED TRAINING FOR TRACK 
 
 ATHLETICS 148 
 
 XIV. SPECIALIZED TRAINING FOR ROWING . 163 
 
 APPENDIX. THE DAILY DOZEN SET-UP . .175
 
 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 
 
 Blocking and Starting Practice . . Frontispiece 
 
 facing page 
 
 Battling Nelson 96 
 
 Hammer Thrower 96 
 
 Two Photographs of Football Players . . . 96 
 
 Practice in Interference 134 
 
 Sliding to Third Prep-School Game . . .146 
 Sliding to Third College Game . . . .146 
 
 Start of a 100- Yard Dash 152 
 
 Finish of a 100- Yard Dash 152 
 
 Work in Rowing Tank . . . . . .166 
 
 Crew on the Water 166 
 
 The Daily Dozen Set-up Between pages 178 and 179
 
 TRAINING FOR SPORTS
 
 CHAPTER I 
 GENERAL PHYSICAL CONDITION 
 
 THE word training essentially implies a 
 preparation; whether it be for severe physical 
 effort as any athletic competition or military 
 service in time of war, or merely for the ordi- 
 nary conduct of life. Regardless of the im- 
 mediate end, this preparation is a necessary 
 part of the growth of every boy, and the 
 athletic incentive is always a valuable one be- 
 cause a consistent course of regular exercise 
 purely for its own sake is dull and unappeal- 
 ing at an age when the spirit of play and com- 
 petition is so keen. In this country our love 
 of competitive sport and team play constantly 
 tends to develop men of strong and supple 
 bodies, easily adaptable to changing condi- 
 tions of physical hardship and periods of se- 
 vere physical strain, men who preserve their 
 youthfulness of body well into middle age. 
 Our performance in the Great War may be 
 attributed directly to this tendency in that
 
 4 TRAINING FOR SPORTS 
 
 we were able to take men from a civilian life 
 that was physically inactive and in an amaz- 
 ingly short time prepare them for the severe 
 tests of endurance and strain which the war 
 demanded of them. 
 
 There is, however, a widespread feeling 
 that the rigors of training for college athletics 
 unfit a man for the sedentary life of business. 
 It is said that the college athlete must submit 
 to a training which over-develops certain parts 
 of his body at the expense of other parts. It 
 is said that serious consequences result when, 
 in later life, the parts so developed are less 
 actively in use, or that the strain of the exer- 
 tion necessary in a crew race or distance run 
 may so affect the heart that it can never en- 
 tirely recover. These statements are perfectly 
 true in some cases where the preparation has 
 been sudden and improperly forced. It is 
 likely to be true in every case where there 
 has been too little general conditioning and 
 too little foundation in the building up of a 
 sound constitution in early youth. 
 
 Training as a preparation for games and 
 contests should be cumulative but not ex- 
 hausting to the vitality. There should be a gen-
 
 GENERAL PHYSICAL CONDITION 5 
 
 eral building up of the system and at the 
 same time a gradual increase of the powers 
 to meet the great effort which comes at the 
 time of final contest. If this is done, the boy 
 will not only be successful in the accomplish- 
 ment of his immediate purpose, but he will 
 build up a constitution and acquire a knowl- 
 edge and a habit of normal physical training 
 which will enable him to carry on through life. 
 The contest which the boy is going to face 
 when he becomes a man, leaves college, and 
 goes out to face the world, demands the 
 preparation that physical training gives in the 
 same way that the athletic contest demands it. 
 Our aim should be to combine these prepara- 
 tions in a gradual, cumulative, general condi- 
 tioning during boyhood; building up a solid 
 foundation, not by giving special attention to 
 the forced and rapid development of par- 
 ticular sets of muscles, but by a variety of 
 games and exercises which, more or less un- 
 consciously, develop all the muscles equally, 
 by an abundance of fresh air, wholesome diet, 
 plenty of undisturbed sleep and general 
 cleanliness. 
 
 In general a boy should be in training all
 
 6 TRAINING FOR SPORTS 
 
 the time not merely in the season of the par- 
 ticular sport in which he is interested. The 
 boy who trains for two or three months in 
 the year and allows himself complete relaxa- 
 tion and neglect of his body during the rest 
 of the time, with frequent excesses, and little 
 regular exercise, will find that he must work 
 twice as hard and run a very much greater 
 chance of straining or exhausting himself dur- 
 ing the intensive period of work. If he will 
 follow a few rules of health such as will be 
 suggested in later chapters he will find him- 
 self able to accomplish more in his specialty 
 with very much less effort. Primarily he 
 should keep clean, avoid excessive eating of 
 sweets, take plenty of time for meals, avoid 
 tobacco, drink plenty of water and sleep 
 about ten hours a night. He should begin the 
 day with a cold bath and hard rubdown, and 
 should take a few exercises such as the " Daily 
 Dozen " described elsewhere to stretch his 
 muscles after the night's relaxation, to restore 
 suppleness, start circulation, insure erect car- 
 riage and improve the breathing. A few im- 
 portant things should be remembered about 
 the exercise during the day. Violent exercise
 
 GENERAL PHYSICAL CONDITION 7 
 
 should not be taken immediately after eating, 
 drinking should be avoided when hot from 
 exertion, and a reasonable time should inter- 
 vene between the rubdown after exercise and 
 his eating. 
 
 One habit which should be cultivated by 
 every athlete is that of familiarity with fresh 
 a'ir. I do not mean merely sleeping with the 
 windows open or taking deep breaths in the 
 morning. The whole body should be exposed 
 to the air as often as practicable. Since civili- 
 zation forces us to wear clothes which keep 
 the air from our bodies so much of the time, 
 we should take every opportunity to let our 
 pores breathe by giving ourselves air baths. A 
 good chance for an air bath is in the morning 
 while shaving. All clothes should be removed 
 and the body exposed as long as possible. If 
 this is done while shaving there is no waste 
 of time and the habit is easier to form in this 
 way. 
 
 These rules and others which will be given 
 later (including the " Daily Dozen " exer- 
 cises) are the result of long evolution and the 
 real history of progress in training for ath- 
 letics. The methods in use during the early
 
 8 TRAINING FOR SPORTS 
 
 days of athletics in this country were ex- 
 tremely severe and worked unnecessary and 
 harmful hardship on the men. It is interest- 
 ing to trace the progress toward the present 
 methods through the early days of rowing in 
 the American colleges. In the period from 
 1858 to about 1865 the diet consisted mostly 
 of meat, the supply of water very limited so 
 that the men were forced to endure thirst; 
 every effort was made to reduce flesh, strenu- 
 ous exercise was required on an empty stom- 
 ach, and the crew rowed four miles every 
 morning and afternoon throughout the sea- 
 son. In the period from 1865 to 1887 there 
 developed a complete change in method of 
 training which was based on the failure of the 
 earlier system to get results. The diet was 
 'enlarged and varied, the exercise became 
 gradual and more general and came to in- 
 clude calisthenic exercises for all-round devel- 
 opment. It began to be recognized that some 
 flesh and weight were assets and that a large 
 chest was absolutely indispensable. But most 
 important of all it was realized, and has since 
 become universally accepted, that overtraining 
 is one of the greatest dangers of crew work
 
 GENERAL PHYSICAL CONDITION 9 
 
 as it is of all the more strenuous sports. The 
 greatest mistake still tended, however, to per- 
 sist, namely the belief that large muscles were 
 a thing to be desired, and the calisthenic work 
 partook of the error. 
 
 The properly trained athlete of today re- 
 mains, in his attitude of mind, at least, an 
 athlete through life. He has gained a respect 
 for his body which will keep him from abusing 
 it. He has never acquired a taste for dissi- 
 pation or excesses during the period of his 
 life when most of his tastes are formed. He 
 has learned a habit of exercise which, while it 
 will and must become more moderate with in- 
 creased age and under more sedentary condi- 
 tions, he will never give up. He will not have 
 become " fed-up " by training, as were the 
 athletes of the last century; a condition which 
 often led to violent reaction, as soon as the 
 training was over. 
 
 Thus we make of athletics, not an end in 
 itself but a means to a healthy manhood, and 
 one which can endure the strain of a profes- 
 sional life or of a business office and yet be 
 ready for such an emergency as so many busi- 
 ness men were forced to face in the recent
 
 10 TRAINING FOR SPORTS 
 
 war. We see that properly conducted athletic 
 training is not a menace to after life, but of 
 real value, especially as it inculcates personal 
 habits which are as useful to the man of 
 middle age as they are to the boy in school 
 or college. The succeeding chapters will 
 trace the training through childhood, school, 
 college and middle life and will show spe- 
 cifically in what it consists and how it is 
 helped rather than hindered by the various 
 kinds of athletic competition.
 
 CHAPTER II 
 
 GENERAL TRAINING ACCORDING 
 TO AGE 
 
 THE earlier in life a general building up is 
 begun, the better will be the ultimate results. 
 With an early beginning the work can be 
 more gradual, less conscious, and more as 
 nature intended it. In childhood the instinct 
 of play, the desire for experiment, the neces- 
 sity of variety produce unconscious exercise 
 of all the muscles. But in the play of the 
 child each muscle is exercised for a short time 
 only and there is no specialization. The child 
 never keeps for long at any one game or kind 
 6? play. He concentrates very little and is 
 easily distracted; also his muscles tire quickly 
 if any one motion is constantly repeated. If 
 you watch a child of under ten years who 
 is doing something which requires constant 
 repetition of a motion by some one set of 
 muscles such as walking or rowing a boat, you 
 will notice that he keeps trying to change the 
 
 11
 
 12 TRAINING FOR SPORTS 
 
 motion by breaking into a run or by rowing 
 first with one oar and then with the other and 
 so on. This is Nature's expression of her de- 
 sire at that age for variety of motion. 
 
 Any set form of exercises continued for 
 any length of time is bad for children of early 
 school age. They cannot walk far because, in 
 walking, the muscles of the back are set and 
 that is unnatural at an age when exercise 
 should be constantly shifting and changing. 
 They should never have more than a minute 
 or two at a time of calisthenic work, and this 
 should consist mostly of muscle stretching 
 exercises and breathing. The more spontane- 
 ous and the less organized their sports and 
 games, the better. After a child has learned 
 the game idea and understands what it means 
 to play according to certain rules, and espe- 
 cially when he begins to feel the spirit of com- 
 petition, which, with boys, is generally an 
 instinct, he will be constantly discovering and 
 inventing new games and variations on old 
 ones which will lead him into a healthful, 
 natural and unconscious daily exercise of all 
 his muscles. This will prove to be all that is 
 necessary for early physical training.
 
 TRAINING ACCORDING TO AGE 13 
 
 The child should learn at an early age to 
 love fresh air, to enjoy being outdoors as 
 much as possible, to respect his body and to 
 keep clean. Sleep is essential and the lack of 
 it checks growth in all directions. If these 
 things are kept in mind and the child is allowed 
 to play the sort of games which spontaneously 
 appeal to him, and not bothered with set exer- 
 cises which develop certain muscles more than 
 others, he will grow normally and establish 
 in his childhood a good foundation for any 
 sort of athletic work later. 
 
 From twelve to fifteen, we can begin more 
 definite training. Boys of this age get most 
 of their physical development through sports 
 and games, which now become more regular, 
 more organized, and generally require more 
 concentration. It is, in fact, an age of concen- 
 tration if not of specialization; the boy de- 
 velops interests that are immensely absorbing 
 to him, and his mind and body grow rapidly 
 under these influences. He is thinking con- 
 stantly of athletics, organizing teams, tourna- 
 ments, meets, etc., and making sports a more 
 conscious and serious part of his daily life. 
 
 Here, also, we may begin more defined train-
 
 14 TRAINING FOR SPORTS 
 
 ing. At this age boys may be taught some- 
 thing about their diet, although if in good 
 health and out of doors they can eat almost 
 anything of a plain, wholesome nature. There 
 is no necessity for cutting off sweets so long 
 as they eat other wholesome food. Sweets 
 should preferably be eaten after other food. 
 The important thing to avoid is the habit of 
 eating between meals or eating meals at ir- 
 regular times, taking away the appetite by 
 pastry and candy and thus making these 
 things the basis of diet instead of solid food. 
 A later chapter will take up the subject of 
 diet in more detail and will give some useful 
 rules which may be profitably followed by 
 boys at the beginning of their athletic career. 
 Boys do not take kindly to setting-up and 
 ealisthenic work, but it is important that they 
 begin to take certain exercises to develop 
 poise and carriage, open up the thoracic cavity, 
 put muscles over the shoulder blades and 
 strengthen the neck. In doing this we are 
 preparing the boy for his future, not only in 
 athletics, but in life. Our present games do 
 not give enough of this exercise for the back, 
 shoulders and neck. That is why we have so
 
 TRAINING ACCORDING TO AGE 15 
 
 many stoop-shouldered athletes, the exer- 
 cises used should not be over-strenuous or last 
 too long; they should be made as little of a 
 bore as possible, and when the boys realize 
 that this work will help them in their games, 
 they can be persuaded to take them with 
 equanimity. 
 
 Between the ages of fifteen and twenty-five, 
 the general physical condition is of vital im- 
 portance, not only for success in athletics, but 
 in the equipment for life. It is primarily for 
 boys of these ages that this book is intended. 
 It is during this period that the hardest, most 
 strenuous, most consistent physical work is 
 done. It includes the last years of school and 
 all of college for most boys, and if they will 
 accomplish important success in athletics they 
 must keep in training most of the time during 
 these years. The most unfortunate effects of 
 these ten years occur at the point where a 
 man who has been leading an exceedingly 
 vigorous life graduates from college and sud- 
 denly goes into a factory or business or a 
 profession which does not allow nearly the 
 same amount of time for the physical side. 
 Here it is essential that the exercise be less-
 
 16 TRAINING FOR SPORTS 
 
 ened gradually and certain compensation 
 made if we wish to have the man in good 
 physical condition later. 
 
 Calisthenic exercises are well adapted to the 
 period of this change. They take up little 
 time and require no equipment and can be 
 done in the morning before the bath and rub- 
 down. Breathing exercises are particularly 
 desirable and stretching of the muscles and 
 trunk. The simple movements known as the 
 " Daily Dozen " do not take more than eight 
 or ten minutes, keep the important muscles of 
 the body in good shape and help the general 
 condition without causing muscular fatigue. 
 In the first year of business, a man should 
 get all the fresh air he possibly can, walking 
 to and from his office and spending his week- 
 ends out of doors. But he should not indulge 
 in such an orgy of strenuous and long-con- 
 tinued exercise as to leave him tired out on 
 Monday morning. 
 
 For the next fifteen or twenty years, a 
 man's pathway is practically fixed, and he 
 must get what he can out of it. System is 
 essential. Daily exercise, even of a limited 
 character, is of the greatest importance, not
 
 TRAINING ACCORDING TO AGE 17 
 
 frenzies of exercise taken once a week or once 
 a month. These occasional over-exertions are 
 likely to have bad effects at this age, espe- 
 cially if a man lets himself go, physically, be- 
 tween them. 
 
 This is the age when he should be in the 
 prime of his physical condition, but he has 
 already passed the age when Nature will 
 stand for serious overdrafts as she will from 
 twenty to twenty-five. At this earlier age, 
 forty-eight hours' rest will restore a man com- 
 pletely from any physical strain he is likely 
 to undergo. Later there may be serious con- 
 sequences, although this depends largely on 
 the physical condition in which a man keeps 
 himself, the nature and quantity of his exer- 
 cise, and the strength of the constitution he 
 has built up in his earlier years. There were 
 men in all the regular armies who were able to 
 endure the most difficult kinds of physical exer- 
 tion during the war because their regular 
 drill and training in the army had kept their 
 general condition so good. There were many 
 civilians of over forty who were able to stand 
 the strain and whose endurance was in many 
 cases equal to that of much younger men.
 
 18 TRAINING FOR SPORTS 
 
 This was because their physical training had 
 aimed at an all-round preparation and had be- 
 gun gradually. 
 
 From forty-five on, a man must realize that 
 his physical powers have begun to wane and 
 that while nature has always kept a certain 
 margin of reserve so that he can, with im- 
 punity, tire himself once in a while, he cannot 
 safely repeat this too often. He must also 
 plan for the kind of exercise and sport that 
 he can continue for the next ten or twenty 
 years, and begin to adjust his economy ac- 
 cordingly. He may play golf and take such 
 exercise as riding, walking, swimming, etc., in 
 "moderation. The amount he can do at this 
 age will largely depend on the condition he 
 has been able to keep up and the foundation 
 he has laid in his boyhood and youth. 
 
 The main thing to remember about physical 
 work after forty is that the reserve must 
 never be drawn on beyond reasonable limits. 
 A man who derives his income from interest 
 on capital does not draw on his principal un- 
 less he is forced to by unusual circumstances. 
 He does not sell his securities and spend the 
 money because he knows that by doing so he
 
 TRAINING ACCORDING TO AGE 19 
 
 reduces his future income and leaves nothing 
 to fall back on in difficult times. There is a 
 perfect analogy between this and the unneces- 
 sary spending of reserve physical strength. 
 A man who continually draws on his reserve 
 finds that his future capacity for work is re- 
 duced, and his supply so impaired that when 
 sickness comes he has no reinforcements to 
 bring to his aid. 
 
 There is a curiously prevailing belief that 
 this reserve supply is unlimited. No one 
 supposes such a thing about his bank account. 
 Yet sensible men often draw down their ac- 
 count with Nature, until there is literally noth- 
 ing left. She sends them frequent warnings 
 in the form of headaches, backaches, nervous- 
 ness and insomnia. Then she loses patience, 
 descends on them and puts them in jail. 
 Pleas of ignorance and intent are useless. A 
 man may have been so absorbed in his work 
 that he may not have known that he was being 
 warned. He may have been working from 
 highly altruistic or patriotic motives. The 
 result is the same. Nature convicts on the 
 facts alone. 
 
 Nevertheless, there are means of constantly
 
 20 TRAINING FOR SPORTS 
 
 increasing the principal and making it more 
 productive. A man whose chest is contracted 
 from a round-shouldered and stooping posi- 
 tion can do more and better work if, by exer- 
 cise, he can open up his thoracic cavity and 
 breathe more deeply. A man whose circula- 
 tion is poor can so repair it that his actual men- 
 tal processes are aided by the change. He may 
 so strengthen his abdominal muscles by exer- 
 cise that his organs will be properly sup- 
 ported. He may "massage" his intestines 
 so as to increase their secretions and overcome 
 constipation. The exercises of the " Daily 
 Dozen " are designed to attain these very 
 ends, and if they are regularly practised by 
 men whose occupations are sedentary, they 
 will greatly increase the health and the re- 
 serve force, and enable a man to do very 
 much more and harder mental work. 
 
 But the need for these exercises is by no 
 means confined to men of middle age nor to 
 those whose life is sedentary. The athlete 
 needs them, for in the work he does there 
 is nothing to give him a correct posture. A 
 man can play baseball, football or tennis in 
 a round-shouldered position just as well as
 
 TRAINING ACCORDING TO AGE 21 
 
 with his shoulders back and his chest ex- 
 panded. Many of our athletes have a stoop- 
 ing carriage because nothing in their athletics 
 has taught them to stand up straight. The 
 man who rows has a particular need for the 
 exercises which open up his thoracic cavity and 
 increase his chest capacity. 
 
 The farmer, for example, has an exceed- 
 ingly active life. He exercises almost con- 
 stantly from the time he gets up until he goes 
 to bed. It is unquestionably true that he does 
 not need the ordinary Swedish exercises which 
 build up massive muscles on the arms and 
 legs. But the farmer of fifty is nearly always 
 bent and stooping. He shows his age earlier 
 than other men. He has neglected his chest, 
 neck, the position of his shoulders. A few 
 exercises every day might have saved his pos- 
 ture and conserved his youth, without adding 
 any appreciable burden to the day's work. 
 
 Physically, we are really wild animals in the 
 captivity of civilization and we can learn 
 much from the animals we have confined. A 
 visit to the zoo will reveal the fact that most 
 of the mammals there which have been de- 
 prived of their normal exercise devote a good
 
 22 TRAINING FOR SPORTS 
 
 part of their time to a system of calisthenics 
 which is designed by nature to conserve their 
 health in spite of their confinement. Their 
 movements are those of stretching. Their 
 legs are exercised in pacing their cages, but 
 the other muscles of the body are developed 
 and kept in condition by these stretching 
 exercises. This same sort of exercise is 
 equally healthful to the human animal. 
 
 A few years ago a friend of mine made, at 
 my suggestion, a moving picture film of these 
 animals going through their stretching move- 
 ments. I wanted it used in connection with 
 the physical training work in the navy, in 
 which I was interested at that time. My 
 friend told me that he had gone to the zoo 
 with the photographer prepared to wait sev- 
 eral days in the hope of catching some of the 
 animals in the act of stretching. " As a 
 matter of fact," he added, " I didn't have to 
 wait five minutes. Every animal in sight was 
 stretching when I arrived, and they were still 
 doing it when I left." 
 
 Everyone knows the distinct sense of relief 
 that comes from a good stretch. This same 
 sensation comes from moderate exercise with
 
 TRAINING ACCORDING TO AGE 23 
 
 the " Daily Dozen," and the results in a short 
 time are extraordinarily gratifying. Regard- 
 less of age and occupation, they are exceed- 
 ingly valuable aids to the preservation of good 
 general condition.
 
 THE two principal dangers that confront 
 the athlete are those of overwork and under- 
 work; of these, the former is by far the 
 greater. The natural energy and enthusiasm 
 of boys of school and college age, their fear 
 of being thought " quitters " or " yellow," 
 their sense of loyalty and responsibility to 
 their school and college all these influences 
 tend to make an athlete work far beyond his 
 strength and have, in many cases, brought 
 about serious consequences. It is difficult for 
 a boy, in the midst of the strain and excite- 
 ment of the training season, when the whole 
 atmosphere about him is tense with the antici- 
 pation of the coming game, to think very 
 much about the future of the life that is 
 going to follow his graduation, for which, in 
 large measure, his training now is a prepara- 
 tion. It is even more difficult, at a time when 
 thfe fate of the whole world seems to hang 
 
 24
 
 WHY ATHLETES GO STALE 25 
 
 on the outcome of that final game, for him to 
 maintain a proper sense of proportion. Yet 
 it is at this very time that he should be most 
 careful, for if he strains himself by any ex- 
 treme exertion or tries to endure beyond his 
 capacity, he not only runs a risk of life injury, 
 but he is very likely to put himself out of 
 the particular game or sport for which he is 
 training. 
 
 Coaches and trainers are coming to realize 
 more and more every year the necessity for 
 cautioning the athletes under their care in 
 this respect. Physical directors in schools and 
 colleges are making a special point of care- 
 fully watching the work of the men in relation 
 to the capacity of the individual; slowing up 
 certain men that are showing signs of over- 
 exertion and those who are endowed by nature 
 with less robust physique. In most schools 
 and colleges a boy is required to pass a phys- 
 ical examination and sometimes a strength 
 test before he is allowed to enter the more 
 violent forms of athletic contest, such as foot- 
 ball, running, rowing, etc. Then during his 
 training he is watched in relation to this test 
 and kept carefully within its limits.
 
 26 TRAINING FOR SPORTS 
 
 This brings up an extremely important 
 point, and I think it would not be amiss to 
 repeat here something that I said in another 
 book in this series, for it cannot be too often 
 repeated. It is common for schoolboys to 
 overrate their capacity, and because one of 
 their number has achieved some extraordinary 
 feat to believe that with sufficient training 
 they might all accomplish a similar perform- 
 ance. 
 
 It is quite usual in this country to rate the 
 victory higher than the game, and for this 
 reason a training season in some sport which 
 should be amusing and healthful to the ath- 
 letes becomes a severe physical and nervous 
 strain, often mere drudgery in which the final 
 event is the only high light, and that last con- 
 test accompanied by such tension that there is 
 a distinct relief and let-down when it is over. 
 It is unfortunate that so much of our play, 
 although it has such a strong character devel- 
 opment, lends itself so easily to excess of com- 
 petition. No one wishes to take the virility out 
 of it but to safeguard it from desperate ex- 
 tremes. 
 
