C OF-CA1IFO% ^SffUNMRS^ .^vHIBl ATHLETES ALL TRAINING, ORGANIZATION, AND PLAY SCHOOL, COLLEGE, AND SERVICE ATHLETICS ATHLETES ALL TRAINING, ORGANIZATION, AND PLAY BY WALTER CAMP ILLUSTRATED NEW YORK CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS 1919 COPYRIGHT, 1919, BY CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS Published April, 1919 <sv HI TO AMERICAN BOYS AND ALL THEY DID HERE AND OVER THERE PREFACE IF there has been anything clearly demon- strated beyond cavil and question in our ex- perience in this war, it is the great value of athletic sports in America. Not only have our fighters turned out to be effective, but the lessons of discipline, courage, and spirit inculcated on the athletic fields have been found to quicken very materially the proc- esses of making civilians into soldiers. So much has this proven true and so impres- sive has the demonstration been that the American is now athleticizing (if one may use the word) all our foreign allies. True, Eng- land was the pioneer in athletic sports, but of late years much of the increased development and specializing has come from American sources, even though the spread of these games, together with the Olympic games, had introduced more nations to the enjoyment of athletic contests. But it remained for this war to prove how valuable these athletics were to the rank and file, and all the allied viii PREFACE forces are now inoculated with the zeal for sport. Yet it should be remembered that, after all, our boys were the ones who had had these athletics in the very earliest days, even before they put on long trousers, and this educational development along these lines has told, as the evidence in this war soundly cor- roborates. For this reason it seems particu- larly appropriate that something in the re- sume of not only the present sports but those that have been brought into special promi- nence by the war should be compiled for the use of our boys and young men throughout the nation. They are the ones who have been looking forward eagerly and wishing they were older in order to be in this contest. And they form the stock and backbone of the generation that is coming on, and upon whom will come, whether they like it or not, many of the further burdens which are now upon older shoulders. This book is offered in the hope that it will be of some service in this way. CONTENTS I. INTRODUCTION ATHLETICS AND PREPAREDNESS PAOE INTRODUCTION 3 II. HEALTH AND SPORTSMANSHIP CHAPTER I. CARE OF THE BODY 33 II. GENERAL HYGIENE 37 HI. PLUCK . . . : V '. .... 43 IV. ENERGY AND PERSISTENCE ... 49 V. FAIR PLAY AN ESSENTIAL IN ANY FORM OF ATHLETIC SPORTS . . 54 III. INFORMAL GAMES AND STANDARD- IZED INSTRUCTIONS VI. DEVELOPMENT OF ATHLETICS IN SER- VICE STATIONS 61 VII. STANDARDIZED INSTRUCTIONS ... 69 VIII. FORMS OF CONTESTS INVOLVING LARGE NUMBERS OF MEN . 79 x CONTENTS CHAPTER PAGE IX. GAMES ADAPTED TO SMALLER GROUPS 115 X. ROUGH-AND-READY GAMES . . . 128 XI. GAMES FOR INDIVIDUAL OR PAIR COM- PETITION 130 XII. GROUP OF SPONTANEOUS GAMES, ADAPTED TO BOTH GYMNASIUM AND PLAYGROUND, CALLING FOR ONLY A SMALL NUMBER OF PARTICIPANTS 133 IV. ORGANIZATION AND MANAGEMENT XIII. COMMITTEES IN SCHOOL AND CAMPS 141 XIV. ORGANIZATION 147 XV. MANAGEMENT 153 XVI. THE DUTIES OF THE MANAGER . . 160 XVII. THE DUTIES OF THE CAPTAIN . . 168 XVIII. How TO CONDUCT AN ATHLETIC MEET 175 V. TRACK, GYMNASIUM, AND FIELD XIX. OLYMPIC GAMES 185 XX. CROSS-COUNTRY RUNNING . ... 191 XXI. GETTING READY FOR OUTDOOR WORK 196 CONTENTS xi CHAPTER PAGE XXII. GENERAL BASEBALL SUGGESTIONS . 202 XXIII. DANGERS OF BASEBALL AS A PROFES- SION 210 XXIV. THE IMPORTANCE OF COACHING IN BASEBALL . 215 XXV. WINTER SPORTS XXVI. MORE ABOUT WINTER TRAINING . 228 XXVII. WRESTLING AND BOXING .... 234 XXVIII. KEEPING FIT IN WINTER .... 245 XXIX. CONDENSED FOOTBALL PLAN . . . 268 ATHLETES' CODE 271 ILLUSTRATIONS Naval Recruits at Daily Setting-up Drill During the War Frontispiece Mobilization of College Men on the Yale Campus facing page 6 Boys in the City " 36 Boys in the Country 40 At the Pelham Bay Naval Station . . " 70 Diagram of Chariot Race page 81 The Chariot Race facing page 80 The Tug-of- War Pelham Bay Naval Station facing page 88 Mass Play " 94 Track Meet at Pelham Bay Station . . " 120 The Modified Marathon, New York City " 200 Yale-Princeton Baseball Game, Princeton, N. J. facing page 208 Hockey Practice, McGill University . . " 224 The Daily Dozen Set-up . . . between pages 254-255 A Football Game of the Nineties, Springfield, Mass. facing page 268 A Football Match in the New Yale Bowl " 270 xiii INTRODUCTION ATHLETICS AND PREPAREDNESS INTRODUCTION WHEN AMERICANS FOUND THEMSELVES UNPREPARED IN September of 1914 a metropolitan news- paper on its editorial page published the fol- lowing: AMERICANS, PEACE, AND PREPARATION BY WALTER CAMP Guard your shores and train your men, Teach your growing youth to fight, Make your plans ere once again Ships of foes appear in sight. Teach new arts until you hold In your bounds all things you need, Then you can't be bought or sold; From commercial bonds be freed ! If Manhattan rich you'd save, If your Western Golden Gate ^ Train a field force, rule the wave, Every day you're tempting fate ! Build your ships and train to arms, Make your millions fighting strength That shall frighten war's alarms Ere they reach a challenge length ! 3 4 ATHLETES ALL A huge professional army may lead directly to war. Many believe that it does. But a home force of cer- tain preparatory experience is a duty that the condi- tions to-day are forcing upon our senses. With a navy and the possibility of calling into action a third of our male population our security would probably be assured. How shall we prepare that third? We must make it patriotic and fashionable to drill. The first step toward that should be undertaken by the athletes of colleges for the force of example. Make it possible and popular through the force of the example of the leaders, and we shall have a wave of military training sweeping the country and leaving behind it something far more valuable than the usual resultant of enthusiasm. But when the war actually came to us we were unprepared. More than that, we then learned of our inherent physical weakness when 29.11 per cent were rejected in the draft ! But we set our teeth and went to our task. Unlimited money, the turning over of prod- ucts and material to the government without profits, and finally the offering of self in the service that is the answer that the citizens of the United States made to the call of their country ! Money, material, and men these INTRODUCTION 5 three, if efficiently used and given time, will win any war. Up and down the broad Hillhouse Avenue in New Haven, under the quiet arching elms, tramped the khaki-clad youth whom only a few months ago I saw in football uniform try- ing for the team. The sharp signals of the quarter-back had given place to the "one, two, three, four ! " of the