 Going " stale " or, going " fine " may be
 
 WHY ATHLETES GO STALE 27 
 
 due to any one of a large number of causes 
 of which worry, poor food, wrong eating and 
 drinking, too severe competition, lack of sleep, 
 indecision, shifting coaches, monotony and 
 dissipation are the most important. In track, 
 athletes often go stale from too many time 
 trials. A time trial may have all the excite- 
 ment, nervous strain and competitive effort 
 which attend the event itself, and if this is too 
 often repeated a man's capacity for making 
 the effort required to win a race is exhausted. 
 Besides this he becomes nervously tired, is 
 constantly worried lest he be eliminated; and 
 he may end by a complete loss of interest, a 
 decline in physical powers, or possibly a nerv- 
 ous breakdown. 
 
 Worry of all kinds should be eliminated as 
 much as possible during the training period. 
 One of the reasons for the success of our sol- 
 diers in France under all conditions of work 
 and strain was that they almost never worried 
 about anything. They found that they were 
 able to endure every sort of physical hardship 
 as long as their minds were free, but anything 
 that upset them mentally, such as bad news 
 from home, immediately lessened their powers
 
 28 TRAINING FOR SPORTS 
 
 of resistance and endurance. It is so with 
 the athlete. When he begins to worry about 
 the game ahead, his own condition, his school 
 or college work, he begins to lose sleep, he 
 becomes subject to indigestion, lack of appe- 
 tite and depression of spirits. All of these 
 have physical effects, and if a boy allows him- 
 self to worry to this extent, he is likely to lose 
 the very thing he most desires. 
 
 While worry is often the cause of rundown 
 health,, it is more often the eifect of such a 
 condition. A man who is in perfect health, 
 who is neither over-tired nor underworked is 
 generally free from it. Great exhaustion 
 often produces a restlessness of mind and im- 
 agination that makes sound refreshing sleep 
 impossible, no matter how great the fatigue. 
 Thus it often happens that a boy who has 
 become exhausted in his training begins to 
 worry about the work of the classroom so that 
 he cannot sleep. This can be overcome to a 
 large extent by a complete relaxation of the 
 mind just before going to bed, changing the 
 subject of thought by a game of some kind 
 or by reading some light story. 
 
 The subject of food during intensive train-
 
 WHY ATHLETES GO STALE 29 
 
 ing is one on which there has been much con- 
 troversy. But though there is difference of 
 opinion on details of diet, there is general 
 agreement on the necessity of having the food 
 fresh and well prepared. Vegetables that are 
 stale, old meat, over-ripe fruit, canned foods 
 that have been opened too long, are almost 
 certain to cause diarrhea or ptomaine poison- 
 ing, which may be so weakening as to put a 
 man out of the running for the whole season. 
 Also it is very important that food should be 
 properly cooked. Undercooked potato, oat- 
 meal, rice, etc., cannot be digested, and while 
 they may not cause any immediate sickness, 
 they deprive a man of the nourishment he 
 should be getting. Besides the actual physical 
 effects of poor food, there is a dissatisfaction 
 which comes from eating it which is likely to 
 lead to indigestion and loss of appetite. 
 There is a cumulative effect that comes from 
 eating poorly prepared food day after day 
 that is very demoralizing. Boys in training 
 should be able to look forward eagerly to their 
 meals; they should never dread them as they 
 surely will unless there is careful supervision 
 of the training table.
 
 30 TRAINING FOR SPORTS 
 
 Of course if poor food is served at the table, 
 there will be a constant temptation to eat 
 between meals at all sorts of odd hours. This 
 improper eating is one of the causes of going 
 stale which never fails. Nature has so ar- 
 ranged our internal machinery that regularity 
 is absolutely essential. To put food into your 
 stomach at a time when that organ neither 
 expects nor requires it, is to put the digestive 
 mechanism under a strain which, sooner or 
 later, will inevitably clog the system and cause 
 stoppage of the whole digestive function. 
 When this happens the athlete's career is at 
 an end. It makes no difference how healthful 
 the food is which is taken at these times. If 
 it is irregularly eaten it is worse in its effect 
 than much richer food taken regularly. The 
 restrictions on diet are so few, as will be seen 
 in a later chapter on that subject, that it 
 should not be much of an effort to curb this 
 desire for between-meal-eating, which is gen- 
 erally nothing more than a mere nervous 
 habit, if the food that is provided at regular 
 meals is sufficient in quantity and prepared in 
 the proper way. 
 
 It is a mistake to try to economize on the
 
 WHY ATHLETES GO STALE 31 
 
 training table. The team is almost sure to 
 suffer. I know of one university in which, as 
 part of a general scheme of economy, they 
 cut down especially on the training table, 
 which immediately began to fall below stand- 
 ard. The linen was less frequently washed 
 and presented a very unappetizing appear- 
 ance. The food was badly cooked and badly 
 served. At one meal bad meat was offered 
 which, besides resulting in sickness, preju- 
 diced the men against all the meat that was 
 served afterward. The general atmosphere of 
 untidiness in the room caused the men to 
 dread their meals and to eat very little. The 
 effect on the team was immediate and they 
 soon began to go stale, losing their games, 
 getting discouraged and ending with an un- 
 successful season. Another mistake made 
 during this same period of economy was a 
 rule that no man should own an athletic suit, 
 but that it should be lent him. The result of 
 this was that the suits, which were improperly 
 disinfected, caused the rapid spread of a skin 
 disease. 
 
 Drinking plenty of water is a necessity for 
 the athlete who would keep in good condition.
 
 32 TRAINING FOR SPORTS 
 
 Seven or eight glasses a day are advisable, 
 but the greater part of this should not be 
 taken with meals or immediately after exer- 
 cise. Drinking much water with meals leads 
 to getting too little nutriment, while drinking 
 when very much overheated is often extremely 
 dangerous. Water should never be iced, but 
 should be drunk at the temperature of the 
 room. Milk must never be drunk rapidly, 
 but should be slowly sipped. 
 
 Too severe competition so that a boy is con- 
 stantly keyed up is a strain which is likely to 
 have bad results toward the end of the season. 
 Fear of being dropped from the team, the 
 constant irritation of someone pressing close 
 behind him ready to take his place at the first 
 sign of weakness, may get on a man's nerves to 
 such an extent that he may suffer from all 
 the effects of the worry already described. 
 Indecision on the part of a coach may be the 
 cause of this; continual change of mind on 
 the part of anyone in command of men, 
 whether he be an army officer, an employer 
 of labor or an athletic coach, is always de- 
 moralizing. The inability of a coach to decide 
 between two men has sometimes caused both
 
 33 
 
 of them to go stale from nervous strain and 
 excessive effort. 
 
 Shifting coaches has the effect of changing 
 method, which often brings about lack of 
 confidence. Boys who have gone halfway 
 through a football season, for instance, under 
 one coach, have gained confidence in his 
 method. If he is suddenly replaced by 
 another man whose method is entirely dif- 
 ferent, the boys naturally believe that all they 
 have learned is useless. This is likely to dis- 
 courage them so that they may lose interest 
 in the rest of the season. Again, a new coach 
 has no knowledge of the work of the indi- 
 vidual members of the team, and is likely to 
 do some of them serious injustice. Further- 
 more, he may, through ignorance of the indi- 
 viduals on his team, put an excessive strain 
 on some boy who needs light work. 
 
 Monotony is one of the most natural and 
 logical causes of going stale. Indeed, the 
 very expression " going stale " implies a dul- 
 ness and dreariness of routine, a sort of stag- 
 nation of sameness. During the intensive 
 drill periods of the war, officers found that it 
 was absolutely essential to vary the monotony
 
 34. TRAINING FOR SPORTS 
 
 by games, walks, snowball fights, boxing 
 matches and any other diversions that sug- 
 gested themselves. Without these changes, 
 the men would have inevitably gone stale, that 
 is, they would have lost discipline, become 
 sloppy in their drill and deteriorated in effi- 
 ciency. The same is true of an athletic train- 
 ing season. General regularity of schedule is 
 essential but the variety of its detail is even 
 more so. There must be enough element of 
 change or, if possible, of surprise in the work 
 to make the men look forward to it. A coach 
 of any experience can easily tell when his men 
 are getting " fed-up " on any particular de- 
 tail of practice. That is the time to change 
 quickly to something quite different, regard- 
 less of any prearranged schedule. 
 
 With the best conditions, the training table 
 often gets very monotonous late in the season. 
 Eating every day with the same men some- 
 times gets on a man's nerves. He gets to 
 know them so intimately in the daily work 
 that to see them again and again at meals 
 sometimes becomes very tiresome to him, no 
 matter how much he may like them. The 
 conversation becomes dull because he has
 
 WHY ATHLETES GO STALE 35 
 
 heard it all before. Most of the men are so 
 full of their training that they cannot talk of 
 much else. If discussions of the game are 
 tabu, as they often are, because any heated 
 discussion during meals is bad for the diges- 
 tion and because change of thought at meal- 
 time is most advisable, the conversation lags 
 from loss of interest. Often it is a good thing 
 for a man who shows signs of going stale to 
 be taken away from the training table for a 
 few days and given a chance to associate with 
 different people, so as to get a change of 
 thought. This is particularly desirable with 
 such a man as a quarterback or the stroke of 
 a crew whose success depends largely on his 
 coolness and nervous control. Of course such 
 a man is by far the most likely to go stale 
 mentally. Another way to relieve monotony 
 is to change the opponents. A football team 
 that has been playing against the same scrub 
 team all the time might be given a chance to 
 play the freshmen occasionally. In a boat, any 
 change that is made stimulates interest. Of 
 course most of these changes will occur early 
 in the season before the monotony has grown 
 intense, but at any time a shake-up may be a
 
 36 TRAINING FOR SPORTS 
 
 good thing for a stale team, even if it is only 
 temporary. 
 
 A boy in training for any athletic sport 
 should get at least nine hours' sleep every 
 night; ten will do him no harm. This sleep 
 should be sound and undisturbed. Every 
 effort should be made to eliminate all noise 
 which tends to keep one awake or cause wak- 
 ing during the night. The proper amount of 
 exercise and a healthy mental and nervous 
 condition should induce sound sleep if the 
 conditions for it are right. Mosquitoes in the 
 room during the night and flies in the early 
 morning are almost sure to prevent sleep and 
 must be kept out. A mosquito bar such as is 
 used for camping and which may be obtained 
 at any sporting goods store at very slight ex- 
 pense will effectively accomplish this and will 
 well repay the effort. 
 
 More than a word on dissipation should 
 hardly be necessary to an earnest athlete who 
 desires to make good in any kind of sport. 
 Every boy knows that alcohol in any form is 
 absolutely tabu. Smoking must be entirely 
 avoided. Sexual incontinence is destructive 
 to both the physical and nervous well-being
 
 WHY ATHLETES GO STALE 37 
 
 which strenuous training demands, and is al- 
 ways exceedingly dangerous because of the 
 great likelihood of acquiring permanent disa- 
 bility from venereal disease. In addition to 
 this, illicit intercourse is always degrading, 
 and no boy of sound ideals will allow himself 
 to be tempted in this way. 
 
 These, then, are the usual causes for going 
 stale, and, if they are kept in mind by both the 
 coaches and the athletes themselves, there is 
 no reason why every man on the team and on 
 the squad should not finish the season in ex- 
 cellent condition fully equipped to go to the 
 limit of his strength in every event and acquit 
 himself perfectly in the final test.
 
 CHAPTER IV 
 
 MENTAL AND NERVOUS 
 CONDITION 
 
 THE relation between mind and body is 
 never so intimate as in athletic sport. The 
 success of any game or event is immediately 
 dependent upon it. The most important part 
 of an athlete's job is in keeping this connec- 
 tion absolutely clear; allowing nothing to 
 come between which may interrupt or con- 
 fuse it in any way. It is like the electrical 
 connection between the bridge of a ship and 
 its engine; the moment it is broken, the con- 
 trol is lost and disaster is imminent. 
 
 Nervousness, depression, pessimism, worry, 
 fear, all these are interruptions which pre- 
 vent the mind from exercising its proper con- 
 trol over the body. Overwork, fatigue, ir- 
 regularity, indigestion, headaches, colds and 
 general rundown condition prevent the body 
 from obeying the mind's commands. Both 
 sorts of interruption are equally bad in their 
 
 38
 
 MENTAL AND NERVOUS CONDITION 39 
 
 results, but they are so bound up in each other 
 that it is often very difficult to discover 
 whether the cause is physical or mental. 
 
 The old saying that a sound mind dwells 
 in a sound body has been proved so often that 
 it has become a platitude. But as athletes 
 we must remember that the converse is equally 
 true; a sane, healthy, properly balanced mind 
 whose outlook is cheerful and courageous is 
 the greatest possible aid to efficient physical 
 work. In the first place health of mind is a 
 large factor in keeping away bodily ills, be- 
 cause it does not expect them. A strong, 
 happy mind never contemplates weakness be- 
 cause its interest is concentrated on strength. 
 It becomes unconscious of ordinary physical 
 discomfort and therefore does not suffer from 
 it. A man who is wounded in battle or hurt 
 in a football game is often quite unconscious 
 of his wound because his mind is interested 
 in something else. His injury is so insignifi- 
 cant compared with his goal or objective that 
 he ignores it. He is often much surprised to 
 see that he has been bleeding. The sight of 
 the blood brings his mind back to himself and 
 he begins to suffer pain. But during the time
 
 40 TRAINING FOR SPORTS 
 
 that he has been unconscious of it he has heen 
 able to do work which would have been im- 
 possible had he been suffering physical dis- 
 comfort. Furthermore the vitality which he 
 has been able to keep up has greatly increased 
 his body's resistance to the effects of the 
 wound. 
 
 A morbid, self-centered mind is constantly 
 courting pain. Continually dwelling on 
 weakness, it is always in dread of bodily ills. 
 By anticipation it increases the sensibility of 
 the nerves to keen suffering. By quick, nerv- 
 ous flights of the imagination it greatly mag- 
 nifies every discomfort. In time it lowers the 
 vitality and renders the body liable to con- 
 tagion. I have seen an epidemic of tonsillitis 
 run through an entire team merely because 
 the men had become discouraged by bad con- 
 ditions and repeated failure. 
 
 But when we come to look for the causes 
 of unhealthy mental condition we often find 
 a physical reason. A boy who is overtrained, 
 for example, sometimes cannot help being 
 pessimistic because he never gets a chance to 
 catch up with his strength. He goes to bed 
 at night so tired that his sleep only half re-
 
 MENTAL AND NERVOUS CONDITION 41 
 
 stores him. Thus, in the morning, at the time 
 when, normally, he should feel at his best, he 
 has still much of the fatigue he had when he 
 went to bed. Everything he does during the 
 day simply adds to that exhaustion and the 
 next night he has an accumulation from which 
 it is even harder to recover. Naturally a man 
 who feels himself daily dropping behind, who 
 knows that the burden of his fatigue is getting 
 always heavier, cannot see very much to be 
 cheerful about. Fatigue is a definite physical 
 poison which is produced by the breaking 
 down of the tissues. If these are not repaired 
 during sleep, the poison accumulates and even- 
 tually a man breaks down under it so that 
 he has to stop all work for a time and take a 
 prolonged rest. 
 
 If, however, the daily exercise is normal a 
 man or boy recovers entirely during the night 
 and gets up thoroughly refreshed in mind and 
 body and able to tackle any problem that 
 comes before him. There is a surplus of 
 energy in the morning which carries with it 
 a sense of ability to accomplish. Nothing 
 seems impossible to the boy who has just got 
 out of bed after a really refreshing sound
 
 42 TRAINING FOR SPORTS 
 
 sleep. Things which the night before he had, 
 perhaps, given up in despair, now seem easy. 
 It is only necessary that something oppose 
 itself to him in order that he may combat it. 
 If nothing does so, he creates something. He 
 'must have opposition, something to work 
 against, something to overcome. The greater 
 the force of the opposition, the greater his fight- 
 ing force becomes. If luck turns against him, 
 his zeal increases in inverse proportion. A 
 fit man is made a fighter by reverses. That 
 is what in large measure determines fitness, 
 the acceleration of energy to keep pace with 
 increasing opposition. In war, when an at- 
 tack runs into heavy resistance, additional 
 artillery, more machine guns, the " auxiliary 
 arms " are brought to bear upon it. Rein- 
 forcements are sent for. If there are none 
 of these things, then the attack fails. Fitness 
 implies the abundance of these reserve forces 
 and automatic reinforcement when it is re- 
 quired. 
 
 Physical fitness affects the mind in that it 
 gives confidence and courage. A man who is 
 really fit, naturally eliminates many of the 
 fears and worries incident to daily life, such
 
 MENTAL AND NERVOUS CONDITION 43 
 
 as the fear of illness. The idea of illness 
 never occurs to a man whose physique has 
 great resisting power. Then he has a control 
 of his body which gives him a certain calm- 
 ness of nerves and allows the proper direction 
 of his nervous energy. A man who has con- 
 trol and proper co-ordination of his muscles 
 nearly always has mental poise. Muscular 
 co-ordination means immediate obedience of 
 the muscles to the commands of the brain and 
 a constant adaptability of the muscles to sud- 
 denly changing conditions of direction, motion 
 and strain. 
 
 Another essential of the athlete, which, 
 more obviously than anything else demon- 
 strates mental control of the body is muscular 
 co-ordination. This simply means the imme- 
 diate obedience of his muscles to his command 
 in short, the ability to make his body do 
 exactly what he wants it to at exactly the 
 right moment. This requires concentration, 
 balance, alertness and quick adaptability. 
 Take, for example, the center on a football 
 team. While the quarterback is giving the 
 signals he must concentrate equally on two 
 things: his opponent and the passing of the
 
 44 TRAINING FOR SPORTS 
 
 ball. If he becomes too absorbed in picking 
 out someone in the opposing team with whose 
 movement he must interfere, he forgets the 
 ball and, in his haste to get at the man oppo- 
 site, passes it too quickly. Again, take the 
 man at the start of a sprint who is so concen- 
 trated on his start that he forgets the pistol 
 and jumps it. These are examples of lack of 
 balanced concentration or poise. In each case 
 the man must be evenly poised between two 
 impulses. If he swings too far one way or 
 the other he loses his equilibrium and fails 
 to do part of his job. With constant prac- 
 tice there comes a perfect mental poise which 
 eliminates this danger and which, as it in- 
 creases, so develops a man's nervous control 
 that it helps him in any work he undertakes, 
 whether on the field, in the schoolroom or in 
 the business of after life. 
 
 Alertness and adaptability, which go hand 
 in hand, are well illustrated by the man in the 
 boat. If his mind is not constantly alert and 
 both his mind and body able to adapt them- 
 selves instantly to an increased stroke, he will 
 become rattled when the beat is quickened, 
 and by catching a crab may throw out the
 
 MENTAL AND NERVOUS CONDITION 45 
 
 whole boat and lose the race. These are es- 
 sential elements of team work; without them 
 it is impossible for men to work together in 
 any kind of athletic sport. 
 
 In the setting-up exercises which were 
 given to the men in the services, this co-ordina- 
 tion was one of the most important objects. 
 By means of various tricks on the part of in- 
 structors the men were kept in a constant 
 state of mental alertness during the exercises. 
 
 For example, the instructor would give a 
 command and himself execute a totally dif- 
 ferent movement. An untrained man though 
 previously instructed to execute commands 
 only as they were given finds it impossible to 
 resist following the motions of the instructor. 
 Again, an instructor after for some time giv- 
 ing his commands in a certain sequence, sud- 
 denly varies the sequence. Among untrained 
 men he will catch the majority of the com- 
 pany. That is because their muscular control 
 processes are unused to sudden changes of 
 requirement. With a little training these de- 
 ficiencies disappear and with the new co- 
 ordination there comes a new mental poise. 
 A man finds himself able to adapt himself to
 
 46 TRAINING FOR SPORTS 
 
 unexpected situations. He is able to make 
 quicker and better decisions. He is less easily 
 embarrassed or taken by surprise. He is 
 surer of himself. He is better able both to 
 give and to obey orders. He is quicker in his 
 thought and in his response. 
 
 Our American sport has been criticized be- 
 cause we specialize too much; because we de- 
 vote so much of our time to some particular 
 game to the exclusion of everything else. 
 Perhaps some of this criticism is true; there 
 is this to be said for our method, that it trains 
 in the ability to concentrate. Our concentra- 
 tion on a sport cannot help benefitting the 
 mental and nervous condition. A man who 
 has been capable of the physical concentration 
 necessary to carry him successfully through a 
 football season has gained the ability to con- 
 centrate on anything in which he is actuated 
 by a desire equally great. 
 
 There is no reason why a boy in school or 
 college should not make use of his athletic 
 work to help him in the classroom. If he 
 makes a regular schedule of work and play, 
 he can do this successfully. If he does his 
 studying in odd moments during the day, his
 
 MENTAL AND NERVOUS CONDITION 47 
 
 school work is sure to suffer. If he studies 
 in the morning on Monday, in the afternoon 
 on Tuesday and in the evening on Wednes- 
 day and plays the rest of the time, he is unable 
 to form any habit of concentration. He can- 
 not study well on Tuesday afternoon because 
 on Monday afternoon he was on the athletic 
 field at the same time and his mind keeps 
 going back to it. If he had studied in the 
 afternoon on Monday and continued this 
 through the week, his mind would soon have 
 got into the habit of expecting study in the 
 afternoon and concentration would have come 
 easily. 
 
 There is nothing more important in any 
 kind of athletic work, as, in fact, in any kind 
 of training, mental or physical, than this regu- 
 larity. Bodily fitness is absolutely dependent 
 on it, and perfect co-ordination of mind and 
 body is impossible without it. Definite times 
 for exercise, bathing, eating, drinking, study- 
 ing, going to bed and getting up should be 
 established and rigidly adhered to. Naturally 
 it should not be carried to the point of 
 monotony. Infinite variety may be intro- 
 duced into the details of the day's work, the
 
 48 TRAINING FOR SPORTS 
 
 food, etc., but changes in time should be 
 avoided, particularly in eating and sleeping. 
 
 During the training season it is inevitable 
 that the nerves of the men on the team expe- 
 rience a good deal of strain and are therefore 
 susceptible to many influences of which at 
 other times they are less sensible. Little inci- 
 dents may occur during a game which will 
 destroy a man's confidence and weaken his 
 efficiency. For example, a man who has run 
 a ball down the field loses it by a fumble on 
 the five-yard line. He is convinced that the 
 fumble was caused by unfair work on the 
 part of someone on the other team. If he is 
 allowed to persist in this belief it will influ- 
 ence his play during the rest of the game. He 
 will fail to do his best because he will feel 
 that whatever he accomplishes will be thwarted 
 by dirty play which will be unobserved by the 
 referee. 
 
 Here is a case where the coach can give the 
 most valuable assistance. During the inter- 
 mission he must convince the man that his 
 explanation of the fumble is no possible ex- 
 cuse. He must point out to him the fact that 
 he got the ball as far as the five-yard line
 
 MENTAL AND NERVOUS CONDITION 49 
 
 before the accident occurred, and that it will 
 be perfectly possible for him to do it again 
 and that to justify himself he must do it 
 again. 
 
 Innumerable little things affect the nerves 
 of the players during a game. Long delays 
 are always bad for the nerves. Unfair play 
 or real or supposed unfair ref ereeing are gen- 
 erally demoralizing. False starts in track are 
 nervously tiring. In baseball there are a num- 
 ber of superstitions which, whether ground- 
 less or not, have a definite psychological 
 effect. 
 
 But it is a curious thing that most super- 
 stitions, however absurd they may be, have, 
 if we can sufficiently trace them back, an 
 origin based on reason. Even the old super- 
 stition about crossing a funeral, which now 
 seems to have no real connection with bad 
 luck, began during one of the plagues in Eu- 
 rope when the bodies were carried through 
 the streets and there was danger of contagion 
 to anyone who went near them. 
 
 The popular belief that it is bad luck for a 
 team to start putting away the bats before the 
 game is over is based on the real psychological
 
 50 TRAINING FOR SPORTS 
 
 effect that this has on the pkyers. It gives 
 the impression that the game is as good as 
 over and implies a suggestion of impatience 
 and hurry which tends to make men careless. 
 The theory that it is good for a batter to 
 swing two or three bats before he goes up 
 is more than a superstition, and in many cases 
 increases a man's confidence in the same way 
 that putting a shot helps one to throw a 
 baseball. 
 
 The psychological effect of bad conditions 
 at meals has already been mentioned; it can- 
 not be over-emphasized. Untidiness, flies, 
 badly cooked or half -cold food ; heated discus- 
 sions during meals and the constant harping 
 on the same subject are trying to the nerves of 
 men in training and, if allowed to continue, 
 may cause the failure of a good team. 
 
 The object of this chapter is to show how 
 closely the mind and the body are related in 
 all athletic work and that the mental troubles 
 must be removed by attacking their causes. 
 In general, if the strength is conserved, 
 strenuous effort worked up to gradually, and 
 healthful habits regularly followed, a bodily 
 fitness will result which will defy mental de-
 
 MENTAL AND NERVOUS CONDITION 51 
 
 prcssion, nervous breakdown, worry and pes- 
 simism, and a fund of mental and physical 
 energy will be created which can accomplish 
 anything. Successful athletics depend on the 
 combination of sound mind and sound body, 
 and these two things are intimately depend- 
 ent on each other.
 
 CHAPTER V 
 TAKING CARE OF INJURIES 
 
 THERE is no athletic sport in which injuries 
 do not occur. They may come purely by ac- 
 cident, they may be caused, as in baseball, by 
 coming up to the hard work too suddenly 
 without preliminary strengthening exercises; 
 or, as in football, from ignorance, insufficient 
 practice or lack of confidence. Whatever the 
 cause or degree of seriousness every injury 
 should have immediate attention. If this is 
 done serious trouble may often be entirely 
 prevented. 
 
 It is extremely important to report all 
 injuries, no matter how insignificant. The 
 slightest abrasion of the skin such as a cut 
 or scratch on the hand or foot may easily 
 become infected and cause blood-poisoning 
 and serious incapacity, whereas simple treat- 
 ment with iodine or other equally powerful 
 disinfectant and bandaging, if it is done imme- 
 diately, will kill any infection which may have 
 
 52
 
 TAKING CARE OF INJURIES 53 
 
 already penetrated, and prevent further 
 danger. 
 
 Sprains are the commonest trouble. A 
 sprain comes from any wrench or twist about 
 a joint. The ankle sprain is perhaps the most 
 usual form. A good deal of pain is followed by 
 swelling and " black and blue " discoloration. 
 Hot water the hotter the better is the best 
 treatment and should be frequently applied by 
 cloths for about an hour, after which the joint 
 should be bandaged and kept in an elevated 
 position. Like all other injuries, sprains 
 should be treated by the physician if he is 
 immediately available ; if not, the above " first 
 aid " may be used until he can be reached. 
 
 The physician who has the athletic work in 
 charge is especially equipped to cure injuries 
 in the shortest possible time. The old theory 
 of rest and quiet as a cure-all for injuries is 
 not rapid enough for the present-day athlete, 
 to whom every day of training is so impor- 
 tant, so the modern athletic surgeon has per- 
 fected a number of quick methods of treatment 
 which are equally effective (though somewhat 
 more strenuous) and do not keep a man out 
 of the game any longer than is absolutely
 
 54 TRAINING FOR SPORTS 
 
 necessary. For this reason it is important for 
 a man to report his injury without delay that 
 he may get this quick care before it is too 
 late and he finds himself incapacitated for a 
 long period. The idea that " it will get well 
 all right by itself if I go easy for a day or 
 two " often leads to going easy for the rest 
 of the season and making yourself a dead loss 
 to the team. 
 
 Trying to care for one's own injuries, either 
 in the belief that one can do quicker work 
 than the doctor or in the fear that he may 
 order a rest sometimes leads to trouble. I 
 remember a boy who, having discovered 
 chloroform liniment and used it with good re- 
 sults for bruises or sprains, came to believe it a 
 panacea for all injuries. The next time some- 
 one got hurt in a football game he immedi- 
 ately recommended his newly-found remedy. 
 Unfortunately the victim of his well-inten- 
 tioned treatment happened to have abrasions 
 of the skin as well as bruises and the awful 
 effects of it were evident to everyone within 
 hearing. The old saying that a little knowl- 
 edge is a dangerous thing is particularly ap- 
 plicable to athletic injuries.
 
 TAKING CARE OF INJURIES 55 
 
 The damage an injury may do depends 
 largely on the nature of the sport and the 
 time when the injury is received. A man 
 who throws out his shoulder during fall prac- 
 tice in baseball can recover for the spring 
 work. A man who is injured in football will 
 be unable to go back during the season if the 
 injury is at all serious. Sports like football 
 and hockey have such short seasons that they 
 give a man little chance to get back. Of 
 course an injury received in one sport does 
 not necessarily incapacitate for another. For 
 example, a man with hands sore from rowing 
 may play football. A man with a slightly 
 abraded foot may row in a boat, and a " glass- 
 arm " pitcher might take part in certain track 
 events. Of course the most serious injuries 
 usually incapacitate for everything and the 
 only remedy is a long rest from physical 
 work. 
 
 Injuries to the knee are, from the athletic 
 standpoint, the most incapacitating. The 
 wrenched knee which football players expe- 
 rience more frequently than any others should 
 be treated by a doctor from the very first if 
 one is available. If there is delay in getting
 
 56 TRAINING FOR SPORTS 
 
 the doctor the knee should be treated the same 
 as a sprain with hot applications and then 
 bound as tightly as possible. It should not 
 be further strained under any circumstances. A 
 bad wrench will generally necessitate the use of 
 crutches for a while and may result in a 
 severe case of water on the knee, which some- 
 times leads to being permanently crippled. 
 That is why it is so necessary to give any 
 hurt to the knee immediate and expert atten- 
 tion. Another knee injury which is not un- 
 usual and which sometimes requires an opera- 
 tion is floating cartilage caused by a small piece 
 of the cartilage being torn loose by a sudden 
 violent movement. This is generally followed 
 by severe pain. The displacement must be im- 
 mediately remedied by gently rotating the leg. 
 An operation may be necessary to remove the 
 floating fragment. 
 
 The ordinary muscle strain may easily be 
 cured in a few days. It should be thoroughly 
 massaged and then exercised moderately as 
 soon as possible. Runners often experience 
 strained muscles at the beginning of the sea- 
 son, which cause pain along the slim bones 
 and often between the bones of the foot. Both
 
 TAKING CARE OF INJURIES 67 
 
 of these may come from running on a hard 
 track or overworking too early. The former 
 is a strain of the extensor muscle of the lower 
 leg. A day's rest and hot applications are 
 the best remedy. The pain in the foot which 
 is caused by a strain of the ligaments which 
 bind the metatarsal bones is not serious and 
 may be due to tight shoes. Soaking in hot 
 water generally gives relief. 
 
 Pulled ligaments or pulled tendons may be 
 serious. Of the two, the pulled tendon is the 
 more important. It may come from any vio- 
 lent twist or wrench. It may occur in the 
 thigh, biceps or ankle. The first is the most 
 common, especially in track athletics and is 
 a rupture of the semitendinous muscle. It 
 will generally cause a man to fall if it 
 occurs while running. It will require about 
 three days in bed, the leg strapped with ad- 
 hesive tape. Hot water bottles and daily 
 massage are helpful. No man who has pulled 
 a tendon should run again in a race inside 
 of two months. The " Achilles " tendon in 
 the foot is sometimes ruptured by track men. 
 The treatment is a tight strapping of the 
 ankle.
 
 58 TRAINING FOR SPORTS 
 
 " Charley-horse " is a bruise of the sartorius 
 muscle in the front of the thigh. It is painful 
 but not serious and should not keep a man 
 out of work. Iodine, antiphlogistin, and 
 massage are all good. Capsicum vaseline has 
 the effect of a counter-irritant and will often 
 cause a man to forget the pain of his " charley- 
 horse." It is a good plan, if the man is to go 
 into scrimmage or dummy tackling, to protect 
 the bruised muscle by a pad or otherwise 
 against further injury. 
 
 Sometimes a man will have some injury or 
 deformity which is chronic. He may have a 
 displaced cartilage which, having become 
 chronic, has ceased to be sensitive although it 
 is still likely to slip out of place. In a case 
 like this a man can sometimes play on a team 
 without suffering any pain from his disability 
 although it is always a weakness and is likely 
 to incapacitate him at any time. It is advisable, 
 therefore, not to use men with chronic injuries 
 of this sort if they can be spared. There can be 
 no doubt of the value of massage and osteop- 
 athy, if properly done, in the treatment of 
 athletic injuries and in general conditioning. 
 But massage, to be effective, must be done by
 
 TAKING CARE OF INJURIES 59 
 
 a professional who has had sufficient training. 
 It must not be confused with rubbing such as 
 is done by trainers. It is a scientific treat- 
 ment which requires a thorough knowledge of 
 anatomy. I have known remarkably rapid 
 and complete cures of sprains, muscle strains, 
 etc., by expert massage treatment, taken in 
 time and thoroughly done. 
 
 Osteopathy is a system of treatment which 
 depends on the theory that by proper manipu- 
 lation of the bones any displacement or de- 
 formity may be rectified. The osteopaths 
 ascribe most diseases to such deformity, and in 
 many cases they have succeeded in positive 
 cures. Athletic injuries in particular are sus- 
 ceptible to this treatment. 
 
 College athletics are generally presided over 
 by a triumvirate consisting of the physician, 
 the coach and the trainer. The physician has 
 general charge of the health of the men and 
 all treatment for illness, injury and accident. 
 The coach has charge of the technical side of 
 the game, superintends the daily practice and 
 lays down the method or system to be fol- 
 lowed in all work. He picks the men for the 
 team, decides on the position each man shall
 
 60 TRAINING FOR SPORTS 
 
 play, and is, in large measure, responsible for 
 the performance and success of the team. 
 The trainer has charge of the condition of the 
 individuals on the team, watches their daily 
 performance, prescribes special work accord- 
 ing to individual requirement, regulates the 
 diet, has charge of the rubbing of the men, 
 etc. It is the trainer's duty to watch for 
 signs of "going stale," to lay off the men 
 who need rest, and give specific exercise to 
 men who are undeveloped or deficient in 
 some particular detail of their work. 
 
 It is immensely important for the success 
 of the team that these three shall work to- 
 gether in harmony. There is sometimes con- 
 flict in judgment between the trainer and the 
 coach as to the work a man should do. The 
 natural tendency is for the coach to want all 
 his men on deck for every practice, whereas 
 the trainer often inclines toward resting up 
 certain men in order to help their general con- 
 dition or because of some injury. If the two 
 are naturally uncongenial, and have little con- 
 fidence in each other, conflicts of this sort will 
 keep occurring and such differences in judg- 
 ment are sure to disturb the men on the team
 
 TAKING CARE OF INJURIES 61 
 
 and weaken their confidence in both coach and 
 trainer. If, on the other hand, they work 
 well together, each will trust the other to do 
 his part of the work and each will remain 
 within his own province. In order to warrant 
 this trust the trainer must be careful always 
 to act according to his own judgment after 
 careful examination and not submit to the 
 judgment of the men. In this way he will 
 avoid the frequent accusation by coaches that 
 trainers are letting the men " put one over 
 on them." 
 
 Epidemics often spread rapidly among 
 teams, especially when the team is stale or 
 overworked. Tonsillitis is one of the com- 
 monest forms of epidemic because it is a dis- 
 ease to which anyone suffering from fatigue 
 is peculiarly susceptible. Influenza is another 
 epidemic which, especially the last few years, 
 has attacked football teams. The best method 
 of controlling an epidemic is by immediate 
 isolation of the first cases as soon as the 
 symptoms appear. If the other members of 
 the team are in good condition a very slight 
 exposure will not affect them. The chief 
 danger lies in concealment of their illness by
 
 62 TRAINING FOR SPORTS 
 
 the men until after the germs have been 
 spread. 
 
 Good general hygiene and careful avoid- 
 ance of infection are the best preventives. 
 Too much emphasis cannot be laid on clean- 
 liness; daily bathing by shower if one is 
 available, otherwise by tub or sponge bath. 
 The object of the bath is to remove the par- 
 ticles of skin which it is part of the process 
 of nature to throw off, to keep the pores from 
 becoming clogged so that perspiration is re- 
 tarded and the body is not able to get rid of 
 its waste products, and to start the circula- 
 tion. This last is accomplished largely by the 
 rubdown which follows the bath. This should 
 always be vigorous. One should never fall 
 into the habit of merely drying oneself after 
 a bath. The hard vigorous rub should be real 
 exercise in itself and should leave the body 
 glowing from head to foot. 
 
 Athletes especially schoolboys whose train- 
 ing is often less carefully watched than that 
 of college men sometimes fall into the bad 
 habit of staying too long in a warm bath. 
 This is very weakening to the entire system 
 and renders one susceptible to infection from
 
 TAKING CARE OF INJURIES 63 
 
 germs, and if the temperature of the room is 
 cold or if the boy goes outdoors soon after, he 
 is almost certain to get chilled and catch a 
 cold or sore throat. 
 
 Great care must be taken to see that there 
 is always a plentiful supply of clean towels 
 on hand so that each man gets a clean towel. 
 If it is impossible to provide a clean towel for 
 each man every time he bathes, it should be 
 insisted on that he keep his own towel in his 
 locker, and never use one which has already 
 been used by someone else. Bad habits of 
 this kind soon get started in school dressing 
 rooms unless carefully watched, and boys use 
 towels promiscuously and without much re- 
 gard to their cleanliness. This is likely to 
 result in the spread of a peculiarly unpleasant 
 skin disease a sort of itch lowering to the 
 tone of the team because it keeps the men 
 from sleeping and reduces their general sense 
 of self-respect and well-being. The same dis- 
 ease may come through wearing other men's 
 jerseys, shirts, drawers, suspensories, etc., and 
 this should be avoided at all times. It is also 
 important that a man's running suit or under- 
 clothes and socks be frequently washed. This
 
 64 TRAINING FOR SPORTS 
 
 is especially necessary for socks to avoid sore 
 feet. 
 
 Foul air, that is air that has already been 
 breathed, besides containing an insufficient 
 supply of oxygen, is sure to be full of germs. 
 Ill-ventilated rooms should be avoided espe- 
 cially at times when the body is fatigued and 
 the resistance low. Going to the " movies " 
 in the evening may be dangerous. The body 
 is tired from the day's work and is peculiarly 
 susceptible to contagion from foul air. Unless 
 the theater is well ventilated, the air is gener- 
 ally pre-breathed and largely exhausted of its 
 oxygen. This is also true of crowded street cars, 
 subways in fact, any crowd should be avoided 
 as far as possible. So in the week or two be- 
 fore the big contest such exposures are risky. 
 
 Colds are the bane of most people's exist- 
 fcnce especially in the winter, but they should 
 not bother the athlete if he takes care of him- 
 self and keeps in good general condition. 
 The air baths mentioned in the first chapter 
 are a good defense against colds, as they 
 render the body less tender. Tight collars, 
 mufflers, superfluous clothing, too many bed- 
 clothes, sleeping in a stuffy room, all these
 
 TAKING CARE OF INJURIES 65 
 
 are contributing causes of colds. Sitting in 
 wet clothes or shoes is chilling, although both 
 may be worn indefinitely as long as the body 
 is moving and the blood kept in circulation. 
 No man has ever been harmed by wet clothes 
 so long as he kept exercising, but sitting in 
 them, or sitting in underclothes wet from 
 perspiration after exercising, is dangerous and 
 one of the things which must be watched by 
 coaches and trainers. 
 
 Never forget the teeth; they are one of the 
 most frequent sources of digestive trouble. 
 Teeth in which decay is going on contaminate 
 the food which is taken into the stomach. Be- 
 sides this, one is likely to lose his teeth at an 
 early age if they are not cared for. Caring 
 for the teeth means brushing them and having 
 them examined and filled by a dentist. The 
 teeth should be brushed on getting up in the 
 morning, just before going to bed at night 
 and after each meal, though powder or paste 
 should only be used once a day. A dentist 
 should be consulted every six months. Never 
 wait until a toothache makes it necessary. 
 
 If the rules given here on general hygiene 
 are followed, as well as those on diet and sleep
 
 66 TRAINING FOR SPORTS 
 
 in the chapters which follow, the danger of 
 disease by contagion or infection will be 
 greatly reduced. If reasonable precautions 
 are taken, many of the injuries described in 
 this chapter particularly muscle strains and 
 the " glass arm " may be escaped. The pre- 
 cautions are merely those of beginning prac- 
 tice gradually and using a certain amount of 
 calisthenic exercise to make the muscles strong 
 enough for the work. 
 
 Many of the injuries are, of course, un- 
 avoidable and I should not want to tell a man 
 to try to avoid them, especially in football, as 
 that would be one of the surest ways of caus- 
 ing them. A man who goes into a football 
 game with the idea of trying to avoid injury 
 is almost certain to get hurt. Fear of injury 
 is the first weakness a football player must 
 conquer. 
 
 The only way to play football (or any 
 other athletic game, for that matter) is to 
 play it hard for the game's sake with full 
 confidence in yourself and your team and no 
 thought in your mind of danger or defeat. 
 If you have fear (as most men do), control 
 it. Controlled fear is as valuable in athletics
 
 TAKING CARE OF INJURIES 67 
 
 as natural fearlessness and far more valuable 
 to the athlete's character. A normally healthy 
 boy who keeps his condition good and his 
 mind on the game, plays hard and obeys the 
 orders of his coach and trainer, should be able 
 to finish his athletic career with little injury, 
 sickness, or anything but healthful effects.
 
 CHAPTER VI 
 DIET 
 
 THE subject of diet has been so discussed 
 and rediscussed and theorized about that if 
 one tries to study it carefully he soon be- 
 comes confused by the conflict of dietary 
 creeds. In athletics diet has gone through a 
 long series of changes and has probably ar- 
 rived at its healthiest stage. The present gen- 
 erally accepted theory is that if a diet is 
 simple and nourishing it need not be much 
 restricted. Of course there are many be- 
 lievers in vegetarianism and cereal food, and 
 while sometimes men seem to succeed in cer- 
 tain kinds of strength tests under this kind 
 of diet, it has never had any vogue among 
 that now expert class with us, the athletic 
 trainer. It has always seemed that if a man 
 were not intended by nature to eat meat, he 
 would not have been endowed with such a 
 strong natural desire for it. Also, while good 
 results have been obtained in work with dumb- 
 
 68
 
 DIET 69 
 
 bells requiring considerable endurance by the 
 use of strict vegetarian diet, many have ques- 
 tioned whether it gives men as much of what 
 we call " pep "; ready energy, alertness, speed 
 and constant desire for activity. 
 
 Years ago meat formed a far larger part 
 of the athlete's menu than it does today. At 
 most of the training tables of that day there 
 were almost no vegetables except rice. The 
 meat was generally cooked very little, the 
 idea being that " raw meat " was strength- 
 ening. Almost no liquid was permitted. The 
 worst suffering of the training season was 
 caused by the almost constant thirst the men 
 had to endure. What water they were al- 
 lowed contained oatmeal. Sweets of all kinds, 
 everything, in fact, containing sugar, was for- 
 bidden. 
 
 The evils of this diet became evident when 
 it came to be more carefully studied. The 
 lack of vegetables and fruit predisposed to 
 constipation, the lack of water caused loss in 
 weight and exhaustion, and the tabu on sugar 
 removed a valuable stimulant. Furthermore, 
 the meals were so unattractive and had so 
 little variety that the men ate little and, as
 
 70 TRAINING FOR SPORTS 
 
 a consequence, were under-nourished. Besides 
 this, they did not provide at all for . indi- 
 vidual differences of taste and idiosyncrasies 
 (for "one man's meat is another's poison"), 
 because there was so little choice. 
 
 I remember visiting a university a number 
 of years ago in the middle of the football 
 season. I noticed that the team generally 
 went to pieces in the second half; the men 
 showed signs of exhaustion, lack of energy 
 and interest in the game. I immediately 
 turned my attention to the training table. I 
 noticed in the first place that the room was 
 unpleasant, the table untidy and not clean. 
 The food was inadequate. For lunch, for 
 example, the men got nothing but cold roast 
 beef and oatmeal water. I saw that they 
 took no pleasure in the meal and that some 
 of them left a good deal of their meat uneaten 
 on their plates. The day of the next game 
 I advised a change of menu. It included a 
 nicely cooked mutton chop, baked potato and 
 ice cream, and was decently served. The ef- 
 fect on the men's spirits was immediate. They 
 ate heartily and with pleasure, the conversa- 
 tion was cheerful and they got up satisfied,
 
 DIET 71 
 
 optimistic and ready, mentally and physically, 
 for the game. The game came out success- 
 fully and, under the changed regime which 
 followed, the rest of the season was satisfac- 
 tory and the team " came back " with a 
 strong finish. 
 
 Napoleon said that an army moves on its 
 stomach; it is as true of any athletic team. 
 Under-nourished, hungry men lose their en- 
 durance and, what is nearly as important, their 
 good disposition. A man who is discontented 
 with his food soon becomes discontented with 
 everything; loses his optimism, cheerfulness 
 and ability to overcome obstacles and resist 
 opposition. The irritating, fretful discontent 
 that comes from a poor diet points the in- 
 evitable way to failure. 
 
 College athletics have developed a class of 
 experts who are known as trainers. These have 
 come to see the error in the old methods and to 
 realize that an average man in good condition 
 can eat most simple foods without danger and, 
 in his eating, needs only to avoid excesses. 
 Overeating, crowding the stomach with more 
 than it can digest in a reasonable time, causes a 
 man to go out on the field with a mass of un-
 
 72 TRAINING FOR SPORTS 
 
 digested food in his stomach which does not 
 help his day's practice. Conversely the prac- 
 tice still further impedes his digestion. Eat- 
 ing too much sweets, especially if taken in the 
 early part of the meal or between meals, is 
 bad for digestion and causes a loss of appetite 
 for the other, more nourishing food. An ath- 
 lete should remember that nutritive value is 
 not necessarily dependent on quantity. The 
 dietitians have figured out a system of calories 
 to show the relative fuel values of various 
 foods. Some of the results have been inter- 
 esting. For example, it has been found that 
 a lunch consisting of twelve crackers and a 
 pint of milk contains as many calories as 
 one which includes consomme, roast beef, po- 
 tato, peas, stewed corn and sliced pineapple. 
 It is on results like these that some men have 
 based vegetarian theories. A lunch of crack- 
 ers and milk is an excellent one for the busi- 
 ness man who sits in an office and whose life 
 is sedentary, but for the man who is under- 
 going intensive training for hard physical 
 work it is not sufficient. 
 
 There is a dietitian in most colleges who 
 can easily work out a menu based on
 
 DIET 73 
 
 the proper amount of calories and vita- 
 mines. 
 
 In discussing the disadvantages of the old 
 " raw meat " diet I mentioned individual 
 idiosyncrasies. This is an important consid- 
 eration and the menu should be large enough 
 to provide a choice for everyone. For exam- 
 ple, there are some men who cannot eat straw- 
 berries without ill effects. Such a man should 
 be able to have some other sort of fruit as a 
 substitute and not be deprived of the benefit 
 the other men are getting from the fruit 
 juices. There are others who cannot eat 
 onions; peppers and cucumbers are poison to 
 many people. If there are always more than 
 one vegetable, a man does not have to go with- 
 out entirely because of his individual peculi- 
 arity. 
 