drill-sergeant. Two thou- sand of these boys, from seven in the morning till sundown, were learning the new lessons. At Princeton and Harvard, at Pennsyl- vania and Cornell, at Columbia and at hun- dreds of other seats of learning the same thing was going on. And what of the older men? At the Biltmore, in New York, one evening I met Fred Stevenson, the captain of that '88 crew that for so long held the record of the Thames. He looked tired and worn. He had been in Washington working up the details of his specialty telephone service for the govern- ment. An hour later I met at the Yale Club Vance McCormick, the old football captain and quar- 6 ATHLETES ALL ter, just back from Washington and hurrying on there again. He remarked with the same *tired and drawn face: "I wish I could get some exercise." I caught Fred Allen, of Lee, Higginson Com- pany, another old crew captain, just rushing off, with hurry and worry stamped on his fea- tures, to Washington, but having time to introduce me to Brown, of Harvard, who brought over Iselin, and we talked about what George Wharton Pepper, of Pennsylvania, and the National Board of Defense were accom- plishing. At Bonbright's they were awaiting the return of Fred Walcott and Harry Stimson from their pilgrimage through the West for universal military training. And so it went all these men throwing themselves into the cause ! On my desk lay dozens of unopened envelopes with the names of financial firms. There was no need to open these. Each would say that their services were at the call of the government and their clients, to place the bond issue. But there were other envelopes. When I began to open these I found the contents bore one important question repeated in various forms: "I want to INTRODUCTION 7 do something of service to the country. What can I do?" Then with the vision of the tired faces of those men with whom I had talked and who had found what they could do, and with the thought of all those others who were asking the question, I sat down to study out an answer. I knew I would never have let a foot- ball man look as McCormick looked without "laying him off" for a day or two. I knew I should have despaired of a race rowed by a crew looking, on the day before, as Fred Ste- venson and Fred Allen did. I knew that if as many men as were writing me letters were offering themselves as candidates for a team, I could have a squad that would mean a won- derful eleven when they had been through three months of preparation. Then came the realization that all these men needed a something that meant the same at forty that it had meant when they were twenty, but in different form. It meant a course of training or else some of them would "go fine" from overwork and some of them would be useless from no work. The Watt Street Journal told a little story 8 ATHLETES ALL the other day. A Western railroad president of unusual ability and energy settled his earthly accounts a few weeks ago. The de- spatch said: "Railroad men in the West felt a great loss, and Eastern financiers saw a vacant chair that could not be readily filled." A year ago a friend had said to him: "You are over- working. Let me introduce you to my doc- tor." And the doctor said: "Your vitality is undermined. I see it in your face. Your brain has overtaxed your body. Take a vaca- tion immediately." The railroad man replied that he had then no time to rest. Some months later his friend found him in bed, but he said : " I shall be up in a week. Your doctor was right, but I cannot rest. My salary is fifty thousand and I have just received a bonus of fifty thousand. One cannot accept this remuneration without assuming the responsi- bilities that go with it." His friend urged him once more on the basis of his value to the road, but the railroad presi- dent replied: "I shall be out in a week. I must be on the job. Responsibilities will not let me leave at this time. Later I can rest." Later he did rest. He rested forever ! INTRODUCTION 9 WHAT WAS THE MATTER? Of what value can a man be to the govern- ment or to his country when a greater power than his business or his government gives orders for his final rest ? But why was all this true ? Why did we have 30 per cent rejected in the draft ? If a man thought he had one hundred thou- sand dollars in the bank and then found upon trying to draw upon it that his balance was only seventy thousand, he would feel that some examination was necessary. Let us face things as they are. We found a rejection of 30 per cent of our men under the draft, and that certainly should be enough to cause us to make a pretty careful examination into the reasons. Such physical education as we had must be revised. Those who advocate still continuing the foreign systems which we have been teaching our physical leaders in the last fifty years pretty generally admit now that some kind of a change is necessary. If this is so, why not take advantage of the cumulative wisdom of those who have made a scientific study into the matter and couple this with the 10 ATHLETES ALL practical side, which means that we should save all the time possible and get results, and then make a real effort to throw off the yoke of "old-fashionedness" going on doing things because they have been done, even though we have found that they have not produced the proper results. In other words, do just what we have done with boats, aeroplanes, guns, and everything else, discard the obsolete and take up the modern. There are plenty who know the utter failure of the present methods and who have recently put their knowledge into print. Take, for instance, Doctor Delano and Doctor Bolin. The former, a practising physician of large experience, who has made a study of this matter, says: "Since muscle gives us the readiest exhibition of energizing, man- kind falls into the error of assuming without further examination that muscular contraction is exercise. The reductio ad absurdum of the dynamic view of exercise might be illustrated by a man taking a dumb-bell in hand, resting elbow on a table and flexing the forearm on the arm. If he increased the weight and the number of contractions daily, we may be sure that the biceps would respond by increasing in INTRODUCTION 11 size and power; there would be much work done, as measured by foot-pounds, but what of exercise ? From our point of view a negli- gible quantity thereof, in no sense proportion- ate to the time and effort !" And then he goes on to say : "Elaborate attention has been given to all the varieties of systems through which muscles are enlisted to make effort. Small wonder, then, that, coming to the runner whose char- acteristic pose of thrown-back head and open drawn-down mouth, depicted with fidelity he should speak of the platysma as the 'last mus- cle of effort.' This goes on further than to say that it is a part of the grand strain. But the speed of the runner could not be increased by any action of the platysma. As well to