 Fruit is one of the most valuable articles 
 of diet, raw or cooked, fresh or preserved. It 
 is a valuable aid to the proper functioning of 
 the intestines and contains acid and sugar in 
 good proportions and provides the natural 
 salts the body requires. Prunes may be eaten 
 profitably at any meal; they are particularly 
 good at breakfast, but they have been so over-
 
 74 TRAINING FOR SPORTS 
 
 worked that they are hardly popular with the 
 men except semi-occasionally. 
 
 As I have already mentioned, soiled table 
 linen, plates, knives and forks insufficiently 
 washed and all evidences of untidiness make 
 meals unappetizing and are not good for the 
 disposition. The presence of any sort of 
 vermin such as cockroaches, water-bugs, etc., 
 in the dining-room is always unpleasant, and 
 flies are not only irritating but dangerous in 
 spreading disease. The dining-room should 
 be large, light and well- ventilated (the latter 
 is especially important), and as free from 
 cooking smells as possible. The tablecloth 
 and napkins should be frequently changed. 
 If this is not practicable, it is better to serve 
 the meals on a bare table. 
 
 Right drinking is extremely important. 
 From eight to ten glasses a day are essential 
 to good health, especially if exercise is fre- 
 quent. It assists the excretory processes 
 that is, the carrying off of waste by means of 
 the skin, the kidneys and the bowels. Most 
 of this should be taken outside of meal-times 
 not that food will not digest when mixed with 
 water, but athletes are likely to drink ice water
 
 DIET 75 
 
 with meals and really to wash down every 
 mouthful of food. 
 
 Of course it is hard to lay down an absolute 
 rule against drinking water at meals. There 
 are times when it may be necessary. For 
 example, suppose a team is off on a trip and 
 is unable to get a drink during the morning. 
 They lunch perhaps at a hotel and the waiter 
 fills their glasses. They are thirsty from the 
 morning's train ride and naturally want to 
 drink. Under these circumstances it would 
 not be advisable to prevent them from doing 
 so. But on the whole it is wiser to drink very 
 little with the meals. This is not, as used 
 to be supposed, because the water dilutes the 
 digestive juices and makes digestion more dif- 
 ficult; it is because if a man drinks a lot of 
 water it fills up his capacity and he is likely 
 to eat less. In this way it deprives him of 
 some of his nutrition. Under no circum- 
 stances should the water be iced but should 
 be taken at the temperature of the room. 
 
 Hurrying at meals must be strictly avoided. 
 It is sure to cause indigestion and rob the 
 meal of much of its nutritive value. The 
 stomachs of some animals are so constructed
 
 76 TRAINING FOR SPORTS 
 
 that they can digest bolted food, but the 
 human stomach demands proper mastication 
 and salivation and will simply pass on un- 
 chewed food to the intestines, which carry it 
 off in its undigested state. This prevents 
 nutrition from the food and often causes pain 
 in the stomach and intestines, clogging of the 
 passages and, if it is not properly eliminated, 
 may cause auto-intoxication. Starchy foods 
 such as potatoes and many other vegetables, 
 bread, cereals, etc., are acted on by the saliva, 
 which has the effect of converting the starch 
 into sugar, the first stage in the digestion 
 of this food. Thorough chewing helps this 
 process and is therefore necessary to complete 
 digestion. 
 
 Another effect of hurry is the nervous ef- 
 fect. Any upset or restless mental condition 
 at meals is sure to arrest digestion. This is 
 why it is so important to keep a cheerful 
 atmosphere during meal-time and especially 
 to prevent heated arguments. There is prob- 
 ably no subject on which arguments can wax 
 more violent than athletics, and as boys 
 nearly always take athletics very seriously and 
 are intense in their interest, most discussions
 
 DIET ?7 
 
 of this sort which arise among a group of 
 them soon reach the boiling point. 
 
 Arguments in which there is strong feeling 
 nearly always destroy the appetite during a 
 meal and hurt the digestion. It is a common 
 thing to see a man get up after a violent alter- 
 cation of words leaving his food untouched on 
 his plate. He has lost interest in it, his sys- 
 tem in its excited state rebels against it. If 
 he should force himself to eat it his digestive 
 functions would probably refuse to work 
 upon it. 
 
 Anger produces a definite poison in the sys- 
 tem which often results in illness. But the 
 effect of it on the digestion is to cause tempo- 
 rary cessation. This causes food to be passed 
 into the intestines before it is ready for them, 
 thus impeding the natural movement of the 
 bowels and generating toxins. It is undoubt- 
 edly the most harmful of all the emotions. 
 
 This chapter on diet has been intended pri- 
 marily to show that the old ideas of what an 
 athlete should eat are, for the most part, ex- 
 ploded and proved to have been wrong; that 
 the average healthy boy can eat almost any- 
 thing in moderation and need only avoid ex-
 
 78 TRAINING FOR SPORTS 
 
 cesses and irregularity; that how you eat 
 counts more than what you eat, and that psy- 
 chological influences on the digestion are too 
 immediate and important to be ignored. The 
 boy who eats at regular hours, drinks little 
 with his meals but much between, is sur- 
 rounded during meal-time with cleanliness, 
 light and air and congenial companions, who 
 never eats between meals and never " stuffs " 
 himself, need not worry about the details of 
 his diet. 
 
 Although the point has already been 
 brought up, the question of eating between 
 meals and especially filling up on sweets, 
 candy, soft drinks, etc., cannot be too much 
 dwelt upon. This applies not only to the 
 training season; it is nearly as important at 
 all times of the year. It often happens, espe- 
 cially among schoolboys, that when the season 
 stops, the members of the team who have been 
 keeping strict rules of diet, etc., feel it incum- 
 bent upon them to break training as violently 
 as possible by an orgy of sweets, pop, soda 
 fountain drinks and candy. If they continue 
 for any length of time to indulge themselves 
 in this way and their eating becomes irregular,
 
 DIET 79 
 
 they will so break down their digestion that it 
 is very likely they will not recover by the fol- 
 lowing season. Some boys have incapacitated 
 themselves for life by dissipation of this 
 kind, bringing on diabetes, ulcerated stomach, 
 chronic indigestion and many other diseases. 
 The warning to avoid this cannot be taken too 
 seriously. 
 
 It is customary in some colleges for the 
 men to " eat round," especially in the Fresh- 
 man year, before they become a member of 
 any fraternity or club; that is, they do not 
 sign up definitely at any one eating place. 
 The result is that most of their meals are 
 eaten at the various lunch counters with which 
 college towns generally abound. The food 
 is almost always good at these places and 
 cleanly and attractively served. But there are 
 a number of serious drawbacks to this kind 
 of living, and they generally so tell on a man 
 that he is obliged, after a few months' trial, 
 to give up either the lunch rooms or his health. 
 In the first place, if you eat at these places 
 you generally have no regularity of meal 
 hour. You are likely to eat rapidly because 
 there is always an atmosphere of noise and
 
 80 TRAINING FOR SPORTS 
 
 hurry, and the seating accommodations (if 
 any) are usually not particularly comfortable. 
 Then there is a tendency to eat mostly cold 
 food such as sandwiches, salads, pie, ice cream, 
 or " hot dogs," and other rich and indigestible 
 dishes. But the food itself is not the great 
 disadvantage of this method. It is the ir- 
 regularity, the lack of habit, the constant 
 change, the hurry, the psychological effect 
 that causes the trouble. No athlete who ex- 
 pects to achieve real success should ever allow 
 himself to fall into this habit or lack of habit 
 even out of training season. It is certain 
 to weaken his vitality and undermine the 
 foundations of his health.
 
 CHAPTER VII 
 SLEEP 
 
 OF all the factors in making a successful 
 athlete and keeping him in trim, none is more 
 important than sleep. A man may keep 
 training rigidly in other respects; he may 
 limit his diet, regulate his exercise and his 
 personal habits with the greatest care, follow 
 the most approved methods and work under 
 the most expert coaches and trainers; with 
 insufficient sleep he will be unable to finish 
 the season. The effect will be not merely a 
 nervous or mental one, it will be a wearing 
 away physically, loss of weight, inability to 
 perform the required work, piling up of 
 fatigue poisons in the system, and, in the 
 end, going stale. 
 
 Primarily sleep repairs. During the day 
 there is an excess of waste. The combustion, 
 circulation, movement and friction of the 
 body cause accumulations of burnt-out fuel, 
 impurities and the wearing away of parts 
 
 81
 
 82 TRAINING FOR SPORTS 
 
 exactly as in an engine which operates con- 
 tinuously for long periods. The engineer 
 must, every little while, slow it down, oil it, 
 overhaul and repair certain parts, shake down 
 his furnace, etc. The same is true of the 
 body. During sleep the human engine slows 
 down and is repaired, the blood purified, cer- 
 tain waste matter removed and certain parts 
 built up where they are broken or worn. 
 
 During sleep more oxygen is absorbed but 
 the heart beats more slowly. In this way the 
 blood becomes purified but its pump is able to 
 rest. The work of the stomach and intestines, 
 while it continues, is slower. The skin excretes 
 waste matter through sweating. The acid 
 which is created by the working of the muscles, 
 and which in time will so accumulate that it 
 will stop muscle movement entirely, is elimi- 
 nated in sleep. Tissues broken down by the 
 wear of the day's work are repaired. The fa- 
 tigue poisons in the blood are got rid of. 
 
 These details are given simply to show that 
 there are certain very definite functions which 
 sleep performs in the body and that these 
 functions are more important to the athlete 
 than to anyone else, because they are the func-
 
 SLEEP 83 
 
 tions which are essential to bodily fitness. It 
 is the athlete's primary object to be at all 
 times capable of exerting his physical power 
 to the utmost in the most efficient manner, 
 with the least friction. No automobile racer 
 would think of taking a car into a race whose 
 cylinders were clogged with carbon, cooling 
 system stopped up with mud and gasoline 
 supply full of water. No more should an 
 athlete enter a race or game with his blood 
 full of the waste products of fatigue. 
 
 In the matter of sleep, age is an important 
 factor. The younger a boy is, the more sleep 
 he should have. This is because he is grow- 
 ing and growth depends more on sleep than 
 on anything else. It is during sleep that most 
 actual growth takes place. After a boy has 
 got his growth he can get along with less 
 sleep, but he must not anticipate or misjudge 
 this point. Many boys believe that at sixteen 
 or seventeen they have got their growth be- 
 cause they are as tall as they believe they ever 
 will be. They do not realize that, having at- 
 tained this height, nature requires a great deal 
 of time to adjust the rest of the body to it and 
 fill the boy out in his proper proportions, as
 
 84 TRAINING FOR SPORTS 
 
 well as to give him a chance to recuperate from 
 the effort of his growth in height. 
 
 At seventeen nature demands nine, or bet- 
 ter, ten hours of sleep every night. If the 
 .boy is in training for any kind of athletic 
 sport this amount of sleep is essential to his 
 success. Yet this seems to be the thing there 
 is the greatest tendency to neglect. A boy 
 will often be strictly careful of his diet and 
 conscientious in his work, yet stay up at night 
 far into the time which belongs rightfully to 
 sleep. Another thing boys are weak in is 
 regularity of sleeping schedule. The greatest 
 benefit from sleep comes in making it a habit, 
 running it on schedule like the various details 
 of the day's work, so that the body gets sleep 
 at the time it expects it. A boy who keeps 
 his sleeping habits regular will have little 
 trouble with insomnia. 
 
 This brings us to a point that generally 
 comes up after mid-season. The first part of 
 the training period the men generally rest 
 well. The game is in its early stages; there 
 has been no strenuous competition, no impor- 
 tant event. In the latter half of the season, 
 on the other hand, there are many disturbing
 
 SLEEP 85 
 
 influences. Natural worry connected with the 
 big contests begins to interfere with sleep. 
 Nervousness, fear of the men lest they fail to 
 do their job properly, worry over classroom 
 work and countless other mental anxieties 
 tend to keep the men awake and tossing in 
 bed, far into the night. A boy whose im- 
 agination is vivid and active will often picture 
 elaborate and impossible situations to himself 
 when he is lying awake at night and will fol- 
 low a long train of thought with intense seri- 
 ousness through a series of imaginary inci- 
 dents which he would laugh at in the daytime. 
 He will frequently picture himself playing in 
 a game or running in a race and either winning 
 conspicuous success or falling down in out- 
 rageous failure. 
 
 The worst of this sort of worry is that it 
 keeps the mind so constantly excited that, in- 
 stead of lying quietly in a relaxed state, a 
 boy generally keeps his muscles rigid, changes 
 frequently from side to side, tries a dozen 
 different positions, and is generally restless 
 and uncomfortable. Thus he robs himself of 
 that rest which, even without sleep, he would 
 get if his mind and body were quietly relaxed.
 
 86 TRAINING FOR SPORTS 
 
 This is an important point to remember, that 
 lying still with the muscles relaxed is an ex- 
 ceedingly valuable rest to the body. It is 
 often possible consciously to relax the muscles, 
 and this process is generally conducive to 
 sleep. 
 
 Of course at times like these outside irrita- 
 tions have a good field to work on. Noise, 
 street lights or moonlight shining on the face, 
 men talking in other parts of the building, 
 people going up and down stairs, mosquitoes, 
 a hundred little things which ordinarily might 
 be unnoticed are peculiarly nerve-racking to 
 a troubled mind. We all know how it feels 
 when, after much tossing and turning and 
 worry, we have finally composed ourselves, re- 
 laxed, and sleep is on the way, to hear sud- 
 denly the buzzing of a mosquito close to our 
 ears. If these things are allowed to annoy 
 men in training, it is quite inexcusable because 
 they are easy enough to avoid. 
 
 Most school and college dormitories are not 
 on busy streets and street noises anyway are 
 not generally causes of annoyance to people 
 who are used to them. Noise in the dormitory 
 can certainly be prevented by proper enforce-
 
 SLEEP 87 
 
 ment of discipline and by impressing on the 
 others the necessity of sleep for the team. If 
 it cannot, the men should be removed to an- 
 other building where they can be by themselves. 
 Mosquitoes can be kept away by screens or 
 mosquito bars such as are used in the Army or 
 camping, which can be obtained at any Army 
 and Navy or sporting goods store. The only 
 objection to these is that, fitting as they do, 
 closely over the bed, they keep a certain amount 
 of air off the bed. This is really better than 
 being troubled by mosquitoes, for in the latter 
 case a man is generally obliged to defend him- 
 self by pulling the sheet over his head which 
 causes him to breathe pre-breathed air. The 
 mosquito bar should be the last resort; if the 
 screens are effective without it, so much the 
 better. Flies in the early morning in the 
 spring season are another cause of annoyance 
 and curtail sleep. These can sometimes be 
 avoided by keeping the room dark. Lotions, 
 etc., which claim to drive away mosquitoes 
 and flies are generally quite worthless and 
 more unpleasant than the mosquitoes because 
 of their disagreeable smell. 
 
 K There are many other discomforts which,
 
 88 TRAINING FOR SPORTS 
 
 slight as they might seem, at other times are 
 well to eliminate during training. Among 
 these are short sheets, badly made up beds, 
 uncomfortable pillows, sheets not changed 
 often enough, creaking beds, too much light, 
 not enough air, etc. Sleeping naked or in the 
 underclothes are both bad; the first because 
 of the danger of getting cold, the latter be- 
 cause it is not clean. There has been some 
 discussion as to the best side of the body to 
 sleep on, but this makes little difference 
 except that sleeping on the back generally 
 causes uncomfortable dreams. Too many bed- 
 clothes is weakening and makes the body 
 tender. A man who is constantly troubled 
 with restlessness should be put by himself and 
 not made to sleep in a dormitory with other 
 men where such sounds as snoring or men 
 talking in their sleep are likely to keep him 
 awake. 
 
 Fresh air is immensely important in sleep- 
 ing quarters all you can get of it; it makes 
 no difference how cold it is. It is easy to 
 keep warm even in mid-winter with proper 
 covering. To sleep in a room with the win- 
 dows shut is robbing a man of one of the most
 
 SLEEP 89 
 
 important benefits of sleep, the purification 
 of the blood by the oxygen he takes into his 
 lungs. Then it causes him to breathe again 
 air that he or someone else has already 
 breathed; in other words he is obliged to take 
 into his body poisonous matter which has been 
 rejected. The lungs are as much a part of 
 the excretory system as are the kidneys, the 
 bowels and the skin; they all throw out poi- 
 sonous and waste products which the body 
 cannot make use of. If we allow these poi- 
 sons to enter the body again in a still more 
 concentrated form we are injuring and in- 
 sulting our organs. This is just what we are 
 doing when, instead of taking fresh air into 
 our lungs, we breathe the carbon dioxide gas 
 which they have just rejected. 
 
 Breathing through the mouth is a bad habit 
 which generally comes from adenoids, en- 
 larged tonsils, chronic catarrh or other phys- 
 ical causes most of which can be removed by 
 simple operations or treatment. Our nose 
 was given us to breathe through and is espe- 
 cially equipped with means for preventing 
 impurities from entering the lungs. Some 
 animals, such as the horse, for instance, can-
 
 90 TRAINING FOR SPORTS 
 
 not breathe except through the nose. Breath- 
 ing through the mouth when asleep is the 
 principal cause of snoring. It also causes 
 uncomfortable dryness of the mouth and 
 throat. Spraying the nose before going to 
 bed with an atomizer or nebulizer and oil spray 
 will make it possible to breathe comfortably 
 unless adenoids are present. Even such 
 heroic measures as putting adhesive tape over 
 the mouth are often used with the result of 
 forming a nose-breathing habit. 
 
 It would be a good thing, of course, if we 
 could strike at the root of the whole insomnia 
 trouble and eliminate the worry that keeps 
 men awake. But this is not easy to do. It 
 is the simplest thing in the world to tell some- 
 one not to worry, that worry is useless, that 
 man is more efficient without it and the thou- 
 sand other platitudes we hear every day. 
 There can be no doubt of the bad effects of 
 it: we have seen some of them in the chapter 
 on nervous and mental condition and some- 
 thing of its effect on digestion in the last 
 chapter. But to tell a man not to worry does 
 not prevent him from doing so. He may not 
 have complete enough command over himself
 
 SLEEP 91 
 
 to be able to control his thoughts at will. 
 Yet there are a few simple rules which, if 
 followed, predispose the mind to relaxation 
 and tend so to induce sleep that small wor- 
 ries are easily kept out. 
 
 First: never go to bed immediately after 
 studying. A mind which, for several hours, 
 has been tackling difficult problems has got so 
 in the habit of it that it tends to keep on 
 doing the same thing. When there are no 
 more problems given to it, it begins to create 
 them for itself. There are many boys who, 
 after worrying for several hours over some 
 particularly complex work in geometry or 
 algebra, give it up and go to bed with angles 
 and equations dancing before their eyes. 
 Sleep comes late to boys in this condition. 
 They may not continue to pursue their par- 
 ticular problem. They may start, in imagina- 
 tion, cutting a baseball diamond into triangles 
 and applying theorems to them. Thence they 
 get on baseball and athletics and worry; 
 begins. 
 
 A heated discussion just before going to 
 bed is sure to persist in a boy's mind and keep 
 him wakeful. He thinks of all the convinc-
 
 92 TRAINING FOR SPORTS 
 
 ing arguments he might have used, becomes 
 impatient because it is too late; then restless- 
 ness sets in and sleep is miles away. If his 
 discussion has ended in angry dispute he works 
 himself up into an even greater rage and 
 makes plans for getting even with his oppo- 
 nent in some way. The more he thinks of it 
 the angrier he gets. This is the worst pos- 
 sible condition to go to bed in because anger 
 not only keeps away sleep but is very weak- 
 ening to the entire system, and may result in 
 partial incapacity the next day if it is allowed 
 to go too far. 
 
 Of course it is inevitable that such things 
 occur. A boy has to study in the evening 
 and it is, really, the best time for him to do 
 it. Arguments are more likely to occur in 
 the evening than at any other time. But the 
 point to remember is that just before going 
 to bed a little time should be taken to 
 quiet down and relax the mind. A quiet 
 friendly game of some sort which takes 
 little mental effort not bridge or chess 
 is the best thing for this sort of relaxation. 
 Reading a light short story is good prepa- 
 ration for sleep; better than a novel be-
 
 SLEEP 93 
 
 cause it can be quickly finished and there is 
 no sense of suspense in leaving off. 
 
 There are countless other causes of insom- 
 nia; healthy boys are less subject to them 
 than older people. Among others are indi- 
 gestion, constipation, after-effects of dissipa- 
 tion, excessive smoking, etc., etc. One thing 
 which has already been mentioned would not 
 be out of place if repeated here, and that is 
 the care of the teeth. Many a boy has been 
 kept awake for several nights in succession 
 during the hardest part of the season by a 
 toothache, which would have been avoided had 
 he not neglected the dentist examination 
 which should be made every six months. Bad 
 dreams, while not exactly part of insomnia, 
 are detrimental in their effect because they 
 prevent sound sleep and cause an agitation 
 which interferes with the processes of repair. 
 They are generally the result of indigestion, 
 lying on the back, cold or any unnatural con- 
 dition. 
 
 I hope the athletes who read this chapter 
 will take it to heart and realize how much the 
 observance of the regular sleep schedule has 
 to do with successful sport. Sleep is less easy
 
 9* TRAINING FOR SPORTS 
 
 than diet and other details of training to en- 
 force by discipline; therefore every athlete 
 should make it a conscientious duty of his own 
 for the sake of his value to the team.
 
 CHAPTER VIII 
 
 EXERCISE AS DISTINGUSHED 
 FROM PRACTICE 
 
 ONE of the first things for the athlete to 
 learn is the distinction between exercise and 
 practice, and he should realize the value of 
 exercise as a preparation and to supplement 
 his practice in whatever form of sport he goes 
 in for. Exercise is work outside the game 
 itiself which is intended to build up the mus- 
 cles or to develop the endurance which the 
 game requires. Practice means going over 
 and over the details of the sport itself. For 
 example, the tennis player's exercise consists 
 in compressing an elastic ball in his hand to 
 strengthen his forearm ; his practice consists in 
 rehearsing the strokes of the game until he 
 perfects himself in them. Knack, judgment 
 and skill are the results of practice. Endur- 
 ance, suppleness and bodily efficiency come 
 from exercise. 
 
 In the conduct of sport in this country the 
 
 95
 
 96 TRAINING FOR SPORTS 
 
 exercise phase has been too much subor- 
 dinated. We have expected a man to get 
 his exercise through playing the game itself. 
 We have made too little effort to prepare him 
 for his practice beforehand by first seeing 
 that he has a solid foundation of good general 
 condition and then, by exercise, preparing the 
 particular muscles which he will make use of 
 in his practice. If the engine of the man is 
 right and his general condition good he can 
 be taught all the rest. The main point, after 
 all, is efficiency, and efficiency in athletics 
 means being well and supple. So our exer- 
 cise divides itself into two classifications: gen- 
 eral exercise, for conditioning, insuring health 
 and suppling the body all over so that it is 
 prepared for any kind of sport, and special 
 exercise applied to particular muscles in 
 preparation for a particular form of athletics. 
 The reason why so little value has been 
 placed upon set-up exercises is because, as a 
 rule, they duplicated much of the work of the 
 daily practice. This, of course, was because 
 most calisthenics have been applied largely 
 to the arms and legs and it was thought that 
 development of these muscles of legs and arms
 
 BATTLING NELSON. 
 
 'HAMMER THROWER. 
 
 Showing smoothness of development and Showing suppleness and necessity of loin 
 absence of knotty muscles. muscles. 
 
 TWO PHOTOGRAPHS OF FOOTBALL PLAYERS. 
 
 Showing poise and suppleness.
 