say that the barber, snapping his eyes as he snapped his shears, was increasing his effec- tiveness. On the contrary, the platysma is a muscle of respiration and the runner is uncon- sciously striving to increase his thorax capac- ity. It is the last muscle of effort but effort to breathe not to run." Of the things we have been doing: "Even more wearing than daily toil, though, must be 12 ATHLETES ALL that sublimated work that men submit them- selves to under the name of exercise. Over- strenuosity at the period of growth must nec- essarily lead to an overconsumption of energy. The result is fatigue, but a fatigue to which the mother nervous system contributes the greater part. To make muscle exertion the supreme test of exercise is to make a fetich of muscle." Then, turning to Bolin, probably one of the most widely studied of the experts on gymnas- tics, who, after something like twenty-five or thirty years of it, concluded that setting up gymnasium exercises for the arms, legs, or pectoral muscles was not worth while. That should be a relief to many a boy and man who would rather play than do "monkey drill." And Bolin and the others are right. Dis- card all setting-up work for arms and legs. Get the work for these members in wholesome play. Let the set-up exercise be brief, con- densed to eight or ten minutes, and devoted entirely to lifting the thorax, suppling the big muscles of the trunk, and gaining poise and balance. Had we but done this years ago INTRODUCTION 13 there would never have been 30 per cent of rejects. WHY ATHLETIC SPORTS ARE ESSENTIAL Never were truer words put on paper than those in an editorial of the government public folder called "Personnel," published by the War Department, as follows: "But the man is wanted always. His strong, healthy body and alert brain are assets, and with each succeeding day of the war those assets increase in value." Now, with all this in mind, and facing the fact that we were turning men into service by the hundred thousand, taking them out of their home environments and throwing them into large camps, cantonments, and stations, it was very manifest that the proposition was a huge one, and without definite plan and or- ganization there would be the usual results from chaotic conditions, waste motion, and what was still worse, the loss through bad supervision of quite a percentage of these men who had been fortunate enough, even in our hit-or-miss way of doing things, to have the physique and such normal condition of health 14 ATHLETES ALL as should enable them to pass the draft exami- nations. These men were all taken out of their home environment, where each had looked forward at the end of the week to at least a half day's amusement and athletic sport. They had their local organizations for play. They had relaxation from their work. They had all that goes to make a sort of week- end mark to be looked forward to, and in which to'become refreshed for the next week's toil. We must with the military training give them something of this kind to duplicate the home environment, or we should certainly find these men looking for interest and excite- ment in lines that would result in the rapid deterioration of their health and condition. Their daily work would, as we have indicated above, take care of the muscular development of their arms and legs, and would give them enough hard exercise of a kind to strengthen up the heart muscle, but all work and no play makes Jack a very dull boy. We need not waste any time on the development of his mus- cular system, which would be taken care of with the routine work that he was doing in drill and service. We needed a standardized INTRODUCTION 15 setting-up exercise of very short duration for merely suppling purposes, and as indicated above, for the improvement of the thorax, the prevention of constipation, and the general poise and balance. This was devised and put into a majority of the service stations. Then we needed play and recreation. With this must come the interest and excitement of com- petition. We needed regimental teams to fos- ter this. We needed station teams to increase it, because then outside competition at week- ends and holidays would be possible. We put in athletic directors and began organized work. We had baseball, football, track athletics, swimming, boxing, cutter races; in fact, all that went to bring about this normality of athletic play. The American boy is not satis- fied to simply go out into the field and throw a baseball around or kick a football aimlessly or do any of what may ordinarily be called "in- formal athletics." He needs a stimulus and incentive, because he has been educated along these lines. He has been taught in street, school, college, business wherever he goes what we so familiarly call "the fighting spirit." He must measure his prowess against some- 16 ATHLETES ALL body else. His team must measure its prow- ess against some rival team. There must be some reward for hard and faithful practice. There must be some reward for brains and skill. It must spell VICTORY for the men who have the brains and skill, who have faith- fully practised and who have the fighting spirit or pluck or sand call it what you will. So we fostered all this. We built upon the foundation we had and lifted this spirit even to a higher plane. We went on developing the spirit of loyalty, of team-work, and of un- dying courage; the kind that responds when the ball is on the 1-yard line and fights to the limit; that comes back over adversity, disre- gards apparent defeat, and possesses that opti- mism which believes that it can still be turned into victory. And the result of all this was that the foreign nations were simply astounded when they found that we could really make fighters in a real war in a few months. And when they and the Germans saw the stand at Chateau -Thierry they were convinced. In other words, we builded upon the mimic war- fare of our playing-fields and turned that mimic warfare into the real thing. But had INTRODUCTION 17 we not had the numbers we should have badly missed that 30 per cent of the unfit that had to be turned back before we could start. While appreciating to the full that it was the fighting spirit of our boys due to our athletic training in sports that brought us through, we should not lose sight of the fact that we ought to follow up that 30 per cent of rejects and bring them up to the others. A NECESSITY TO AMERICANIZATION With the cessation of war, the athletic situa- tion throughout the country became fraught with enormous interest. We had reports from the front which showed that every country in Europe was beginning to take notice of the wonderful effect of athletic sports upon men in our service. So steadily had this increased that all sorts of demands were being made for assistance from the United States in develop- ing similar sports abroad that they might pro- duce the same kind of active fighting men. Meantime, developments followed each other fast and furiously here. Every naval station, every army camp and cantonment, even aviation stations and submarine bases 18 ATHLETES ALL had during the war taken on the exhilaration and conditioning features of modern athletics. In the commandeering of the colleges and the new draft, taking men from eighteen to twen- ty-one, further regard had to be paid to the athletic side of the equation. All sorts of experiments were tried at various colleges in the last year in the way of informal athletics, but without satisfactory results, and whether the future will bring more intercollegiate con- tests or not it is certain that the element of competition will be strongly brought in. "Hit-or-miss" athletics, contests in which there is no excitement or rivalry, degenerated speedily into lack-lustre affairs belonging to no one, and having the detrimental feature of permitting men to slack, in fact teaching them to slack. The real thing that our ath- letics have done to make a nation fit for war has been largely to infuse the fighting spirit and quick co-ordination as well as discipline. It is not so much the physical development which we find must be taken care of in addi- tion, as the mental equipment in which their results have been so marked. It is the old story. For twenty-five years our athletes INTRODUCTION 19 have been taught not to be quitters, to regard the epithet of "yellow" as the worst possible disgrace, and finally to subject themselves not only to the rigorous training but also to the prompt response to discipline which has been characteristic of all our sports. All this we must continue. Perhaps we have specialized too much. That is probably true, but we have certainly taught not only to the individual contestant but to the boy in the bleachers the ambition and fighting spirit which make winners. In further plans this factor must not be lost sight of. Our athletic fields have been the melting- pot for all our various nationalities in the last twenty years. Playgrounds have been par- ticularly strong in this respect for the last five years, and credit for the latter should certainly be given to the Playground and Recreation Association as well as to the Y. M. C. A. and other allied organizations. We need more Americans. We need every effort centred upon making us a compact na- tion, assimilating not only its foreign-born but those of foreign parentage. The men from the 20 ATHLETES ALL Turn Vereins proved the best qualified physi- cally in the War of the Rebellion, and the North American Gymnastic Union, the suc- cessor of the old Turn Verein, is showing this quality in the ranks to-day. Men who play together and exercise to- gether soon grow to know and understand each other, and the farther this development is car- ried the more homogeneous and physically pre- pared will be the product. Secretary Lane has said the Russian disaster came from the ignorance of the Russian people and the fact that so large a percentage of them has never participated in the affairs of their own country. The popularization of physical education, its introduction into the public schools and colleges, the operation of public playgrounds, the sound and simple method of gymnastics or calisthenics, will go far toward improving our people in bringing about more American- ization. Every agency which has possibilities along this line should be drawn into service. INTRODUCTION 21 THE ASSET OF THE NATION HER YOUTH No greater opportunity for national service had ever come to men than that offered by the Students Army Training Corps. The commandants at these colleges had the same type of men to handle as those who at the declaration of war rushed from every college and university in this country into the service, and who, according to the testimony of offi- cers and departments alike, have "made good." This body of young men was perhaps a couple of years younger than those who went at the call of country but of the same stock and, in fact, helped out by the addition of some of the best men that otherwise would have had no opportunity to go to college. The S. A. T. C. has been mustered out of ser- vice, but many of the boys themselves remain. So do thousands in the schools. All the experience already acquired through the development of the physical side, sports, recreation, and general preparation in army cantonment, camp, and naval station, must be brought in to aid this situation. For this rea- son this compilation of facts and suggestions 22 ATHLETES ALL has been gathered, made up partly of experi- ence with hundreds of thousands of men in stations, and partly through twenty-five years' familiarity with college sports and the develop- ment recently of these sports into the making of men fit for service. One of the cardinal features to be borne in mind is that of leadership. The great demand and the great problem is to discover men who are not only capable in other ways but who are able to prove successful in recreational leadership, for a man who is a successful play leader throws himself into the work body and soul, and this above everything else has a most vital effect upon the general condition of our schoolboys and college athletes, as it did upon the enlisted men. In other words, the enthu- siasm, the discipline, the ability to get action and at the same time to make decisions soon render a force far more effective because full of vitality, enthusiasm, and that so-called "pep and ginger" which is contagious. Primarily it should be remembered that this war has taught us that all the art, literature, and education of the country may be at the mercy of a savage people unless the nation has INTRODUCTION 23 enough real men who are ready to fight to pre- serve the things that a people value. It is therefore necessary that a nation should be made up of people who individually possess clean, strong bodies and pure minds, who have a respect for their own rights and the rights of others, and in addition possess the courage, strength, and discipline to redress wrongs. The true leader and the real sportsman pos- sesses a chivalry that protects the weak and preserves veneration and love for parents and country, and believes in the physical strength necessary to make that chivalry effective. This is what the service of this country has taught. We have made the boys of this coun- try realize that manual labor which they pos- sibly have known only in sport, but which they then learned in the service, has a dignity of its own; that discipline is one of the essential features for rounding out a man in order that he shall become an asset to his country. We have learned that sports and a consciousness of courage and strength used for fair play are cardinal factors in this development. With all this we realize fully that the mere manual of arms and evolutions become a 24 ATHLETES ALL pretty dreary routine after a few months; that unless youth has relaxation in the