 EXERCISE AND PRACTICE 97 
 
 was the essential. But a new light is dawning 
 on the horizon of athletics in this respect ; train- 
 ers are coming to realize that the best founda- 
 tion for an athlete is a development of the main 
 muscles of the body, of the trunk, chest and 
 back. Not only are these main body muscles 
 the most important to health in that they 
 surround and support the " engine," but they 
 are essential to any game or kind of sport, 
 How they are used will be shown in detail 
 in the later chapters which I shall devote 
 specifically to the four major sports. Here 
 I will merely point out that the trunk muscles 
 are essential to the back in football in his 
 dodging, to the batter in baseball in swinging 
 his bat, to the golfer in his drive, to the tennis 
 player in his backhand strokes, to the polo 
 player in almost every move he makes, and 
 so on down the whole list. 
 
 It has long been held up to us that the 
 Englishman surpasses us in being an all- 
 round athlete; that he does a great many 
 things and does them with a fair average 
 ability. We in this country specialize too 
 far when we neglect an all-round develop- 
 ment to make a man a star in some particular
 
 98 TRAINING FOR SPORTS 
 
 detail of sport. It may win championships, 
 but, where general exercise is neglected for 
 this one purpose, the future historian will 
 write down that we have been wrong. It 
 makes of sport too much an end in itself, 
 whereas it should be merely a pleasant means 
 to health and fitness. It tends to make a man 
 one-sided. 
 
 Some stretching exercises for the muscles 
 of the trunk are essential both for the athlete 
 and the non-athlete, but especially for the 
 athlete, because they keep the main muscles 
 of the body in good condition, tend to give 
 him a greater chest capacity and a better 
 poise and carriage, which mean, after* all, 
 greater endurance. 
 
 Practically all our sports can be carried 
 on by a man with his head sticking forward 
 and his chest compressed, and, while he is 
 young, youth helps him so that he does not 
 realize what he is losing. Yet any athlete 
 who, by exercising during the seasons when 
 he is not practising, as well as using these 
 exercises to supplement his practice during 
 the season itself, increases his chest measure- 
 ment an inch or an inch and a half, will have
 
 EXERCISE AND PRACTICE 99 
 
 a better chance in his particular sport than 
 formerly because his endurance will be 
 greater. Also, he is laying a foundation for 
 good health in the future. So much for gen- 
 eral exercise. 
 
 Special exercises which are not practice, yet 
 are designed to develop the muscles used in 
 one particular sport, may be practised to any 
 extent. A football lineman can do the " duck 
 walk " and other things which produce a 
 greater suppleness in the loins and greater 
 strength to turn and twist. The shot putter 
 may develop the push of his fingers by opening 
 and closing exercises of the hand. The base- 
 ball player can exercise his throwing muscles 
 by rotating his arm, etc. All these are special 
 exercises of great value. 
 
 Men suffer unnecessarily because they are 
 unwilling to prepare themselves for their 
 practice, before the practice begins. If a man 
 is a baseball player he should give a little 
 time each day during the winter to suppling 
 his arm so that when he goes out to begin his 
 practice he will not suffer lameness. Five min- 
 utes a day will help. A man who intends to 
 go out for crew should devote some of his
 
 100 TRAINING FOR SPORTS 
 
 spare time to developing his chest. The 
 actual work in the boat will not do it. Dur- 
 ing most of the stroke the chest is contracted 
 and compressed. Yet the man must have a 
 big chest or he cannot stand the strain. With 
 a little work and a kind of exercise which is 
 exhilarating and helpful to general health he 
 can attain surprising results just during the 
 winter, so that when the river opens again he 
 can start in with the advantage of greater 
 capacity in his lungs and more room in the 
 thoracic cavity. The difference in his endur- 
 ance will become immediately noticeable to 
 him. Incidentally his general health will im- 
 prove. He will be free from colds, lessen his 
 chance of infection, keep himself from putting 
 on fat, give himself good posture and car- 
 riage, thereby greatly improving his appear- 
 ance, and most important of all, lay a founda- 
 tion for his later life. 
 
 The fact that we do not do this work as a 
 preparation for the strenuous practice of the 
 intensive part of the season, is responsible for 
 much of the ill effects attributed to our ath- 
 letics. A boy who goes into football thor- 
 oughly soft is likely to get hurt. If he had
 
 EXERCISE AND PRACTICE 101 
 
 taken a few minutes each day out of season 
 to supple himself and prepare his muscles for 
 the strain they were to undergo, he could have 
 prevented this injury. A boy who injures his 
 heart rowing might have avoided this by in- 
 creasing his chest and giving his heart more 
 room. The same is true of the runner whose 
 heart becomes affected. 
 
 The proper approach to practice through 
 exercise can be compared to the merging of 
 the fair green on a golf course into the putt- 
 ing green. The fair green is rough, often 
 sloping; it evens off gradually into the putt- 
 ing green, level and smooth, cut short and 
 perfectly adapted to the skilful care neces- 
 sary to putting. When we try to make our 
 bodies do the specialized work of practice 
 without approaching it through exercise, it is 
 as if we tried to putt while we were still in 
 the rougher part of the fair green. Yet, 
 if the player would put in these winter exer- 
 cises the coaches and trainers could let the 
 men on baseball teams throw the first day they 
 come out, and the league teams when they go 
 on their southern trip could begin to play ball 
 immediately.
 
 102 TRAINING FOR SPORTS 
 
 The main purpose of this chapter is to show 
 the relation of exercise to the game itself; 
 how it helps that game, and, most important 
 of all, how the combination of the two makes 
 for health in after life. If sports are not 
 going to make us healthier, happier men we 
 might as well abandon them. If they are not 
 going to give men a general all-round develop- 
 ment they lose half their value. They will 
 accomplish both these results if athletes will 
 take the little extra trouble to prepare them- 
 selves properly. If they do this, then the 
 game will help the man by making him build 
 himself up into fitness for it. Also, the exer- 
 cise will help the game, no matter what it is. 
 A boy can take these exercises by himself 
 without apparatus or assistance from trainers. 
 The specific exercises for the various kinds 
 of athletic work will be given in detail in 
 later chapters, and a boy should find no dif- 
 ficulty in learning them. 
 
 The results of taking these exercises con- 
 sistently even for a short time have been quite 
 surprising in the increases in measurements 
 they have brought about, especially with boys. 
 In an article I wrote for the American Boy
 
 EXERCISE AND PRACTICE 103 
 
 Magazine I gave these exercises, and also 
 made a " health chart " on which the boys 
 who took them were to record certain meas- 
 urements. The measurements included on the 
 chart were neck, chest (normal, full inspira- 
 tion, expansion), thigh, shoulders, height and 
 weight. At the end of six weeks nearly all 
 the boys I heard from had made remarkable 
 gains. One boy wrote to the editor of the 
 American Boy: 
 
 " When I took my physical examination 
 in school, I was five feet, ten inches tall 
 and weighed one hundred and twenty-eight 
 pounds. After one month of steady exercis- 
 ing, I measured five feet, eleven inches tall 
 and weighed one hundred and thirty-two 
 pounds and my chest expansion had increased 
 one and one-half inches. I am putting special 
 exercise on the crouch, curl and grate, as I 
 am going out for running. At present I am 
 in perfect physical condition except that I 
 am slightly round-shouldered."
 
 CHAPTER IX 
 
 THIS is a broad subject but an important 
 one, for on it may depend a boy's entire life, 
 as far as the health of his body is concerned. 
 If he or his trainers make the mistake of 
 forcing him, while he is growing, to do more 
 than his maturity of body allows, an injury 
 to the heart or nerves may result which will 
 cause serious after-effects from which it will 
 be difficult or impossible to recover. If there 
 is no limit, based on a boy's age, to the 
 amount and character of his work his strength 
 will daily be burned up and his future pros- 
 pects in athletics ruined. On the other hand, 
 properly conducted and controlled competi- 
 tive sport in schools is an excellent and profit- 
 able thing for boys of all ages whether or 
 not they intend continuing an athletic career 
 through college. 
 
 104
 
 EFFECT OF DRIVING BOYS 105 
 
 There is plenty of stimulus in ordinary 
 school rivalry without increasing it to the 
 extent that the heart is endangered by over- 
 exercising. Until a boy gets his growth, 
 which varies in individuals from 19 to 24, his 
 heart is immature, and must not be subjected 
 to an undue strain. Distance track races are 
 not for the boy with the immature heart, nor 
 is rowing, to the extent it is sometimes prac- 
 tised, although, if care is exercised, rowing 
 can be made a very beneficial form of school 
 sport as the Eton boys have proved. Yet 
 rowing is a sport which must be watched; it 
 must be avoided by boys whose chest meas- 
 urement is inadequate because the heart has 
 too little room ; and if long courses, strenuous 
 and continued competition, and exhaustion of 
 endurance are permitted it will inevitably be 
 harmful to boys whose hearts have not at- 
 tained their maturity. 
 
 Another important reason for not driving 
 boys too violently is that their nerves are af- 
 fected. The first symptom of this is a con- 
 stant feeling of being tired, an apparent 
 laziness, a desire to lie down, to avoid physical 
 effort. This is caused by overwork, continued
 
 106 TRAINING FOR SPORTS 
 
 strain of worry added to the physical strain 
 due to too much competition, and burning the 
 candle at both ends. By this I mean trying 
 to make a boy's energy and reserve strength 
 do two kinds of work at once growing and 
 over-exercising. It must never be forgotten 
 that a very large part of a boy's strength is 
 used up by his actual physical growth in the 
 creating of flesh and blood, which is in itself 
 a strenuous process and requires a good deal 
 of food and rest. Our object in athletics for 
 boys is to give them something that will help 
 this growth, harden the flesh into muscle, de- 
 velop breadth as well as height, fill out the 
 chest, give a lung expansion that will enable 
 the engine to get plenty of oxygen and yet 
 not carry it to the point of over-drawing the 
 strength which is necessary to growth. Young 
 boys should be carefully watched about going 
 stale for this reason. We must always re- 
 member that the nerves are the energizers of 
 the muscles; if we submit the nervous system 
 to a severe shock or strain, the muscles must 
 work less efficiently. 
 
 One of the frequent causes of nerve ex- 
 haustion and consequent going stale among
 
 EFFECT OF DRIVING BOYS 107 
 
 schoolboys is the taking part in too many dif- 
 ferent kinds of sport. It often happens that 
 in a small school a good athlete feels it his 
 duty to do everything he knows how to help 
 the school teams. Also, he is generally urged 
 by coaches to go out for all sports. The re- 
 sult is, in the spring of the year, he finds him- 
 self playing baseball, running in several 
 events on the track, playing on the tennis 
 team and rowing on the crew if there is one. 
 This is too much; it keeps him working all 
 the time, gives him no chance to rest and 
 burns up his strength. Beside this he may 
 injure his heart and exhaust his nerves. The 
 usual result of submitting a boy to a strain 
 like this is that he goes stale and loses some 
 of the more important events and games. 
 It is wrong for a school to put the burden 
 of its athletic accomplishment on one man 
 in this way, and a good coach generally knows 
 better than to permit it no matter how keen 
 the boy himself may be to go to the limit 
 of his endurance. The Association of College 
 Coaches has recently recommended that a rule 
 be made placing a limit on the number of 
 contests a man may enter during the college
 
 108 TRAINING FOR SPORTS 
 
 year. A rule of this sort in schools would 
 not only be fairer to the boy, but it would be 
 wiser for the school not to rely too much 
 on a single man to win all its honors. If he 
 is counted on to win the majority of points 
 in a track meet, for instance, instead of .hav- 
 ing more even distribution, then if he injures 
 or exhausts himself in the first event, it means 
 that the others too are lost. A man should 
 not be counted on to win both the mile and 
 the half-mile, although this has been done. 
 It is asking too much of a boy to expect him 
 to run the hundred, the two-twenty, and the 
 quarter-mile in the same meet. 
 
 Another thing which should be watched in 
 schoolboy work is one-sidedness of develop- 
 ment. This generally comes from too con- 
 tinuous practice of one particular thing dur- 
 ing growth. For instance, the pitcher who 
 does nothing but pitch is likely to develop one 
 shoulder more than the other. A runner may 
 neglect his chest development through too 
 much specializing in running. A shot putter 
 who goes in for no other work and takes no 
 equalizing exercises will develop one side of 
 his body, especially one shoulder, arm and
 
 EFFECT OF DRIVING BOYS 109 
 
 hand, out of proportion to the other. This 
 is especially true during growth, while the 
 bones are hardening. 
 
 Until the ends of the bones begin to ossify, 
 which is really the beginning of the end of 
 growth, a boy is entirely different from the 
 mature man in several respects. One of 
 these is his need of sleep and rest, which has 
 been dwelt on at some length in the chapter 
 on that subject. That a boy grows during 
 sleep is true, because during sleep the building- 
 up process does more work than the breaking- 
 down. At all times these two processes are 
 going on side by side. During the day the 
 destructive one exceeds the other, resulting 
 in an accumulation of waste, while at night 
 the destructive process is very much in abey- 
 ance and construction has a chance to do its 
 work. Also, during the night, the waste 
 products in the blood are eliminated, giving 
 growth a chance to work. 
 
 We have taken up so far the boy's limita- 
 tions. Yet the boy has a number of important 
 things in his favor. The principal one is sup- 
 pleness. Then, too, his bones have not hard- 
 ened. In infancy the bones are so soft and flex-
 
 110 TRAINING FOR SPORTS 
 
 ible that they are hard to break and can easily 
 be bent. That is one reason why a baby can fall 
 so much without injury. Also, a baby can go 
 through various contortions of the body, such 
 as putting its foot in its mouth, without diffi- 
 culty. Young children at play can twist and 
 turn into positions of the body which are 
 quite impossible for the older person. A boy 
 from twelve to eighteen retains a great deal 
 of suppleness and this helps him in all his 
 sport. It gives him a springiness which ena- 
 bles him to throw his whole body into a stroke 
 of any kind such as hitting a tennis ball or 
 batting a baseball, and that quality which 
 makes a sort of flexible steel spring out of his 
 body and gives great speed to a stroke which, 
 if it depended on strength alone, would have 
 little power. 
 
 Perhaps this is most marked in the golfer. 
 A caddy with no muscular strength, hardly 
 able to swing a club, will make a far better 
 attempt at driving the ball a distance than 
 the middle-aged man who takes up golf for 
 the first time. That is because the caddy 
 simply throws the clubhead into the ball, 
 whereas the mature man makes an effort to
 
 EFFECT OF DRIVING BOYS 111 
 
 beat it by the use of his muscular strength. 
 The full-grown man has to substitute muscle 
 for the suppleness and spring of the boy's 
 body. 
 
 A boy can sit on a horse more easily than 
 a grown man because he has no rigidity, and 
 is able to flex his body naturally with the mo- 
 tion of the horse, and in this way can quickly 
 change his weight and thus keep his balance. 
 Also, when he is first learning his seat, the 
 motion of the horse jars him very much less 
 than it does the older man. 
 
 The effect of age on condition is due to a 
 large number of causes. The curve of athletic 
 efficiency goes steadily upward from fifteen to 
 about twenty-four, at which it generally reaches 
 its maximum; it then keeps level for about 
 five years and begins to go down. The rea- 
 son for its maximum coming at that point is 
 due to the fact that a man at twenty-four has 
 got his growth so that his heart is mature 
 enough to allow him to make violent and con- 
 tinued physical effort; his endurance is at its 
 highest point, and his suppleness has not left 
 him. Of course this cannot be taken as abso- 
 lutely definite or fixed. Individuals vary widely
 
 112 TRAINING FOR SPORTS 
 
 in their adolescence. Some boys are men at 
 eighteen with their full growth and complete 
 physical maturity. In tropical countries 
 boys mature at fifteen or sixteen and often 
 marry and have families at those ages. In 
 some men, on the other hand, the body 
 does not attain its complete growth until 
 after twenty-five. These individual differ- 
 ences should be studied carefully and a boy 
 trained accordingly. In a general way the 
 rules given here apply. Occasionally a boy of 
 seventeen or less will be found who can row a 
 four-mile race with impunity, but on the whole 
 work of this kind is not for schoolboys. The 
 long-distance runs are equally bad. 
 
 It is also true that a man keeps up his 
 athletic ability in track and rowing beyond 
 thirty. Of course, I mean here competitive 
 work. A crew of men averaging about thirty 
 years recently went to England to represent 
 the Union Boat Club of Boston in a race 
 at Henley. Baseball, tennis and especially 
 golf, can, of course, be carried further. 
 The following scale of ages in the different 
 sports gives an approximate idea of the effect 
 of age on condition in athletics:
 
 EFFECT OF DRIVING BOYS 113 
 
 Football 15 to 25 
 
 Tennis up to 40 
 
 Rowing ( racing) 22 to 30 
 
 Running 15 to 25 
 
 Lacrosse and Association football 15 to 25 
 Wrestling up to 30 or 35 
 
 Baseball up to 35 
 
 Golf all ages, but in moderation after 50.
 
 CHAPTER X 
 STORING UP ENERGY 
 
 IF there was one thing that the old-time 
 trainer was wont to forget it was this: that 
 you cannot draw for energy upon a supply 
 that has been exhausted. It is exactly like 
 overdrawing a bank account. Each indi- 
 vidual has a certain amount of stored-up 
 energy, and bountiful Nature has so arranged 
 it that, in the normal life, there is generally 
 a surplus, or reserve fund, which may be 
 drawn upon in case of emergency. If the 
 emergency does not come too often he is equal 
 to it and does not suffer from it. If, how- 
 ever, he is constantly creating artificial emer- 
 gencies which tax him to the limit of his 
 strength he is obliged to overdraw and suf- 
 fers accordingly. Nature shows no special 
 courtesies in this regard. A bank will often" 
 permit a man to overdraw his account fre- 
 quently if it is sure of his good faith. Na- 
 ture will not. 
 
 114
 
 STORING UP ENERGY 115 
 
 It is seldom, in ordinary life, that a man 
 taxes his energy to the utmost in any 
 single attempt. The athlete, if he were not 
 spurred on by the rivalry, the exhortations 
 of his friends, the feeling that he must do or 
 die, would stop short of making his final and 
 greatest effort, but in modern days the athlete 
 is brought up to know that he must give 
 everything there is in him, and so he does. 
 The question for the trainer then becomes, 
 ' What has he got in him? " and this depends 
 entirely on his training. If, several times 
 during the course of his preliminary work, 
 he has been asked to give everything that is 
 in him and has done it, there is naturally not 
 very much left for the final contest. No 
 opportunity has been given him to store up 
 a new supply of power after it has been 
 depleted. 
 
 It is far from my intention to depreciate 
 in any way the spirit of rivalry and competi- 
 tion which motivates our American athletes; 
 I am, on the contrary, heartily in favor of it. 
 Competition is one of the fundamental and 
 powerful instincts of youth; without it any 
 real achievement or success in life would be
 
 116 TRAINING FOR SPORTS 
 
 impossible. A boy who does not naturally 
 feel the spur of this rivalry, combined with 
 the instinct of loyalty to the school that he as 
 an athlete represents, is not a normal boy, 
 and will probably not make a success of his 
 after life. Then, too, his desire and ability 
 to give everything he has to give to that 
 school are elements of the American charac- 
 ter, fostered and developed by American 
 sport, which have made it possible to rise to 
 great national emergencies. The success of 
 our part in the World War was directly 
 dependent on this spirit. The natural, 
 easy willingness of the American to give 
 his whole strength with no thought of self, 
 together with his humorous incredulity of 
 the impossible, have the same origin as 
 the spirit of the track runner in the final 
 meet. 
 
 My argument in this chapter is simply that 
 the trainer should make it possible for the 
 athlete, when the test comes, to have some- 
 thing to give. There are many ways in which 
 a trainer, by improper methods, may prevent 
 this and completely exhaust a boy's reserve. 
 One of them is by frequent time trials. An-
 
 STORING UP ENERGY 117 
 
 other is to make a man repeatedly run his 
 distance in competition with other men so that 
 he is constantly pushed. Another is in never 
 giving the men a day off. A football trainer 
 may tire his men so much as to reduce their 
 efficiency by playing them to a standstill in 
 the daily scrimmage. This is particularly 
 dangerous in football because tired men get 
 hurt easily. 
 
 One of the most remarkable of nature's 
 provisions for compensation in the human ani- 
 mal is resiliency of spirit, popularly known 
 as " come-back." If you give a man half a 
 chance he will rebound from fatigue, and 
 even after an exhausting physical experience 
 will completely recover in a short time. If, 
 however, you take him before his " come- 
 back " has started to work and put him 
 through another severe test, his resiliency be- 
 comes weakened. For example, three hard 
 games of baseball a week, while it may im- 
 prove a man's skill in some ways, reduces his 
 ability to keep on his toes, his alertness, in- 
 terest, enthusiasm, speed, in short, all those 
 qualities which go to make up that pre- 
 eminent attribute of the American athlete
 
 118 TRAINING FOR SPORTS 
 
 whicH we describe collectively as "pep and 
 ginger." 
 
 There are many ways in which the reserve 
 supply can be increased and resiliency aided 
 which will not in any way detract from the 
 athlete's spirit or reduce his skill. For exam- 
 ple, in football: a daily short, sharp scrim- 
 mage which leaves the men alert and tingling 
 yet with their reserve untouched. This scrim- 
 mage should have plenty of snap while it 
 lasts, because men always feel better after 
 sharp than after slow work if it is not carried 
 to the point of exhaustion. In this way a 
 good deal of their stamina is saved up each 
 day for the real games. There should not 
 be hard scrimmage the week before the final 
 game. During the week before this last con- 
 test (which, however it may turn out, is gen- 
 erally assumed beforehand to be the most dif- 
 ficult of the season) the work should be light 
 so that the men will accumulate a lot of re- 
 serve energy by the end of the week. It 
 should consist of two or three days of sharp 
 but short scrimmage with the rest of the time 
 spent in running through signals, blackboard 
 talks, etc. work which gives practice in the;
 
 STORING UP ENERGY 119 
 
 details of the game without the fight which is 
 necessary in scrimmage. 
 
 In track, the middle distance runner should 
 seldom run on time. The supreme effort for 
 him should be an unusual thing and should 
 come when he can accomplish most by it, as 
 in a meet, as well as at a time when he can 
 best afford it. A runner of the quarter-mile, 
 for instance, constantly watching his time and 
 trying each day to cut down the mark of the 
 day before, is exhausting his reserve and 
 starting on the inevitable road to " staleness." 
 In the running of preliminary heats the day 
 before a track meet, a sprinter should only 
 try to gain a qualifying place; he should not 
 attempt to come out ahead. In this way he 
 is not putting forth his fullest effort when 
 it is not necessary; he is saving himself and 
 not depleting the reserve store which may be- 
 come vitally necessary to him in the next 
 day's race. 
 
 Sleep is one of the best means of accumu- 
 lating energy. During sleep, or even during 
 the rest that comes from relaxation, the vi- 
 tality capital is continually drawing interest. 
 There are some men more dependent on sleep
 
 120 TRAINING FOR SPORTS 
 
 than others and allowances should be made 
 for these idiosyncrasies. Some men, no matter 
 how great the physical effort of the day be- 
 fore, can get up from bed completely restored 
 if they have been able to get enough sleep. 
 Another important help to storing up energy 
 is the rest that comes from an occasional day 
 off from practice, especially if this day is 
 filled with a complete change of scene and 
 surroundings so that the mind as well as the 
 body gets a chance to shift from the all- 
 important subject. The wise trainer who 
 watches his men carefully will know immedi- 
 ately when this is needed for particular men 
 and act accordingly, not hesitating to increase 
 the time of this " vacation " if he thinks it 
 necessary. It is better for a man to lose two 
 or three days of practice than to take any 
 chance of cutting down his reserve, so that 
 when he comes to draw on it in the final con- 
 test he will fail because there is none left. 
 