form of sport and recreation he either breaks down or breaks loose, with disastrous results. For this rea- son leaders should be developed to understand how to make boys play. The modern boy is past the old stage-coach days, and he does not care for "hit-or-miss" athletics. He wishes to do something that has an organized side to it, and which puts some premium upon skill and brains. He may temporarily put up with minor things, but in the long run his sports have to have something of those higher quali- ties. In order to help leaders in this way not only are the smaller games described in brief, but general methods of coaching, in the hope that it will prove of service to coaches who perhaps in the last year or two have become somewhat rusty, as well as to all boys who are looking forward from their school days to something that the country demands; namely, that physical fitness and preparation that makes a youth a real asset to the fighting strength of his generation. INTRODUCTION 25 DEVELOPMENT OF SPORT Perhaps we shall get a better perspective of the situation if we go back and study a little the history of the development of sport and what our beginnings were and how we have developed from informal games to the organ- ized ones. There were certain outdoor sports which have always been practised as long as boys were boys and nature provided facilities, such as skating, sliding down-hill, and the like. We go back previous to 1850. Here the writer has had an opportunity, owing to the fact that soon after graduating from college he wrote to many men who were then well along in years to learn what the games of their youth had been. The earliest and most common sport of boys that took on the nature of a game was unquestionably "doing stunts," or rather "stumps," as they called it in those early days. From 1840 to 1850, we must remem- ber, was the day of the omnibus and stage- coach and, even in large towns, of the town crier. The games that prevailed then among the boys were "I spy"; "follow the leader" 26 ATHLETES ALL a development from doing stunts; "punk," a game wherein one boy among a group would be given a ball, and he was privileged to "plug" or "punk" any other boy with the ball. Immediately upon his throwing it there ensued a scramble, and the boy who succeeded in getting the ball was then privileged to "plug" or "punk" another. Swings were then common, and almost every yard had a swing for the younger children. All commons or parks had these swings and also what was called a "fandango," which had a swinging seat similar to the modern Ferris wheel. Some of these were 40 to 50 feet in height. The general sports of the street were noisy ones and mischievous ones. The noisy ones consisted of swinging what was known as a locust. This was a round tin box with kid stretched over one end, a horsehair threaded through this end, this horsehair well rosined and then tied to a stick. Swinging this around made a fiendish noise like the locust, from which its name was derived. Bean blowers or putty blowers were the great thing, and were used on laborers, drivers, and the like. Then there were bow guns which shot INTRODUCTION 27 buckshot or, on necessity, screws, and were used not only in killing cats but to irritate and sting men and boys. Holiday afternoons were usually marked by trouble of this kind, as well as stone fights, where bricks and stones were thrown. Seacoast towns also made use of oyster shells for this purpose. There were also marbles, kite-flying, walking on stilts, peg- top, and, naturally, swimming and sailing, as well as rowing. It was in the early part of the fifties that development along more organ- ized lines was beginning to be felt. " Tip-cat" was giving place to "rounders" or "one old cat." The single sled was being doubled up and made into a double runner. Rowing was taking on definite lines. "One old cat" had developed into "two old cat," and speedily into what boys knew in those days as "one, two, three"; that is, a game where the fielders move up to become batsmen. Then came more organized base- ball the "Massachusetts" game and the "New York" game. Developments were rapid just after the Civil War, and baseball became the recognized and fully developed pastime with definite contests wherein skill 28 ATHLETES ALL counted; nines made tours of the country; rowing, which had been taken up at the col- leges, developed also along some lines of com- petition. Football of a rather mongrel kind, developing from soccer football, came into vogue, and track athletics as a side-show to the intercollegiate boat-race and the baseball game made almost a three-ringed circus at the end of the summer term. These were the be- ginnings and the developments, and just as the material advances in inventions altered our daily lives, so did sport become a recog- nized part of them and speedily took its place. When any country or people has developed in this fashion, they have never been known to go back. Perhaps the days of the stage-coach were better and more quiet than the days of the motor-car and the telephone. Perhaps when the flying-machine becomes a means of transport our lives will be still more crowded and hurried, but at any rate history has shown that people do not give up these things, nor do boys, youth, and men themselves give up or- ganized sport after it has once come in. In fact, as Professor Richards showed many years ago, organized sport has produced INTRODUCTION 29 greater order in schools and colleges. It has taken the place of the town and gown riot and the thousand and one mischievous pranks played before the days when these organized sports had such a hold. It is therefore prob- able that our major sports will continue and it is possible that other sports developing to a higher plane will become major sports. It is highly improbable that we shall go back, abandon the sports where organization, train- ing, and skill count, and take up once more the informal sports of the early days. We shall, however, endeavor to spread not only these major sports but the development of simpler games for the odd occasions. Such of these as lend themselves to what has come to be known now as "mass athletics" deserve further development. It is well worth while to give a thousand men exercise and pleasure with some measure of competition in a leisure hour. The further these are developed into contests where skill and invention count, the greater will be their chance of continued life. I am giving, therefore, in this book those that have proven of interest, and several of these will admit of further development. CHAPTER I CARE OF THE BODY THE care of the body is one of the most im- portant features not only for the development of the athlete but also for the preservation of the general health and condition. Naturally, boys up to twenty-one do not as a rule have to think so largely in terms of general health as do the men who later on have forced their energies