 The extreme of fatigue is when the muscles 
 actually stop working. Experiments in the 
 physiological laboratory have proved this by 
 the use of an electrical current in a frog's 
 leg. The current causes a flexing of the mus-
 
 STORING UP ENERGY 121 
 
 cles of the leg which continues for a certain 
 time; then the muscular reflex slows down 
 and finally stops entirely, showing that the 
 muscle has become incapable of further action. 
 This has been found to be due to an accu- 
 mulation of acid secreted by the movement 
 of the muscle. After a period of rest the acid 
 disappears and the muscle may again be 
 flexed, although if insufficient time is allowed, 
 the muscle will work less easily and readily 
 and will become incapacitated sooner. In 
 our bodies the work of the electric current is 
 done by the nerves, and the same effect is 
 produced by fatigue; the muscles fail to re- 
 spond to the stimulus of the nerves. If, in 
 addition to muscle fatigue, we have nervous 
 fatigue (a condition which comes from exces- 
 sive competitive work) the stimulus is not 
 strong enough to work even a moderately 
 fatigued muscle. 
 
 The immediate results of this " overdraw- 
 ing " in athletic work are obvious ; the after- 
 effects, however, are more serious and difficult 
 to cure. They may be heart strain which will 
 permanently weaken the heart or nervous ex- 
 Jiaustion which may cause a breakdown with
 
 122 TRAINING FOR SPORTS 
 
 all its usual far-reaching results. Trainers 
 are coming to realize these things more and 
 more as they watch the results of different 
 kinds of training, and experience is showing 
 them that the laws of Nature cannot be jug- 
 gled with and that the limitations of physical 
 man are very definite. With this realization 
 is coming better sport in all athletic branches. 
 It is really largely a matter of figuring, just 
 as are the financial accounts of the athletic 
 association. While the figures on the credit 
 side exceed the debits, we can be sure that our 
 progress is safe and normal ; when the balance 
 swings the other way we must be on the look- 
 out for disaster. And we must remember 
 that Nature's settlements for bankruptcy are 
 far harsher than those which are carried out 
 according to man-made law! 
 
 One may gather some idea of why storing 
 up of energy is so essential from practical 
 facts regarding athletic events. A man may 
 lose five to seven pounds of weight in a four- 
 mile race lasting a little over twenty minutes. 
 I have seen a football team a Yale team 
 playing against Princeton on an unusually 
 warm day in November lose from five to
 
 STORING UP ENERGY 123 
 
 eleven pounds per man. This particular 
 team was built up in the next week for its 
 Harvard game by rest and relaxation and 
 good food until it recovered practically all 
 its weight and a good deal of its exhausted 
 vitality. Many a team or crew has been in 
 good condition in mid-season and then by too 
 severe work exhausted its margin of energy 
 before the big contest gone stale and been 
 defeated. A certain amount of surplus weight 
 as well as surplus energy must be kept 
 against the nervous and physical strain of the 
 big contest. A big contest is far different 
 from practice or from a small game. Not 
 only do the players burn up some energy 
 from anxiety in the hours preceding such a 
 game but they are subject to the excitement 
 incident to the cheering and enthusiasm of 
 thousands of spectators, and this keying up 
 inevitably has its effect in still further de- 
 mands upon the nervous energy. The whole 
 atmosphere is exhaustive of a certain amount 
 of nerve force which must be in reserve at 
 that time to draw upon. Again, it is like 
 the financial caution that provides something 
 against the emergency. Of all the restorers
 
 124 TRAINING FOR SPORTS 
 
 and builders up of this surplus there is none 
 that equals sound, refreshing sleep. Particu- 
 larly is this true of the youth who is still 
 growing, and the younger the boy the more 
 is this sleep needed when he is under a season 
 of training. And he can really accumulate 
 strength and energy by this means quite a 
 time in advance of the demand. Coaches 
 should realize this and should also be very 
 careful about worry. We deal specifically 
 with this in another chapter, but it is a great 
 depleter of energy and should be reckoned 
 with in this connection quite as much as any 
 special physical effort. Another reason why 
 the storing up of energy is one of the prime 
 necessities is that there is, as referred to in 
 another chapter of this book, an especial drain 
 upon the nervous system at the time of an 
 important contest. This drain comes- not 
 alone from the greater effort made, but from 
 a number of causes incident to the contest but 
 quite outside the actual play. There is at 
 least a period of twenty-four and usually 
 forty-eight hours in which the mind of the 
 player dwells with anxiety over the coming 
 test of skill. He may be confident of vie-
 
 STORING UP ENERGY 125 
 
 tory, yet the thrill of excitement is there. If 
 he be despondent over the prospect, still more 
 is the strain present. Then, too, the crowd 
 and excitement and the cheering on the day 
 of the game add to this. Now, if the player 
 is " stale " or over- trained, this causes him 
 still more instability and it may be depression. 
 But if he is full of vitality, in good condition, 
 his excitement is only a pleasant fillip to his 
 high spirits. It will then be seen that con- 
 servation of energy fulness of health is 
 extremely advisable as a factor toward 
 victory.
 
 CHAPTER XI 
 
 SPECIALIZED TRAINING FOR 
 FOOTBALL 
 
 THERE are certain qualities necessary for 
 a good football player; some of them are born 
 in a man; most of them he acquires by hard 
 work exercise and practice. The important 
 question which confronts him is how to ac- 
 quire these qualities with the greatest cer- 
 tainty and in the least time. Naturally the 
 work of practice during the season gives the 
 bulk of this development, but, as in any other 
 athletic work, it can be materially supple- 
 mented by certain exercises preliminary to the 
 season and carried on through the early part 
 of the season's training. To do this work 
 intelligently we should discover what are the 
 necessities for football men in general and 
 for each specific player. 
 
 The qualities which should be possessed by 
 everyone who goes in for football, whether he 
 
 126
 
 TRAINING FOR FOOTBALL 127 
 
 be a back, an end, or a line-man, are agility, 
 suppleness, speed, strength, endurance, quick 
 co-ordination, rapidity of thought, all-round 
 development and toughness. Obviously many 
 of these come from the daily practice, but for 
 the man who is willing to make an extra 
 effort for the sake of his success on the 
 gridiron, there is the opportunity for outside 
 work in exercises specially designed to de- 
 velop the required qualities in the shortest 
 time. These exercises are valuable to every 
 man on the team whether or not he is a " born 
 football player " ; they are indispensable to 
 a man who is deficient in any of the necessi- 
 ties described in this chapter. 
 
 Agility and quick co-ordination are culti- 
 vated by any of the various methods of di- 
 viding men into small groups and giving them 
 commands which they are to execute instantly. 
 The method used in naval stations and avia- 
 tion fields in which the men were lined up 
 and the command " HANDS " given, mean- 
 ing the position of attention; " HEAD," 
 at which they were to place the hands behind 
 the head with elbows back; "HIPS," at 
 which they were to shift the hands to the hips
 
 128 TRAINING FOR SPORTS 
 
 on the command, brought about a rapidity 
 of muscular action, especially if combined 
 with various tricks. Among these tricks was 
 the practice of proceeding in a certain regular 
 order for a time, then suddenly changing the 
 order; the giving of one command by the in- 
 structor, while he himself actually executed 
 another; or insisting that the men remain 
 motionless unless the word " ORDER " pre- 
 ceded the command. All these exercises de- 
 velop the ability to change positions quickly 
 and in response to an immediate necessity, and 
 at the same time train the mind in keeping 
 always alert. They also produce a habit 
 of quick muscular response to the will. 
 Co-ordination and control of the muscles 
 come from exercises where one arm is re- 
 quired to perform one motion while the 
 other performs quite a different one, on 
 the principle of the old trick of patting the 
 head and rubbing the stomach at the same 
 time. It is a great asset in any kind of ath- 
 letics to be able to control the muscles inde- 
 pendently of each other. 
 
 Suppleness can be greatly increased by 
 exercises in which the trunk is turned or
 
 TRAINING FOR FOOTBALL 129 
 
 twisted, bending at the waist with the hands 
 behind the head and the elbows back, squat- 
 ting exercises, etc. For speed, that is actual 
 pace in running, the track trainer who usually 
 works with the football men can be relied 
 upon to use the same methods he uses with 
 sprinters, bearing in mind, of course, that 
 with big men this is a slow process. Yet, 
 even the big men can be quickened by 
 stimulating rivalry in running down the field 
 and work of that sort. Endurance, the 
 ability to play a fast game without being 
 " winded," to make long runs keeping up the 
 speed to the end, to dodge quickly and suc- 
 cessfully even after a long run, to play an 
 uphill game in the last few minutes after hard 
 periods, these require a stamina which may 
 be largely developed outside of practice. 
 Breathing exercises are valuable because they 
 improve the condition of the heart and lungs 
 and make them better able to endure strain. 
 Exercises which enlarge the chest, such as the 
 "curl," in which, while inhaling, the head is 
 bent back, the hands curled into the armpits 
 with the elbows well back, then stretched for- 
 ward exhaling and finally brought down and
 
 130 TRAINING FOR SPORTS 
 
 back while the body bends forward at the 
 waist, are excellent for endurance because they 
 increase the size of the thoracic cavity and so 
 give the heart more room. The "curl" is 
 described in more detail in the Appendix to 
 this book. In the Appendix also will be found 
 several other exercises for enlarging the chest. 
 In any hard athletic work it is absolutely nec- 
 essary for the heart and lungs to have plenty 
 of room to function properly. 
 
 Strength and toughness in the sense of the 
 ability to stand tumbles comes gradually 
 from the general practice, and if it is borne 
 in mind that men should be advanced slowly 
 (scrimmages too near the beginning of train- 
 ing being productive of more injuries than the 
 results warrant), a team will generally harden 
 up by mid-season. Rapidity of thought is 
 aided by practice in answering to quick com- 
 mands. This may be supplemented in the 
 case of the quarterback by asking quick re- 
 plies to questions on what kind of plays to use 
 on the various numbers of downs. All-round 
 development, of course, is largely dependent 
 on the work a man has done through his boy- 
 hood and growth, a subject which is treated
 
 TRAINING FOR FOOTBALL 131 
 
 at some length in the earlier chapters of 
 this book. 
 
 So much for the general proposition. 
 There is not a man on the team that does 
 not need these qualities, but besides these there 
 is the particular kind of skill that each man 
 needs to play his particular position. If 
 he has developed the general qualities, the de- 
 tails will come easily to him whether he be a 
 lineman, a back or an end. These details are 
 a matter of practice and come to a man as 
 the season progresses, if he is properly trained 
 and has properly prepared himself for the 
 work. 
 
 The lineman needs solidity with suppleness, 
 strength and endurance, speed in the sense 
 of quick action, tackling and blocking. From 
 tackle to tackle the weight of the team is con- 
 centrated. It is the weight of these men that 
 gives them solidity, together with their hard- 
 ness; but with this solidity they must have 
 poise, ability to shift the weight easily and 
 quickly, good co-ordination, alertness. These 
 help a man in picking holes and breaking 
 through on the offense. They may be devel- 
 oped by the co-ordinating exercises described
 
 132 TRAINING FOR SPORTS 
 
 above, and by the daily practice in breaking 
 through, charging, etc. The suppling exer- 
 cises are also excellent for these men, as they 
 help the twisting and turning of the body 
 necessary both in defense and breaking 
 through and enable a man to get into all 
 kinds of awkward positions in scrimmage 
 without getting hurt. Suppleness is one of 
 the greatest defenses against injury for every 
 man on the team. For the lineman the duck- 
 walk is one of the best of the suppling exer- 
 cises. To do this, the man should squat, bend- 
 ing the knees but keeping the body erect, 
 then, in this crouching position try to walk 
 forward. The result is a sort of waddling 
 motion (hence the name of the exercise) which 
 increases the springiness of the legs, exercises 
 the sense of balance and supples the whole 
 body. This should be practised for four or 
 five minutes a day and should be included in 
 the regular practice. 
 
 Special instruction in blocking and tackling 
 is part of the lineman's daily work. For 
 the tackling a dummy of some kind is used 
 in the early part of the season. This consists 
 of a stuffed bag hung from a pulley by a
 
 TRAINING FOR FOOTBALL 133 
 
 weighted rope passing through a pulley. 
 Tackling is also practised by the men tackling 
 each other. This should not be done late in the 
 season as plenty of it comes from real scrim- 
 mage. 
 
 Endurance for the lineman generally means 
 toughness and ability to stand hard knocks. 
 This comes in the scrimmages, the tackling, 
 blocking, charging and falling on the ball. 
 
 A back needs quick starting, dodging, kick- 
 ing, passing, interfering, catching and tack- 
 ling. The work of starting quickly is largely 
 a matter of quick co-ordination, that and the 
 ability to acquire pace easily may be taught 
 by the track trainer with much the same 
 methods as he uses with his sprinters. Dodg- 
 ing, while co-ordination plays a good part in 
 it, requires, besides, strength and suppleness 
 of the back and trunk, for a good dodger in 
 football changes the actual direction of his 
 feet very little but sways and turns his body, 
 thus deceiving his opponents. When a man 
 first goes out for practice he will find this 
 dodging difficult because the main muscles 
 of his body are not used to it and are stiff 
 instead of supple. Here is a case where a man
 
 134 TRAINING FOR SPORTS 
 
 can prepare himself for practice by prelimi- 
 nary exercise, thus overcoming the stiffness 
 so that the dodging comes easier to him. This 
 also helps him to avoid the chance of muscle 
 strain. 
 
 Three exercises which are particularly valu- 
 able for the back in football are the " wave," 
 the " weave " and the " crawl," all described in 
 an appendix. These twist, turn, or bend 
 the upper part of the body without changing 
 the position of the feet and thus supple the 
 dodging muscles. A man who has used these 
 exercises before the practice begins will find 
 that he feels very little lameness in his body 
 muscles after the first day's work on the field. 
 
 The kicking is a matter of slow progress, 
 and the great mistake is to have a man kick 
 too hard ; trying for distance early in the sea- 
 son before his muscles are in good shape; 
 kicking too long at a time until the muscles 
 get tired, and overdoing generally. The 
 " crouch " exercise will help a man's kicking 
 muscles to get into shape. As to passing, 
 this is similar to the baseball man's problem, 
 and exercises for the shoulders are the very 
 best that can be taken for this work. They
 
 TRAINING FOR FOOTBALL 135 
 
 will prevent lame shoulders in nine cases out 
 of ten. The same exercise which is described 
 in the chapter on baseball, holding the arms 
 rigid and horizontal and moving them in such 
 a way that the hands describe circles about 
 twelve inches in diameter, has the effect of 
 suppling the shoulder muscles. Catching is 
 almost entirely a matter of practice, though 
 here again the trunk-bending exercises are of 
 some assistance. Interfering is learned by a 
 dummy made of a stuffed bag like the tack- 
 ling dummy, of pyramidal shape that will 
 stand up and is about the height of a man. 
 Players run into this with their shoulders. It 
 should be especially emphasized that while 
 interfering they should stay on their feet as 
 much as possible. 
 
 The end needs speed, quick starting, dodg- 
 ing, catching, tackling and interfering. He 
 should have extra work in running down the 
 field under kicks, and practice in quick start- 
 ing from a crouching position, dodging men 
 as he goes down and getting up his pace gen- 
 erally. He should work with the backs in 
 practising passing, interfering and standing 
 diunmjr work.
 
 CHAPTER XII 
 
 SPECIALIZED TRAINING FOR 
 BASEBALL 
 
 WHEN a baseball player is incapacitated, 
 the cause nine times out of ten is a lame 
 shoulder. A very large proportion of these 
 " glass arms " are acquired in practice before 
 the season commences, and could easily have 
 been avoided by suitable preliminary exercises. 
 It seems extraordinary that so few baseball men 
 are willing to go through any form of calis- 
 thenics to strengthen and put in condition 
 these shoulder muscles, but rely simply upon 
 throwing or pitching to bring them into shape, 
 with the result that thousands of them meet 
 with strains which lessen their efficiency 
 throughout the season, if they do not entirely 
 prevent their playing. The muscles of the 
 shoulder can be made strong as well as supple 
 with very little work, spread over a reason- 
 able amount of time, previous to the actual 
 throwing or pitching, and if this is done and 
 
 136
 
 TRAINING FOR BASEBALL 137 
 
 then a man begins easily and comes gradually 
 up to the hard work, nine times out of ten 
 he will escape without any danger of arm 
 trouble. The best motions are those wherein 
 the arm is held rigid and the hand makes a 
 circle, thus rotating the shoulder and gradu- 
 ally getting all these muscles strengthened 
 and suppled. They should be practised daily 
 throughout the winter, but if begun in the 
 early spring can be performed several times 
 a day. In baseball, as well as in football, 
 men get sometimes what is known as a 
 " charley-horse," which is a strain of the 
 muscles of the thigh, and this also can easily 
 be prevented by exercise previous to plung- 
 ing into the regular work. Of course if this 
 comes from a bruise or blow it cannot be pre- 
 vented. The best exercise for this is what is 
 known as the " crouch " ; that is, standing 
 with the feet about eighteen inches apart and 
 arms extended horizontally, rising on the toes 
 and then bending the knees, going down as far 
 as possible and up again, keeping the back 
 straight. 
 
 It is particularly important in batting, as in 
 all games where a ball is struck with a club
 
 138 TRAINING FOR SPORTS 
 
 or a racquet, that there be a turn at the 
 waist and hips. This is what puts power into 
 the stroke, but when performed by the arms 
 is slight. The same kind of work that the 
 football man does to acquire suppleness ap- 
 plies here, namely, torsion motions of the 
 trunk. Instantaneous photographs of the 
 long hitters show that the batsman turns his 
 body almost squarely around at the hips in 
 going through and delivering the full force 
 of the blow. A man who bats with his arms 
 only will never make a long hitter. And the 
 man who is stiff and rigid seldom gets great 
 distance unless he meets a speedy pitcher and 
 happens to get the ball at just the particular 
 moment for the greatest effect. A track 
 trainer should work with the baseball men to 
 increase their actual running speed and aid 
 them in the direction of quick starting as 
 well. Of course the position from which the 
 baseball player starts is not that of the 
 sprinter. Particularly not when he leaves 
 the plate after making his hit. When he is 
 on base he has to lead off and consequently 
 get in a sprinter's position, but he can be im- 
 proved very much in his straight running
 
 TRAINING FOR BASEBALL 139 
 
 speed, and that may make a world of differ- 
 ence in his ability to score. 
 
 THE PITCHER 
 
 The pitcher is the most highly specialized 
 player in baseball. Batting and base-running 
 powers which might be normally great are 
 sacrificed to a large extent for the sake of 
 higher efficiency in the pitching department. 
 He is always under a greater strain than any 
 other player. For the development of his 
 curves, speed, control and accurate throwing 
 to bases no amount of practice can be too 
 great. If he is to last, the most economic 
 use of his arm is required, and he must rely 
 even more than the long-distance hitter upon 
 the wise comprehension and utilization of 
 body dynamics and the proper, gradual pre- 
 liminary training of the muscles involved. 
 To get his body into the pitch is the reason 
 of the " windup," which in delivering the ball 
 whirls it off the hand with every advantage 
 taken of the body's centrifugal force and in- 
 volving the minimum of strain on the arm. 
 The " grasp," the " weave," the " crawl " and 
 " wave " are most effective exercises for de-
 
 140 TRAINING FOR SPORTS 
 
 veloping elasticity in the body muscles the 
 pitcher will be called upon to use. 
 
 In training for a position that involves such 
 high specialization as pitching, the point 
 where the general must be sacrificed for the 
 special varies with the individual. In pitch- 
 ing, an excessive strain is put upon one side. 
 It is thrown out of co-ordination. The drop 
 and out curve especially put the muscles of 
 wrist, hand and forearm under strain and 
 render impossible, at least for the moment, 
 the different co-ordination and the easy natural 
 grip essential to batting success. For the 
 same reason a pitcher ought not, except in 
 great emergencies, force himself on the bases. 
 Games have been lost in the inning after the 
 pitcher stretched a single into a double. The 
 fixed poise of the pitcher in the box, his 
 mental preoccupation, are incompatible with 
 the free and easy starting which may be 
 taught the other players. A pitcher is called 
 on for speed to the limit of his powers in 
 fielding his position or in covering first when 
 the first baseman fields a grounder. In 
 throwing to first to catch a runner napping 
 there is more strain on the arm than in de-
 
 TRAINING FOR BASEBALL 141 
 
 livery and a very different strain on the foot 
 and leg. So with so many strains on him it 
 seems unwise to give the pitcher too much 
 batting or base-running practice. Too great 
 improvement in these departments will result 
 in a slump in his pitching efficiency. Those 
 exercises which tend to develop beyond the 
 general elastic needs of the body muscles not 
 needed in his specialty or inharmonious with 
 it should be minimized. 
 
 Good pitching is an asset equally valuable 
 with hitting, base-running or fielding. Slow 
 and even development of his powers, by care- 
 ful preliminary exercise alone, will give the 
 pitcher ease and confidence in that battle of 
 morale which goes on between batter and 
 pitcher from the moment time is called. By 
 that he acquires a psychological reserve to draw 
 upon when he opposes the absolutely certain 
 coolness and confidence of the superior batter 
 who expects to start a batting rally inspiring 
 his hitherto helpless mates. 
 
 THE CATCHER 
 
 The catcher in the demands made upon him 
 is almost as highly specialized as the pitcher.
 
 142 TRAINING FOR SPORTS 
 
 He is the one whom all the players face 
 the keystone of the fielding game. Confi- 
 dence and courage radiate from him when 
 cheery and sure to the far corners of the out- 
 field. Nothing so bolsters up a team as the 
 sense of the absolute dependability of the 
 man behind the bat, and the sanguine psy- 
 chology of a catcher has stimulated many a 
 weakening boxman to pull a game out of the 
 fire. 
 
 The catcher's throws to second, while few 
 in number, are long and hard. The pitcher 
 gets his exercise in the game proper. The 
 catcher and other players must have a cor- 
 responding amount in practice if power and 
 accuracy are to be in the throwing arm. The 
 catcher's throw to second is not a full, natural 
 throw as when unhurried, but as quick and 
 hard as possible with all the power of body 
 and will behind it. One of the prettiest and 
 uncanniest plays in baseball is the side whip 
 throw of the catcher to nail a runner napping 
 off first a throw that begins ostensibly as 
 though he were returning the ball to the 
 pitcher. Seldom as it may be called into use, 
 the effective threat must be in the catcher's
 
 TRAINING FOR BASEBALL 143 
 
 ami, and it can only be there through the 
 perfect co-ordination of the muscles called 
 into play. 
 
 Everywhere baseball calls for speed and 
 more speed, and in no position more than 
 when the catcher throws his mask and turns 
 for a foul. He must doff his mask, turn, 
 start and look virtually simultaneously, and 
 that from a stance that tends to be rigid for 
 quick starting. 
 
 These are the important special functions 
 of the catcher, and he will be compelled to 
 concentrate on exercises that will strengthen 
 and develop them if he is going to give the 
 sense to fellow players of being an impreg- 
 nable tower of strength at home-plate. 
 
 FIRST BASEMAN 
 
 The natural qualifications of the superior 
 first baseman are height, reach and supple- 
 ness that enable him to sway far to either 
 side for wide balls or to reach far forward 
 for the short pick up or backward to take the 
 low thrown ball on the long bounce to stop 
 any reasonable or unreasonable throw within 
 reach and keep his foot anchored to the bag
 
 144. TRAINING FOR SPORTS 
 
 however awkward the position. With the 
 catcher and third baseman he must be able 
 to pick a high foul off the fence, and ability 
 to throw strongly across the diamond is oc- 
 casionally a winning asset. 
 
 SECOND BASEMAN 
 
 With both the first and second baseman, if 
 their skill in other respects is high, extraor- 
 dinary power in throwing is not indispensable. 
 Most of the latter's throws, except from 
 double plays, are short, and many second 
 basemen jerk the ball to first underhand. 
 But whether under or overhand, it is a quick, 
 whippy throw, performed largely with the 
 arm. In fielding the deep, slow grounder, 
 near the bag, and in completing the double 
 play to first, accuracy and speed are the 
 great considerations. 
 