into business careers involving seden- tary lives. But the same preparation that the boy gives to his athletics promises a capi- tal start for his preservation of health in later years. Parents and faculties should therefore sym- pathize with the training for athletics along these lines. There are three elements that in addition to exercise co-operate most strongly toward mak- ing the boy or man fit, and those are fresh air, water, and sunshine. Out-of-doors as much as possible, outdoor athletics in preference to indoor athletics, open windows, especially 83 84 ATHLETES ALL in sleeping-rooms or, better still, sleeping- porches, will give a boy fresh air and sunshine. As to water, it should be used freely internally and externally. Every boy's day should begin with a cold bath and rubdown, the careful brushing and cleaning of the teeth, for upon the preservation of these depend his future fitness not only for athletics but for military service, and the teeth should be cleaned after every meal. A moderate form of modern set-up exercise should be used once a day, de- voted not to tiring a boy out or in any way detracting from his enjoyment of his sport later, but to stretch and supple the muscles and to bring about an erect carriage. This will be dealt with in special detail, and the best form, as proved by the use of nearly three-quarters of a million men, will be given specifically in the second volume of this series. Breakfast should be a good meal, not taken in gulps on the rush to prayers or recitation a reasonable amount of time should be devoted to it. As soon as the boy finishes his rubdown in the morning, and before dressing, he should drink two glasses of water, not iced, but of the temperature of the room. It is as well to have CARE OF THE BODY 35 an hour elapse after breakfast before taking up play and games that require vigorous exer- cise, but the average boy can take moderate exercise pretty soon after breakfast. Studies usually occupy most of the morning. The boy should drink another glass of water before luncheon and avoid drinking very much with meals. If he takes seven or eight glasses of water a day (and none of these should be taken immediately after exercise, but when he has cooled down) he will not have that de- sire to drink with his meals which often leads to getting too little nutriment on account of the contending thirst. Every boy should be particularly careful to have shoes that fit him, as the care of the feet is very important and really means the well-being of the athlete in any of his sports. Tight shoes, or shoes that do not fit, breed trouble afterward. Blisters should be taken care of at once. Particular attention should be paid to any abrasion of the feet. It is not advisable to dress too warmly when exercising. The time when care should be taken is immediately after exercising. A healthy boy can stand almost any amount of 36 ATHLETES ALL cold while he is in action, but it is softening and weakening to wear too heavy clothing when exercising. A reasonable time, at least half an hour, should elapse after exercising and a rubdown before eating, and a boy should not eat when he is exhausted or tired, resting for a certain period to prevent this. The last part of the evening before retiring, or at least half an hour, should be a period of relaxation; that is, the study book should be closed and an interesting story read or the Victrola started, or something of this kind, as it is inadvisable for a boy to go to bed with the brain stimulated by intense study or the working out of problems, which usually means restlessness for the early part of the night. Late suppers are, of course, absolutely taboo for the athlete, as is also tobacco and alcohol. Tight collars, muffling up the throat and making it sensitive anything, in fact, that impedes the circulation or tends to make ten- der any part of the external skin should be carefully avoided. Clean socks, clean under- wear, and in general a belief that the body is worth taking the greatest care of should be the creed of the athlete. Regulation baseball in city park. Improvising play. BOYS IN THE CITY. CHAPTER II GENERAL HYGIENE IN the department of the care of the normal body we have already touched upon the mat- ter of personal cleanliness, the advantage of cold baths, fresh air, and the like. One more word on the care of the teeth. The ordinary youth may think that in brushing his teeth he is merely conforming to a social usage, but he is doing much more. He is a small engine and is dependent upon the quality and condition of the fuel, and what he eats and drinks is that fuel. If he contaminates it by not taking perfect care of his teeth, that fuel will not be as effective and may prove the cause of a condition that will prevent his doing his best work. Particularly after each meal and upon going to bed at night and rising in the morn- ing the teeth should be brushed. It is well not to use tooth-powder on them of tener than once a day. And one suggestion more before we go on to the subject of food. Wet clothes and wet 37 38 ATHLETES ALL shoes have never yet harmed any man who was in good physical condition so long as he was exercising and keeping his blood in circu- lation by that exercise. But to sit in wet clothes and wet shoes and stockings and to cool off after exercising has harmed many a man and many a boy. It is not the getting wet, but it is the getting chilled in these con- ditions, that does the harm. Every young man should remember this and keep warm and keep the blood in circulation until the oppor- tunity comes to change. Don't stop, but keep in motion until you can get off the wet clothing, for it is a regard for that caution that will keep you well. Now, as to food. Nature has provided the ordinarily healthy youth with a good diges- tion, and she will stand sponsor for him as long as he does not go contrary to her laws. A young man who rushes through his meal will probably be immune from difficulties for a considerable period of time, but sooner or later, having called upon nature to do her work in a way which she dislikes, she will make him pay for it. Nature never meant him to bolt his food, but to take his time GENERAL HYGIENE 39 about it and enjoy it; and let it be clearly understood that upon his digestion depends the success or failure of the athlete. Nature has not endowed the boy with a love of sweets without reason. But she never meant him to live on candy or pastry. She meant him to get the most of his nutrition in good solid food, and just as soon as he makes sweets take the place of solid food he is storing up trouble for himself to a moral certainty. First, then, let him remember that ten or fifteen minutes taken off that last bit of sleep in the morning will be well worth while if he adds it on to his breakfast- time, and, as to sweets, let him remember to make the propor- tion of these small. One other thing he should bear in mind is that nature did not mean him to take a mouthful of food and then a drink and so on. But it is very easy to get in the habit of doing this, and then it seems to the youth that na- ture craves that flooding of the meal with con- stant drinking of liquid. As suggested earlier, he will find that that desire disappears after a time of self-sacrifice, particularly if he will take a good drink of cool, fresh water imme- 40 ATHLETES ALL diately after his bath in the morning and just before retiring at night. Nor should those drinks be ice-water. Water the temperature of the room in which he sleeps is always cold enough. And plain fresh water is the only drink that should be taken in any other way than a swallow or two at a time. As to sleep, the average boy at school or even the youth at college does not get enough. When he is growing and building up bone and muscle, nature demands long hours of sleep. Nine hours is little enough for a boy to take, especially if he is growing fast. Some men can get on with less, but it is not worth while to cut that limit down if it can be secured. More than that, it is always bet- ter to take it from ten to seven or from quar- ter of ten to quarter of seven than it is to take it from twelve to nine, vacation notwith- standing. And a man should always fill his lungs with good fresh air several times before turning in and immediately upon jumping up in the morning. All animals stretch and yawn, and the human animal can afford to do some of that stretching when he turns out of his bed in the morning. Later in this book Regulation baseball in the woods. Improvised play. BOYS IN THE COUNTRY. GENERAL HYGIENE 41 we will give some of these simple stretching exercises that have been used with great ad- vantage in the service stations. A youth finds that there is one thing which he needs in baseball, football, golf, tennis, and almost all the sports, and that is what his coach would call "a good eye." I have known a fielder on a Varsity nine who had formerly made a good record to make occa- sional errors in judgment of flies, and upon taking him to an oculist found that those errors were simply an indication of a defect in his eyesight. It is worth while in athletics, to say nothing of other pursuits, therefore, to take care of those eyes and see that they are not abused. A boy may manage sometimes to read or write and get along, even though he is abusing his eyes, and very likely the first indication of trouble may come in his athletics. The eye is a very kind friend and will stand a great deal of work if that work is done under proper conditions. Get a good light to study or read by, and wherever there is a possibility of choice, make it daylight. Don't tire your eyes, or continue to use them when they feel tired, but give them a few minutes' rest now 42 ATHLETES ALL and then and begin over again. It will pay in the long run. The slightest difficulty in vision or any trouble with headaches should send a youth to an oculist at once for examination, in order to correct the trouble early. Men do take part in various forms of athletics with deficient eyesight, but it is a distinct handicap. CHAPTER III PLUCK PLUCK is one of the greatest elements in ath- letics to-day and the one par excellence that in the long run determines the winner, whether in sports or in the greater game of service, as well as in the struggle for success in life that must come to every man. And in this con- nection I wish to relate one of my earliest ex- periences in athletics. At that time track athletics had not become as prominent as it has of late years, and it was rather difficult to get a large number of entries. Consequently the management came to those of us who were football and baseball players and were busy with our practice, and urged us to enter the track games. As I was in excellent condition from other athletics I was not averse to try- ing this, and entered in the quarter-mile and the high hurdle. I had about two weeks in which to prepare and naturally spent most of it in work over the hurdles. Quarter-milers 43 44 ATHLETES ALL will be amused and interested in the fact that I did not view the 440-yard race as one that would particularly exhaust me, thinking that my football and baseball training had made me quite able to stand it. I was very much interested, however, in the distance apart that these two races should be placed on the pro- gramme and made inquiries accordingly. I was assured that the quarter-mile would come very early and the hurdle very late in the games. At that time we were having our football practice about 3.30 or 4 in the afternoon, and we were having luncheon at 1 o'clock. I was not eating a light luncheon either. I did not realize this in my youth and inexperience, and while we had a trainer we did not have the benefit of his constant advice in matters, as the boys do to-day. Hence, I ate heartily at luncheon at 1 o'clock and went directly to the field and had hardly time to get into my clothes and running-shoes when it was time to start for the 440. There were six of us entered, and three of us soon pulled away from the others. In those days we did not have a 220-yard straightaway, but started on PLUCK 45 the back-stretch of the track and ran on up around the upper curve and down to the fin- ish. When we were going the last of the upper curve the leader was about two yards ahead of the second man, and I was on the shoulder of the second man, endeavoring to pass him. He was holding on, however, and I was finding difficulty in getting by him. But as we entered the start for home he wab- bled and fell across in front of me, so that I stumbled and nearly went over him, and as I gathered myself I thoroughly realized that 440 yards run at full speed is a long distance, even for a hardened football or baseball man. I finished second, but owing to my late lunch- eon and the partial tumble I felt very ill and certainly had no desire to enter any more races that afternoon. However, I realized that I was pledged to go into the hurdles, but desperately hoped that it would be very late in the afternoon before it was called. I was sitting on the porch of the house where we dressed, with my head in my hands, feeling pretty sick, when an upper classman with whom I had merely a speaking acquaintance came up and, patting me on the back, com- 46 ATHLETES ALL menced to encourage me and told me how well I had done for a first try and wished me every success in the hurdles. Under his en- couraging words I really began to feel quite a bit better, but just then the starter came over and called the men to the marks for the hur- dles. It was not at all in accordance with what I had expected, and for a moment I felt very much like quitting then and there. My friend urged me, however, to go on, and I went out to the start feeling very wabbly. There were some five entries, but there was only one man who was really prominent in this event, and he was also a high jumper. I