 SHORT STOP 
 
 The short stop plays a slightly deeper 
 field than the second baseman, and as the 
 distance to first is considerably longer, a 
 more powerful throw is needed. He is also 
 called upon to cover second on double plays
 
 TRAINING FOR BASEBALL 145 
 
 or to receive the catcher's throw. Between 
 catcher, second baseman and short stop, takes 
 place most of the fine team work which gives 
 baseball its undying charm. These players 
 must work together with the precision of a 
 well-oiled machine, and on both sides of the 
 second bag tireless practice together is im- 
 perative if this result is to be attained, and 
 it must be attained if smooth and fast double 
 plays are to be expected. 
 
 THIRD BASEMAN 
 
 The prime requisite of the third baseman is 
 a speedy, long and powerful throw to first. 
 The third baseman is called upon to field 
 harder hit balls than the other fielders and 
 that at a shorter distance from the batter. 
 The majority of bunts also are laid down 
 along his foul line. He must, therefore, be 
 practised in quick starting for fielding bunts, 
 and especially in picking up the ball at full 
 speed and throwing in almost the same mo- 
 tion. He should have the location of first 
 so well in his mind that he might almost 
 throw with his eyes closed.
 
 146 TRAINING FOR SPORTS 
 
 THE OUTFIELD 
 
 If fielding qualities can be sacrificed to 
 secure batting power anywhere it is in the 
 outfield, but whether or not an outfielder can 
 cover a great deal of ground, he must be sure 
 on ground balls and have a powerful throw. 
 The long, low throw of the outfielder to catch 
 a runner at the plate is justly one of the 
 most popular plays in the game, and the nip- 
 ping of a runner at the plate has meant the 
 winning of many a close contest. It calls on 
 the player for more energy of the whole body 
 than any other throw. 
 
 In general, baseball may call upon any 
 player for a display of acrobatic ability of a 
 high order. At any moment he may be re- 
 quired to perform the unbelievable. All 
 players must develop their powers of reach- 
 ing with one or both hands, to get off the 
 ground as far as possible after a high ball, 
 to start quickly, to turn and start as quickly, 
 to catch a ball from the grass-tops running 
 and reaching far forward or to take a fly 
 while running with the ball and looking over
 
 Courtesy ofS. P. Edgtrton. 
 
 SLIDING TO THIRD PREP-SCHOOL GAME. 
 
 SLIDING TO THIRD COLLEGE GAME.
 
 TRAINING FOR BASEBALL 147 
 
 the shoulder. So entirely elastic must the 
 body be for all the varied strains it must 
 undergo that any exercise that tends to mus- 
 cle binding or to rigidity in any degree should 
 be strictly tabu.
 
 CHAPTER XIII 
 
 SPECIALIZED TRAINING FOR 
 TRACK ATHLETICS 
 
 IN a book published a few years ago in 
 England by one of the most competent 
 trainers of that country, the author speaks 
 of power, suppleness and poise as the out- 
 standing characteristics of the track athlete. 
 It is interesting to see that the recognition of 
 suppleness as an essential is not a new idea. 
 Under these general classifications may be 
 included the more concrete details af stride, 
 balance of the body, use of arms and shoul- 
 ders, use of the main muscles of the body, 
 proper development of the leg muscles, en- 
 durance, and condition of the heart and lungs. 
 These are things nearly every track man must 
 have more or less as a foundation for his 
 particular work in whatever event he goes 
 in for. 
 
 In the matter of stride, there is, of course, 
 a difference in individuals; some men have 
 
 148
 
 TRAINING FOR THE TRACK 149 
 
 naturally a short stride, others a long one, 
 depending on the length of their legs. Either 
 of these, however, may be increased to advan- 
 tage, and this is often done by an efficient 
 use of arms and shoulders to help the driving 
 power. It is surprising how much improve- 
 ment a man will show by a slight lengthening 
 of his stride, by using his arms and shoulders 
 to drive himself forward instead of swaying 
 from side to side, and finally by getting that 
 peculiar poise of the body which keeps him 
 well over the driving power so that he makes 
 every effort count. 
 
 The use of the main muscles of the body, 
 that is, the trunk and back muscles, is neces- 
 sary in most track events and these may be 
 developed by the exercises described in pre- 
 vious chapters and also in the Appendix. The 
 " crawl," " wave," and " weave " are the most 
 important of these; the " grasp " and " curl " 
 are also good. Care should be taken with 
 both sprinters and distance runners that there 
 should be no over-development of the leg 
 muscles. It is curious that cramps seem to 
 come more frequently to men of big muscles 
 than to those less developed, and over-de-
 
 150 TRAINING FOR SPORTS 
 
 velopment of muscle never prevents a strained 
 ligament. Springiness is what is needed 
 most; not mere muscular strength. Endur- 
 ance is most necessary for the distance men, 
 though every track man needs it to some 
 extent. 
 
 For the distance runner lightness is an ad- 
 vantage, poise and the ability to carry the 
 body well and make the right use of the 
 arms and shoulders in driving forward rather 
 than in swaying are of great importance. 
 Endurance, however, is the prime factor and 
 more effort should be spent in attaining this 
 than in anything else. A distance runner 
 should work on this during the winter by 
 constantly trying to improve the condition 
 of the heart and lungs and to increase the 
 size of the chest, for on these things endur- 
 ance depends. Breathing exercises, like the 
 "curl" (see Appendix), outdoor jogging, 
 work that opens up the chest and gives the 
 heart a chance, all these count radically in 
 favor of this type of runner. This winter 
 work should be watched, however, so that no 
 over-development of muscle results from it. 
 One of the effects of distance running is the
 
 TRAINING FOR THE TRACK 151 
 
 long-continued strain on the muscles of the 
 calf and the ball of the foot, and men that 
 are over-trained are likely to suffer from 
 muscle strain. 
 
 The Marathon runs, because of the great 
 physical effort involved, are of doubtful value 
 as sport. Of course, at the time of their 
 origin in ancient Greece they had a real pur- 
 pose: to develop runners for carrying mes- 
 sages. Nowadays, however, no one would 
 ever be called on for any physical exertion 
 for which Marathon running could be 
 preparation. 
 
 The Marathon race is a test of grim de- 
 termination, will power and perseverance. It 
 requires years of slow and careful training 
 to build up sufficient endurance and power to 
 finish. It is extremely foolish for young 
 boys to try to compete in such events ; no one, 
 in fact, should go in for Marathon running 
 in competition until he has got his full 
 growth. 
 
 For the sprinter, of course, endurance is 
 less necessary than for the distance runner. 
 Sprinters do not drop out in a hundred-yard 
 dash, yet there is a large proportion of them
 
 152 TRAINING FOR SPORTS 
 
 that fail to finish the hundred at the same 
 speed in which they are running at, say, fifty 
 yards, so there is a certain amount of endur- 
 ance to be developed even in the sprinter. 
 But the sprinter's great needs are strength, 
 power, springiness, co-ordination, and, of 
 course, most important of all, speed, espe- 
 cially at the start. The hundred-yard dash 
 is so short and so quickly run that every frac- 
 tion of a second must be made to count and 
 the start must be perfectly mastered. The 
 spring, the perfect timing and the quickness 
 of getting into the stride must be practised 
 through the early part of the season until 
 they are thoroughly learned in every detail. 
 The start was formerly made from the 
 standing position and was continued so in 
 England long after we, in this country, had 
 adopted the crouching start. The English 
 have finally been forced to come to the new 
 method, though they did it with reluctance. 
 Now, however, there can be no doubt in any- 
 one's mind that with the crouching start there 
 is a tremendous initial advantage. In the 
 first place, if it is done properly the body is so 
 perfectly poised that at the pistol there is
 
 t photograph, ty Underwood and Underwood. 
 
 START OF A lOO^YARD DASH. 
 
 2 photograph copyrighted by Underwood and Underwood. 
 
 FINISH OF A 100- YARD DASH.
 
 TRAINING FOR THE TRACK 153 
 
 no lost motion. Secondly, the body is, so 
 to speak, " wound up," in the sense that a 
 spring is wound, so that the recovery into 
 the running position is a perfectly normal 
 and spontaneous reaction. Finally, in the 
 crouching position there is less air resistance, 
 which makes it easier to overcome the natural 
 inertia in starting. The difference between 
 the crouching and the standing start is the 
 difference between diving and falling flat 
 into the water. 
 
 In order to carry out the purposes of the 
 start it is necessary to have great suppleness 
 and perfect co-ordination. The suppleness 
 makes it easy for the runner to get out of 
 the crouching position quickly. An excellent 
 exercise to develop this suppleness is the 
 " crouch " described in this book. Co-ordina- 
 tion is necessary because the body must be 
 so perfectly poised that it will neither jump 
 the pistol nor be behind it ; on the instantane- 
 ous response of the muscles to the mental 
 commands depends the success of the start 
 more than on any other element. Jumping 
 the pistol is the commonest fault of begin- 
 ners; it comes always from lack of co-ordina-
 
 154 TRAINING FOR SPORTS 
 
 tion. The mind is so set on not being behind 
 that it forgets the pistol. Here is where the 
 balance comes in. The mind must be equally 
 poised between two things: the spring of the 
 start and the crack of the pistol, so that when 
 one of them occurs the other will be simul- 
 taneous with it. If the runner thinks so hard 
 of his start that he forgets the pistol he will 
 start before the pistol is fired, while if he con- 
 centrates on the pistol to the exclusion of 
 the start he will have to hesitate after the 
 crack long enough to get his mind back. This 
 hesitation, while it lasts but a small part of 
 a second, may be sufficient to lose the race. 
 
 Co-ordination may be learned by any of the 
 exercises before described for this purpose, 
 but in the case of the start for the sprint it 
 can only be perfected by continual practice. 
 In the early part of the season the sprinter 
 should devote a large part of each day's work 
 to trying starts, and he should not stop work- 
 ing at it until he is sure he has mastered 
 the co-ordination. In starting practice the 
 sprinter should not run more than from 15 
 to 20 yards and should not stop suddenly. 
 After the start has been perfected, the runner
 
 TRAINING FOR THE TRACK 155 
 
 may learn to get into his stride which comes 
 by practice and learning individual differ- 
 ences in regard to stride, and finally the finish 
 of the race, which is perfected after the runner 
 has gained strength from the daily jogging. 
 It is in this last burst of speed that strength 
 counts more than anything else. Muscles 
 that are not sufficiently strong will sometimes 
 " tie-up " during this part of the race and 
 incapacitate the sprinter. 
 
 For the 220, a man needs these qualities 
 plus endurance. Presumably he runs his 
 hardest all the way in the 220. Of course, 
 he does not really run as fast as he runs the 
 hundred though it seems as fast to him. In 
 this race the final burst counts a little more 
 than the start. The quarter-mile is perhaps 
 the hardest race there is; it is practically a 
 long sprint. The quarter-miler requires many 
 of the qualities of the sprinter, although here 
 endurance counts heavily and the sprint at 
 the end is more necessary to develop than a 
 perfect start. The conservation of strength 
 required for the final spurt of this race is 
 something which comes from much training, 
 and the use of all the exercises which develop
 
 156 TRAINING FOR SPORTS 
 
 the chest and aid the functioning of the heart 
 and lungs. 
 
 The hurdler, combining, as he must, the 
 abilities of sprinter and high jumper, requires 
 a good deal of work. Keeping his stride is 
 the most important thing for him to learn, 
 and this comes only after continued practice. 
 It is useless to try to lay down either the pre- 
 cise point at which the take-off for each hurdle 
 should be made, but the number of strides 
 which should be taken between hurdles has be- 
 come practically fixed for any man who can 
 approach the present records. In general, a 
 long stride is necessary for the hurdles, and for 
 this reason the best hurdlers are generally 
 men with long legs, though this is not an in- 
 variable rule. Simpson and Thompson, the 
 two great hurdlers, are long-striding, power- 
 ful men. 
 
 The hurdler must guard against uneven- 
 ness of running between hurdles, he must cul- 
 tivate the best form in taking the hurdles, and 
 he must be careful not to overwork. This 
 last is important because the continual hard 
 pounding on the cinder track required in this 
 race causes the kind of muscle strain described
 
 TRAINING FOR THE TRACK 157 
 
 in the chapter on injuries, the symptoms of 
 which are pain along the shin bones and be- 
 tween the bones of the foot. The hurdler 
 has not the same soft, dug-up ground to come 
 down on as the high jumper, and for this 
 reason he should practise on the grass when- 
 ever this is possible and work up gradually, 
 beginning with one or two hurdles and in- 
 creasing the number. 
 
 The hurdler shares with the high- jumper 
 the necessity of developing the trunk muscles. 
 It is with these muscles that they both keep 
 their balance. The high jumper needs it es- 
 pecially for his turn in the air. Other needs 
 of the high- jumper are great springiness and 
 suppleness of the body. He must have great 
 patience and perseverance, and faith in his 
 own ability. The best build for the high 
 jumper is tall and long-legged, though, as in 
 everything else, there have been notable ex- 
 ceptions. The take-off is important for the 
 high jumper, also the form, and these are 
 developed through practice. In schools where 
 the coaching is not of the best, boys often 
 learn improper form in the high- jump. Bad 
 form always comes easier to a beginner, but
 
 158 TRAINING FOR SPORTS 
 
 it is useless for any real accomplishment and 
 is hard to get rid of, once it is learned. 
 
 Leg muscles developed by the " crouch " 
 exercise give spring to the high- jumper. This 
 exercise is also helpful in the running broad 
 jump; so also are the "grasp" and "wing." 
 The abdominal and stomach muscles are es- 
 sential in the broad- jump; much of the force 
 which is given to the body in the spring of 
 the jump comes from them and they are used 
 entirely in the recovery after the jump is 
 made, to keep the balance. Broad-jumping 
 is mostly a matter of running speed and spring 
 and the practice of keeping everlastingly at it, 
 with great perseverance and with that opti- 
 mism which is spoken of at the end of this chap- 
 ter. Poise is essential and strength is impor- 
 tant. A special build is less necessary than in 
 the case of the high-jumper and the hurdler. 
 
 The pole-vault, while it is one of the most 
 beautiful and spectacular of all athletic 
 events, is, perhaps, the most difficult of all 
 and requires a vast amount of patience 
 through long periods of discouragement. The 
 pole-vaulter combines the qualities of the 
 jumper with those of the gymnast. . He needs
 
 TRAINING FOR THE TRACK 159 
 
 suppleness, strength of arms and hands and 
 strong trunk muscles. The spectacular part 
 of the pole-vault is due to the fact that the 
 vaulter is able to throw himself over a bar 
 which is twice as high as he is, and to do 
 this the main muscles of the body must be 
 brought actively into play. 
 
 Form is essential in pole-vaulting, down to 
 the smallest details, such as sliding up the 
 left hand on the pole to a position just below 
 the right hand as the pole is slid into the 
 hole; not jumping in leaving the ground, etc. 
 To get the details of form perfect, they should 
 all be practised for a long time at first with- 
 out trying to clear a bar. The pull and the 
 turn of the body cannot be learned without a 
 good deal of preliminary gymnastic work, as 
 the turn really consists of putting the body 
 in the position of what is known in gymnas- 
 tics as the " hand-stand." 
 
 For the hammer-throw the principal mus- 
 cles used are those of the back, trunk, legs 
 and shoulders. Hammer work needs a man 
 of large powerful build, especially in the 
 upper part of the body, and is an event 
 which requires strength rather than endur-
 
 160 TRAINING FOR SPORTS 
 
 ance. All the stomach, chest and shoulder 
 exercises are good preliminary training for 
 the hammer-thrower. The shot-put requires 
 much the same qualities, weight and muscular 
 strength, especially in the back and shoulders. 
 Besides these it needs strength of fingers, as 
 the shot should rest well back on the fingers 
 before it is put, and it requires good finger 
 muscles to give it the proper support. These 
 can be developed by exercises of opening and 
 closing the fingers. 
 
 There are one or two details about the 
 anatomy of track athletics which are well to 
 remember. The leg is a long lever which 
 drives the man ahead by pressure on the 
 groin, and the strain of leg-work comes on 
 the stomach, loins and groin. The drive 
 comes from the front of the thighs, loin mus- 
 cles and muscles of the buttocks and back of 
 the leg. The arm swing taxes the upper part 
 of the body and the triceps. The nerves are 
 the governors of all the muscles, acting on 
 them much as an electric current. The nerves 
 are connected with different parts of the brain 
 in which each of the impulses causing the ac- 
 tion of any muscle originates.
 
 TRAINING FOR THE TRACK 161 
 
 Because of this nervous connection, thought 
 action is important in training, and much of 
 the success of the best track men has come 
 from right thought about their work. There 
 is an optimism which is essential to any ath- 
 letic work which requires as much patience 
 as the track and field events. Take, for ex- 
 ample, the high-jumper. If the bar is placed 
 at 6' 3" when he first goes out to jump, it 
 will be impossible for him. This is partly 
 because he has not sufficient confidence. If, 
 however, it is placed at 5' 3" and he jumps it 
 easily, he will be quite sure of himself at 5' 4" 
 and so on, constantly working up bit by bit, 
 each time feeling confidence in himself to do 
 a little better next time. 
 
 Another phase of mental attitude which is 
 important in any competition in which en- 
 durance plays a part is the realization of 
 your opponent's condition. This was one of 
 the things which won the war for the Allies. 
 Marshal Foch, Commander-in-chief of the 
 Allied armies, when he got news of the fatigue 
 and exhaustion of the men, constantly dwelt 
 on the fact that conditions must be even 
 worse with the Germans. In one of the most
 
 162 TRAINING FOR SPORTS 
 
 difficult Jimes of the war after the big 
 German drive of March 21, 1918, Foch said 
 to Lloyd George: "Frankly, if I had to 
 choose, I would rather be in my place than 
 in that of the Germans.'* 
 
 This is one of the most effective kinds of 
 optimism; the confidence that, while you seem 
 to be at the end of your rope, the man who is 
 competing with you is probably just as near 
 the end of his. It gives new courage and 
 strength and takes away the dead feeling of 
 hopelessness which comes from the apparent 
 certainty of defeat. s 
 
 Track is one of the best of all athletic 
 sports, both in its development of the men 
 who take part in it and in the spectacular 
 and beautiful nature of the events. There 
 is probably nothing in which grace of body, 
 beauty of motion, the smooth even working 
 of powerful muscles are shown to such advan- 
 tage as in a track meet. There is probably 
 nothing which develops such poise and sup- 
 pleness. Besides these, it has in it the fas- 
 cinating element of individual competition, 
 and the excitement of the race.
 
 CHAPTER XIV 
 
 SPECIALIZED TRAINING FOR 
 ROWING 
 
 IT would probably surprise a good many; 
 people to know that, as a matter of fact, 
 rowing does little to enlarge the chest or 
 expand the lungs. Of course the winter 
 work, the running, and that sort of thing 
 helps the men in this way, but, while actually 
 rowing in the boat, the chest is contracted 
 a good deal of the time, and while the muscles 
 of the back and stomach are very consider- 
 ably developed, the chest stays about the 
 same. It is often true that a man's chest 
 measurement does not increase at all from 
 the time he first sits in the boat until, 
 four or five months later, he rows his 
 race. 
 
 Yet it is extremely important that a man 
 who goes in for rowing should have a large 
 chest. The heart increases in size during the 
 season's work and it cannot do its work 
 
 163
 
 164 TRAINING FOR SPORTS 
 
 properly in a crowded space. The lungs too 
 must have room or they will not be able to 
 take in the necessary amount of oxygen to 
 sustain a man through his race. For this 
 reason care is always taken to select men who 
 have naturally, or have acquired through some 
 other sort of work, a good chest development. 
 It is criminal to allow a man to row in com- 
 petition who has not a sufficiently expanded 
 chest. Thirty-seven inches should be the 
 minimum for a six-foot man who is expected to 
 row a four-mile race. 
 
 Of course this cuts out a good many men 
 who may be otherwise well adapted to crew 
 work, who like it and who have, perhaps, set 
 their heart on it. For these men I should advise 
 steady, careful work at exercises which are 
 calculated to develop the chest and expand 
 the lungs. It is amazing the results that can 
 be obtained by regular daily calisthenic work 
 if a man concentrates on the proper exer- 
 cises. These are the breathing exercises, of 
 which there is a large variety ( " the curl " 
 shown in the back of the book is one of the 
 best of these) ; the chest stretching exercises 
 such as the " grate," the " grind " and the
 
 TRAINING FOR ROWING 165 
 
 " wing." If practised through the winter 
 these exercises will often bring a man's chest 
 up to the requirements by the time the rowing 
 starts in the spring. Even for the man whose 
 chest is naturally good these exercises if taken 
 through the winter will be valuable supple- 
 mentary work. 
 
 Beside the chest, there are other qualities 
 the oarsman must possess to be successful. 
 He must have a powerful back, good thighs 
 for his leg drive, and he must not be stiff. A 
 stiff man in a boat is usually a drag instead 
 of an aid. Suppleness, so necessary in all 
 the other sports, is important here also. The 
 bending exercises, stretching and torsion exer- 
 cises for the muscles of the trunk are excel- 
 lent for the rowing man. Examples of these 
 are the " crawl," " wave," " weave," " grasp," 
 " wing " and " curl." Then he may also de- 
 velop the thighs by means of the " crouch " 
 and other exercises of a like nature. It is 
 well to give some attention to the power of 
 the forearm in order to increase the grip and 
 the ability to handle the oar easily. The com- 
 pression exercises, done with an elastic ball or 
 other material which resists the grasp of the
 
 166 TRAINING FOR SPORTS 
 
 hand, are useful for the grip. Taking a sheet 
 of newspaper at one corner and, using one 
 hand only, gathering into a ball in the hand 
 and squeezing it into as small a space as pos- 
 sible, has been used to some extent in this 
 work. Of course the work on the machines 
 will help the grip considerably. The biceps 
 is immaterial and will generally take care of 
 itself; that is, it is not necessary for an oars- 
 man to have particularly powerful biceps, for 
 the average man has enough strength there to 
 finish out his stroke, and the greatest amount 
 of power is applied with the arms acting as 
 steel rods and the back and legs doing the 
 work. The triceps that is, the muscle at 
 the back of the arm comes in on the 
 shooting with the hands out on the recover, 
 but speed here is more valuable than 
 strength. 
 
 It is worth while to repeat here what I said 
 in a previous chapter about young boys row- 
 ing. A moderate amount of rowing, if it is 
 carefully supervised, will do no boy harm, but 
 such strenuous work as is required by fre- 
 quent races, time trials and long-distance 
 work is bad for the immature heart. Four-
 
 i photograph copyrighted by Underwood and Under-wood. 
 
 WORK IN ROWING TANK. 
 
 i a photograph by " International." 
 
 CREW ON THE WATER.
 
 TRAINING FOR ROWING 167 
 
 mile races such as are rowed by college crews 
 are not for boys who have not got their 
 growth, as the consequences to the heart are 
 likely to be serious. 
 
 Training for rowing requires a great deal 
 of hard work, both in the spring and fall on 
 the water with winter training to build the 
 men up and keep them fit and work in the 
 machines. The methods in use at the present 
 day are the results of an evolution of more than 
 fifty years. It is interesting not only to the 
 oarsman, but to every athlete, to go back over 
 this ground and follow the development. The 
 work in the other more strenuous sports, such 
 as football, has gone through a somewhat simi- 
 lar process in matters of diet, etc. The fol- 
 lowing brief resume gives an idea of this 
 progress : 
 
 TRAINING IN EARLY DAYS OF BOWING 
 
 1858 The work of the Harvard crew this 
 year consisted in walking, running, gym- 
 nasium work, tossing 12 Ib. cannon ball, etc. 
 Their diet was severe, no vegetables but rice 
 being allowed, no fish, only beef, mutton, 
 stale bread, oatmeal gruel, and small quan-
 
 168 TRAINING FOR SPOUTS 
 
 tities of milk and water. The most trying 
 part of the training was the endurance of 
 thirst. 
 
 1864 Despite the discouraging outlook at 
 the beginning of the year the best material 
 at Yale was picked out and a green crew was 
 kept at work and inspired the energy of 
 Bacon. The training they went through was 
 tremendous. It lasted in its severity about 
 two months before the race. They rose at 
 six, walked and ran before breakfast, on an 
 absolutely empty stomach, between three and 
 five miles running more than one-half of the 
 distance and part of that at full speed and 
 often carried small weights in their hands. 
 They rowed four miles at full speed both in 
 the morning and in the afternoon. Their bill- 
 of-fare consisted of beef and mutton, with 
 occasional chicken, toasted bread, boiled rice 
 and weak tea. No wine or beer and but few 
 vegetables. 
 
 1866 The defeats of the two previous years 
 caused the Harvard men to set to work in 
 earnest this year. Beginning early in the 
 fall, they ran every other day five or six 
 miles at half speed. Their system of diet be-
 
 TRAINING FOR ROWING 169 
 
 came more liberal, the motto now being 
 " Keep all the flesh you can and do the pre- 
 scribed work," instead of as formerly, " Train 
 off all the flesh you can." This diet was kept 
 up to the day of the race, the result being a 
 well-trained crew in much fuller flesh than 
 usual, but with no over-trained men in the 
 boat. New weights were used, gymnastic 
 exercise and outdoor walking and running 
 practised until in the spring they could row 
 on the river. 
 
 1872 The defeat of Harvard, which so 
 stimulated the smaller colleges, appears to 
 have taken away a large amount of interest 
 in boating at Harvard itself, so that great 
 difficulty was experienced in getting a crew 
 together. An entirely new set of men were 
 chosen, the old oars refusing to row. Despite 
 the fact that this crew was given a more 
 liberal diet than usual, with fruits and vege- 
 tables in moderation and with occasional 
 ale, they came to the line somewhat over- 
 trained. 
 
 1881 In the last half mile both crews put up 
 the stroke, Yale doing 44 to Harvard's 40, 
 and finishing a length and a half ahead. It
 
 170 TRAINING FOR SPORTS 
 
 was one of the hardest-fought races ever 
 rowed in America, in spite of which both 
 crews came in without any " done-up " men, 
 which testified to faithful and skilful train- 
 ing. 
 
 1887 The diet of the crew may he given as 
 heing fairly representative of the latest ideas 
 in regard to this branch of the training. For 
 breakfast and supper the crew ate oatmeal, 
 beefsteak, mutton chops, eggs, stewed or 
 baked potatoes. For dinner, roast beef, 
 mutton, fricasseed chicken, potatoes, rice, 
 macaroni, tomatoes, puddings, and water- 
 cresses in season. The work of the crew oc- 
 cupied, on an average, three hours every after- 
 noon, besides which the men worked all the 
 spring in pair-oars during the mornings, as 
 their recitations would permit. 
 
 It must be remembered in the case of the 
 oarsman that he cannot be trained down to 
 the point of extreme leanness except at great 
 risk. This is peculiarly so for a double rea- 
 son. In the first place an oarsman loses sev- 
 eral pounds in a hard race, especially a four- 
 mile one, and, if he has nothing to spare in
 
 TRAINING FOR ROWING 171 
 
 the way of flesh, his endurance gives out. The 
 second reason is that rowing, unlike football, 
 is practised during a period of the year when 
 the weather is becoming warmer and may be 
 for the last month quite hot. This tends to 
 take weight off men, while in football the 
 weather is all on the side of the player as it is 
 becoming constantly cooler and more bracing 
 as the season goes on. 
 
 A reasonable surplus of weight should there- 
 fore always be kept in the case of the oarsman. 
 As to his nervous energy, rowing is unlike 
 many of the other sports in one respect, and 
 that is there is no direct contact between the 
 competitors. There is no physical meeting as 
 there is in football. To many men the high 
 tension of nervousness that prevails in a foot- 
 ball team at the moment of the first kick-off 
 is relieved almost immediately when the first 
 scrimmage comes. The rowing man has no 
 such physical contact with his competitors to 
 act as a safety valve, although after his first 
 few strokes, and when the crew settles down to 
 steady rowing, he too feels something of this 
 relief. A really phlegmatic man in a boat has 
 little nervous strain, it being largely physical,
 
 172 TRAINING FOR SPORTS 
 
 but the high-strung oarsman is oftentimes mak- 
 ing a steady strain on his nervous energy. He 
 is keyed almost to the cracking point as he 
 waits for the referee's word. Then, if the race 
 be close, he senses that other boat stealing along 
 by his side and almost feels each beat of their 
 blades. So men differ as to the kind of prepa- 
 ration. The high-strung man must be always 
 watched during training and relaxation fur- 
 nished him at times during the season. Espe- 
 cially is this true of a stroke oar, for upon his 
 stamina and nervous condition much depends. 
 He must have that store of vitality that enables 
 him to drive his crew. If he becomes lacka- 
 daisical the crew slumps. If he is keen and con- 
 fident the crew responds. The Harvard- Yale 
 race of 1920 demonstrated how much depended 
 upon perfect condition and reserve power, for 
 here a crew that had been the favorites were 
 beaten and actually rowed down by a crew 
 that had not been so strongly fancied but who 
 betrayed from start to finish a fund of vital- 
 ity upon which they could draw when needed. 
 Another illustration of the necessary prepara- 
 tion for a young man stands out most prom- 
 inently in what is generally accepted as the
 
 TRAINING FOR ROWING 173 
 
 explanation for the success of English coached 
 crews over there and the failure of some of 
 the English coaches who have been over here 
 to perform the same work with a crew of 
 American boys. In fact, those English 
 coaches who have been successful with Ameri- 
 can crews have usually modified somewhat the 
 body swing after experience with an Ameri- 
 can crew. The explanation referred to above 
 lies in the statement that the British univer- 
 sities get their men from the rowing schools 
 like Eton, and these boys have been brought 
 up on the pronounced body swing of English 
 rowing from their early schooldays. Hence, 
 the muscles of the body, particularly those of 
 the abdomen, are better developed to stand 
 this strain. Now, if this be true, then it would 
 be quite possible by other exercises of a special 
 nature to prepare a crew in a year or two to 
 stand this work. In fact, it is well known that 
 very little attempt has been made to directly 
 develop by special exercises the young man 
 of this counry. Instead of making use of these 
 we select our rowing men from the group 
 that is most likely to have such qualities, and 
 then do nothing with them to further develop
 
 174 TRAINING FOR SPORTS 
 
 the special muscles needed. That probably 
 explains why we have occasional men giving 
 out in a race and other men showing effects 
 that preclude their continuing in the boat.
 
 APPENDIX 
 
 The exercises which I am here appending have been 
 referred to a number of times in the course of this book 
 and have been advocated as profitable adjuncts to train- 
 ing for all of the sports. The Daily Dozen were origi- 
 nally designed as a method of good, rapid, all-round 
 conditioning of naval recruits for the hard work ahead 
 of them. They were used instead of the Swedish and 
 other methods which had formerly been tried out 
 because they were less fatiguing and tended to develop 
 the main muscles of the body instead of concentrating 
 on the arms and legs. I am giving them here in the form 
 in which they were given at the naval training stations 
 during the war. This form presupposes the presence 
 of a leader whose movements are followed by a class. 
 Such classes have been organized in schools and colleges 
 and have proved very useful, but the exercises can eas- 
 ily be done individually in one's bedroom or other con- 
 venient place by simply following the directions, as- 
 sisted by the cuts. 
 
 THE DAILY DOZEN SET-UP 
 
 The Daily Dozen Set-Up consists of twelve exercises 
 which, for ease in memorizing, are divided into 
 four groups of three exercises each. Each exercise 
 
 175
 
 170 TRAINING FOR SPORTS 
 
 or movement is given a name, and the names of all 
 the movements of a group commence with the same 
 letter, thus: 
 
 I 
 
 II 
 
 m 
 
 IV 
 
 1. HANDS 
 2. HIPS 
 3. HEAD 
 
 1. GRIND 
 2. GRATE 
 3. GRASP 
 
 1. CRAWL 
 2. CURL 
 3. CROUCH 
 
 1. WAVE 
 
 2. WEAVE 
 3. WING 
 
 These exercises are not difficult or exhausting, and 
 do not demand great strength for proper execution, 
 but they are designed, both from a scientific and a 
 practical point of view, to give exactly the right amount 
 of exercise to every muscle of the body. They are 
 intended to promote suppleness and especially to 
 strengthen those muscles which are seldom brought 
 into play in ordinary daily life. A conscientious fif- 
 teen minutes a day with the DAILY DOZEN SET-UP 
 will soon do more for a man than any amount of skil- 
 ful physical feats or "strong-man stunts." When 
 one first practises these movements, their effect will 
 be felt on the little-used muscles of the neck, back, 
 and stomach; yet they will not leave the pronounced 
 muscular fatigue which follows the ordinary exercises, 
 and which is of more harm than good. 
 
 Any setting-up exercises should be preparatory; that 
 is, make men ready for the serious work of their day, and 
 in no way exhaust any portion of their vitality. This 
 modern "short-hand" method of setting-up leaves men in 
 an exhilarated condition, and, instead of taking any- 
 thing out of them, prepares the body for any kind of work 
 that is required.
 
 APPENDIX 177 
 
 Each exercise starts from the position of Attention: 
 
 1. Heels on the same line, and as near each other as 
 
 the, conformation of the man permits. 
 
 2. Feet turned out equally and forming with each 
 
 other an angle of about 60 degrees. 
 
 3. Knees straight without stiffness. 
 
 4. Body erect on hips, inclined a little forward; shoul- 
 
 ders square and falling equally. 
 
 5. Arms and hands hanging naturally, backs of the 
 
 hands outward; thumbs along the seams of 
 the trousers; elbows near the body. 
 
 6. Head erect and straight to the front, chin slightly 
 
 drawn in without constraint, eyes straight to 
 the front. See Figure 1. 
 
 The Leader takes a position facing the men, who 
 should be so placed as to give ample roomtffor unham- 
 pered movement. 
 
 Each movement should be executed in time with 
 the orders or counting of the Leader which should, 
 with the exception of the Speed Test, which is a catch 
 exercise, be slow and measured. These exercises do 
 not depend upon snap for their effect upon steady, 
 deliberate strain of the muscles. Any tendency toward 
 hurried, careless execution should be immediately 
 discouraged by the Leader who should, at all times, 
 insist upon uniformity of movement. 
 
 In the following instruction, the preparatory com- 
 mands are in capitals, thus: ORDER. The commands 
 of execution are in italics, thus: Hands. Explanation 
 of each movement is given in parentheses.
 
 178 
 
 TRAINING FOR SPORTS 
 
 GROUP I 
 
 HANDS: READY: cross. 
 
 ORDER: hands. 
 
 ORDER: rest. 
 
 1. HANDS 
 
 (At cross, arms are extended 
 laterally and horizontally, 
 palms down. See Figure 
 
 2.) 
 
 (At hands, the arms are 
 brought back to a position 
 of Attention close to the 
 sides. See Figure 1. Espe- 
 cial care should be taken to 
 see that whenever, through- 
 out the exercises, this posi- 
 tion is taken as at the 
 completion of each exercise 
 -full control is retained 
 over the arms, and the hands 
 should not be allowed to slap 
 against the sides audibly.) 
 
 (At rest, always return to a 
 position of Attention. In 
 this case there would be no 
 change.) 
 
 HIPS: READY: cross. 
 ORDER: hips. 
 
 ORDER: rest. 
 
 2. HIPS 
 
 (At hips, the hands are placed 
 on the hips with shoulders, 
 elbows, and thumbs well 
 back. See Figure 3.)
 
 7. Grasp. 
 
 8. Crs 
 (upright position) 
 
 9. Crawl 
 (crawl position) 
 
 10. Curl 
 (curl position). 
 
 THE DAILY
 
 16. Weave (combination 
 turn and bend). 
 
 DOZEN SET-UP. 
 
 17. Wing 
 (stretch position). 
 
 18. Wine 
 (wing position).
 
 APPENDIX 179 
 
 3. HEAD 
 HEAD: READY: cross. 
 
 ORDER: head. (At head, the hands are 
 placed behind the neck, in- 
 dex-finger-tips just touch- 
 ing, and elbows forced 
 back. See Figure 4.) 
 ORDER: rest. 
 
 The above exercises should be executed but a few 
 times each, being preparatory to the Speed Test. 
 
 SPEED TEST 
 
 In this, the preparatory command, ORDER, is omitted 
 and the Leader gives the commands, Head, hips, hands, 
 etc., in sharp succession, varying them, and occasionally 
 repeating a command in a manner calculated to catch 
 the unwary napping. 
 
 SPEED TEST* 
 
 SPEED, TEST, OMITTING THE WORD "OR&ER": hands, 
 hips, head, etc. 
 ORDER: rest. 
 
 The length of time devoted to this movement is 
 left to the discretion of the Leader. 
 
 GROUP II 
 
 1. GRIND 
 GRIND: READY: cross. 
 
 PALMS: turn. (At turn, the palms are 
 turned up with backs of 
 * This should be performed with snap nod speed.
 
 180 TRAINING FOR SPORTS 
 
 hands down and arms 
 forced back as far as pos- 
 sible. See Figure 5.) 
 
 ORDER: grind. (At grind, and in time with 
 one the Leader's measured 
 
 two counting, circles of twelve 
 
 three inches diameter are de- 
 
 four scribed with the finger- 
 
 five tips which move forward 
 
 to and downward, then 
 
 ten. backward and upward, 
 
 the arms remaining stiff, 
 
 and pivoting from the 
 shoulders. On the back- 
 ward movement of the 
 circle, the arms should be 
 forced back to the limit. 
 A complete circle should 
 be described at each 
 count.) 
 
 Reverse. (At reverse, the same process 
 one should be gone through, 
 
 to the circle being described 
 
 ten in the opposite direction.) 
 
 * ORDER: rest. 
 
 Ten circles are described in each direction. 
 
 2. GRATE 
 
 GRATE: READY: cross. 
 
 ORDER : grate. (At grate, and as the Leader 
 one counts one, the arms are
 
 APPENDIX 181 
 
 two. slowly raised, as a deep 
 
 inhalation is taken, to an 
 
 angle of 45 degrees from 
 horizontal, and at the 
 same time the heels are 
 raised till the weight of 
 the body rests on the 
 balls of the feet. See 
 Figure 6. At two, the 
 arms are returned to cross, 
 as all air is exhaled, and 
 the heels are lowered to a 
 normal position. Care 
 should be taken to see 
 that the arms are not al- 
 lowed to drop below the 
 level of the shoulders or 
 rise more than 45 de- 
 grees.) 
 ORDER: rest. 
 
 The arms should be raised and lowered ten times. 
 
 3. GRASP 
 
 GRASP: READY: cross. 
 
 ORDER: grasp. (At grasp, the position head, 
 
 one is taken. See Figure 4. 
 
 two With head up and eyes 
 
 three front, and in time with 
 
 four the Leader's counting, 
 
 - one, two, three, four, the 
 
 one body is bent forward from
 
 182 TRAINING FOR SPORTS 
 
 two the waist, as far as pos- 
 
 three sible. See Figure 7. The 
 
 four body is returned to up- 
 
 right in the same number 
 one of counts and at an un- 
 
 two usually slow one is bent as 
 
 far back as possible from 
 the waist, being returned 
 to upright at two. Care 
 should be taken to see 
 that this motion is sus- 
 tained and not jerky.) 
 ORDER: rest. 
 
 The entire movement should be repeated five times. 
 
 GROUP III 
 
 1. CRAWL 
 
 CRAWL: READY: cross. (At crawl, the left palm is 
 ORDER: crawl. turned up and as the 
 one Leader counts one, two, 
 
 two three, four, the left arm is 
 
 three raised and the right arm 
 
 four lowered laterally until at 
 
 four the right arm should 
 one be in a position of hands, 
 
 two and the left arm should 
 
 three be extended straight up 
 
 four with the palm to the 
 
 right. See Figure 8. 
 
 Then, as the Leader
 
 APPENDIX 183 
 
 counts one, two, three, the 
 body is slowly bent side- 
 wise from the waist, the 
 right hand slipping down 
 the right leg to or beyond 
 the knee and the left arm 
 bending in a half circle 
 over the head until the 
 fingers touch the right 
 ear. See Figure 9. At 
 four the position of cross 
 is quickly resumed, and 
 as the Leader commences 
 to count again, the RIGHT 
 palm is turned up and the 
 exercise completed in the 
 opposite direction.) 
 ORDER: rest. 
 
 \ 
 
 The entire movement should be repeated five times. 
 
 2. CURL 
 
 CURL: READY: cross. (In this movement, at cross, 
 
 the feet are spread until 
 the heels are about 
 twelve inches apart. The 
 left foot remains station- 
 ary, the right foot being 
 moved to accomplish 
 this.) 
 
 ORDER: curl. (At curl, and as the Leader 
 one counts one, two, three,
 
 184 TRAINING FOR SPORTS 
 
 two four, the fists and lower 
 
 three arms are bent DOWN from 
 
 four the elbows which are 
 
 kept pressed back, and 
 one the fists are curled into 
 
 two the arm pits. This posi- 
 
 three tion should be reached at 
 
 four three, when the head and 
 
 SHOULDERS should be 
 one forced back very strong- 
 
 two ly; reaching the limit of 
 
 three motion aifour. See Fig- 
 
 four ure 10. The Leader 
 
 again counts one, two, 
 
 three, four. At one the 
 arms are extended 
 straight forward from the 
 shoulders, palms down. 
 See Figure 11. At two 
 the arms begin to fall and 
 the body bends forward 
 from the waist, head up 
 and eyes front, until, at 
 four, the body has 
 reached the limit of mo- 
 tion and the arms have 
 passed the sides and have 
 been forced back and (as 
 the trunk assumes a hori- 
 zontal position) up as far 
 as possible. See Figure 
 18. (Note that in this
 
 APPENDIX 185 
 
 Figure feet are together, 
 which is incorrect, for 
 this exercise.) This is 
 the icing position. For 
 a third time, the Leader 
 counts one, two, three, 
 four, as the body is 
 straightened, reaching an 
 upright position with 
 arms straight forward at 
 three. Cross is resumed 
 at/owr. As the body is 
 straightened from the 
 wing position, a full 
 breath should be taken, 
 the lungs being filled to 
 the maximum as cross is 
 resumed at the comple- 
 tion of the movement. 
 This breath should be re- 
 tained during the curl 
 movement, and exhaled 
 as the wing position is 
 taken. Inhale through 
 the nose.) 
 ORDER: rest. 
 
 The entire movement should be repeated five times. 
 
 3. CROUCH 
 
 CROUCH : READY : cross. (In this movement, at cross, 
 
 the feet are spread until
 
 186 
 
 TRAINING FOR SPORTS 
 
 ORDER: crouch, 
 one 
 
 two 
 
 ORDER: rest. 
 
 the heels are about 
 twelve inches apart. The 
 left foot remains station- 
 ary, the right foot being 
 moved to accomplish 
 this.) 
 
 (At crouch, the knees are 
 bent and, with the weight 
 on the toes, the body is 
 lowered nearly to the 
 heels, keeping the trunk 
 as nearly erect as pos- 
 sible. See Figure 12. 
 This is done at one and at 
 two the upright position 
 is resumed.) 
 
 The entire movement should be repeated ten times. 
 
 GROUP IV 
 
 1. WAVB 
 
 WAVE: READY: cross. 
 ORDER: wave, 
 one 
 two 
 three 
 four 
 
 (At wave, the arms are 
 stretched straight above 
 the head, fingers inter- 
 laced and arms touching 
 the ears. See Figure 13. 
 Then, as the Leader 
 counts one, two, three, 
 four, a complete circle, of
 
 APPENDIX 
 
 187 
 
 about twenty-four inches 
 diameter, is described 
 with the hands, the body 
 bending only at the 
 waist. The trunk should 
 be bent as far backward 
 as forward, and as far to 
 one side as to the other. 
 The body should be for- 
 ward at one, to the right 
 at two, backward at three, 
 and to the left at four. 
 The motion should be 
 steady and not in jerks.) 
 Reverse. (At reverse, the same move- 
 one ment should be repeated 
 etc. in the opposite direction, 
 
 i. e., to the left.) 
 
 ORDER: rest. (At ORDER, the body 
 
 should be brought to an 
 erect position, stretching 
 the arms up as far as pos- 
 sible; and at rest, the 
 arms should drop slowly, 
 laterally, to a hands posi- 
 tion.) 
 
 Five circles should be described in each direction. 
 
 2. WEAVE 
 
 WEAVE : READY : cross. (In this movement, at cross, 
 
 the feet are spread until
 
 188 TRAINING FOR SPORTS 
 
 the heels are about 
 twelve inches apart. 
 The left foot remains 
 stationary, the right foot 
 being moved to accom- 
 plish this.) 
 
 ORDER: weave (At weave, and as the Lead- 
 one er counts one, two, three, 
 two four, the body is turned 
 three to the left from the hips, 
 four the arms maintaining the 
 same relation to the 
 one shoulders as at cross, un- 
 two til at one, the face is to 
 three the left, the right arm 
 four pointing straight forward 
 
 (in relation to the feet) 
 
 and the left arm straight 
 backward. See Figure 
 14. At two, the body is 
 bent from the waist so 
 that the right arm goes 
 down and the left up, un- 
 til, at three, the fingers of 
 the right hand touch the 
 ground midway between 
 the feet. The left arm 
 should then be pointing 
 straight up, with the face 
 still to the left. The 
 right knee must be slight- 
 ly bent to accomplish
 
 APPENDIX 189 
 
 this position. See Figure 
 15. At Jour, the position 
 of cross is resumed and as 
 the Leader again counts 
 one, two, three, four, the 
 same movement is re- 
 peated with the left hand 
 touching the ground this 
 time. Throughout the 
 exercise, care should be 
 taken that the arms re- 
 main in the same straight 
 line, making no separate 
 movement, but changing 
 their position only as the 
 trunk and shoulders are 
 moved and carry the 
 arms along. After this 
 exercise has been thor- 
 oughly mastered, the 
 turning and bending 
 movements made on the 
 counts, one and two, 
 should be combined, i. e., 
 instead of making the en- 
 tire turn, as described 
 above, before bending, 
 turn and bend simultan- 
 eously. See Figure 16.) 
 ORDER: rest. 
 
 The entire movement should be repeated ten times.
 
 190 
 
 TRAINING FOR SPORTS 
 
 3. WING 
 
 WING: READY: cross. 
 ORDER: wing, 
 one 
 two 
 three 
 four 
 
 one 
 two 
 three 
 Jour 
 
 (At wing, and as the Leader 
 counts one, two, three, 
 four, the arms are raised 
 laterally until they are 
 extended straight up- 
 ward at one. See Figure 
 17. At two, the arms be- 
 gin to fall forward and 
 downward and the body 
 bends forward from the 
 waist, head up and eyes 
 front, until at four, the 
 body has reached the 
 limit of motion and the 
 arms have passed the 
 sides and have been 
 forced back and (as the 
 trunk assumes a horizon- 
 tal position) up as far as 
 possible. See Figure 18. 
 As the Leader again 
 counts one, two, three, 
 four, the body is straight- 
 ened, reaching an upright 
 position, with arms ver- 
 tically extended, at three. 
 At four, the arms are low- 
 ered to a cross position 
 but with palms up and
 
 APPENDIX 191 
 
 arms and shoulders 
 forced hard back. Very 
 slow counting is essential 
 to the correct execution 
 of this exercise. All air 
 should be forced from the 
 lungs as the body bends 
 forward to the wing posi- 
 tion, and they should be 
 filled to capacity as the 
 body is straightened and 
 the arms brought down. 
 Inhale through the nose.) 
 ORDER: rest. 
 
 The entire movement should be repeated five times.
 
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