had played more or less football with him and knew that I could beat him on the flat, but that his style and form would be much better than mine and the chances were that he would more than make up in getting over the hur- dles what I could gain on him on the level. However, while these things were going through my head, we were getting on our marks, and presently the pistol cracked and we were off. This man led me all the way from the first hurdle. I would gain a little between hurdles but lose it on the jumps, PLUCK 47 and by the time we reached the eighth hur- dle I was feeling pretty miserable and about ready to let him have the race when I heard my upper-class friend from the crowd on the side of the track yelling: "Go on you've got him !" Again, with renewed courage, I felt a determination to win come over me. My rival cleared the last hurdle more than half a stride in advance of me, but I succeeded in beating him out on the flat to the tape, a thing which I never should have done had it not been for the encouragement. Now I tell this little episode to show what an effect on the result an element of confi- dence or determination, or whatever you please to call it pluck, if you like has upon the contestant. It is equally true in the great game of war, as our marines showed when decimated at Chateau-Thierry. I thought this thing over a great deal in my next year of athletics, and realized fully that there was something that came into me through that encouragement which enabled me to make the necessary extra effort in order to win, and studying over it, I came to the conclusion that that quality certainly had been in me, 48 ATHLETES ALL but would not have been roused to action had it not been for the friend outside. I therefore argued that, if that were the case and every man had that quality in him some- where, only latent, if a man could bring it out either in himself or in his team he could have a double chance of victory. I have used this theory many times since in coaching. Now when you get in a race or in a contest of any kind or in a severe struggle in the ser- vice of your country, you must remember that a point comes when every one is tired and when it is only those who have this pluck, endurance, or some element within them which enables them to temporarily throw off the fatigue and depression that eventually win. In looking forward each youth should bear this in mind and determine that so far as in him lies he will exhibit that quality which, once acquired, I promise you, is help- ful not only in school but in college and in later life. CHAPTER IV ENERGY AND PERSISTENCE PLUCK is a great asset for the would-be athlete or the man in service. There is an- other quality which in many cases is equally necessary and in some cases, namely, that of a youth who has to build up from a frail phy- sique, an absolute essential. That quality is Persistence. At a recent gathering of the candidates of the track team in one of our large universities where there were some three or four hundred men present the story was told of a small, insignificant chap, weighing only between 90 and 100 pounds, who came out as freshman and ran for three years be- fore making good, but eventually proved one of the best distance runners in the colleges. Nor is this in any way an isolated case. The writer remembers very vividly a man who came out for quarter on the football team who was so insignificant as to be practically despised for the first two years; the third year 49 50 ATHLETES ALL f .\ it was impossible not to take notice of him, for, although playing on the scrub, he made the Varsity more trouble than anybody else on the field; and toward the latter part of his third year he got a chance on the 'varsity. From that time on he held the place, and in his senior year was one of the best quarter- backs that the 'varsity had had. Now both these men were compelled to work and wait. Success looked indeed far off to each at the end of the first year of struggle, and probably by the middle of the second year the ordinary man would have abandoned the undertaking in discouragement, but each stuck to his task and never gave up, never lost confidence, never lost hope, until in the end the result was achieved. Now this is what we might call long-time persistence. Persistence of a different character is equally essential in every athlete. It is the willingness to try over and over again any play in order to see where one's weakness lies and eventually to correct that weakness. It is perseverance and persistence combined. Yet a man may go on trying a thing over and over again day after day and make little progress if he is not will- ENERGY AND PERSISTENCE 51 ing at the same time to concentrate his atten- tion. He must find out where the mistake is and how to correct it, and then force himself to make the effort repeatedly until it becomes natural for him to do it in the right way. I remember once seeing a man in a shell who was being coached vigorously by the head- crew coach. This would-be candidate was one of those men who find it almost impossible to concentrate their attention or to fully con- trol their muscles for any length of time. Temporarily, he would row well, as long as he kept his mind absolutely on his hands, his back, his slide, and the various other parts that went to make the proper stroke. But after an effort of a few minutes he seemed to be too lazy to hold on to what he had learned, and would go all to pieces again. The coach who had thus succeeded in getting him straightened up and rowing well was coaching another man in the boat when he suddenly turned back to this unfortunate Number 3 and called out: "What are you doing, Num- ber 3? Did you know you were in a boat? You look to me as though you were an old woman in a rocking-chair." Now this was 62 ATHLETES ALL perfectly true and just and the man deserved it, because he could row if he kept persistently at it and perseveringly concentrated his atten- tion on each part of his work all the time that he was in the boat. I have given instances of track athletics, football, and rowing, , all from real life. I could give a hundred in baseball, both professional and amateur. The value of persistency in an aggregation of men rather than in an individual has been often demonstrated in baseball. Take, for instance, the contest some years ago between the Chicago Cubs and the White Sox. After a couple of tie games the Cubs won three straight. Now surely here was a case where all possible odds were against the White Sox. The score stood 3 to against them. The Cubs had but to win one more game and the series would be over. Then the White Sox went to work and persistently, persever- ingly fought the issue out until the games stood three apiece, and then having tied the series, won out in a blaze of glory with a tre- mendous victory for the final. So I would say to every one who reads this book, look these things over. Note how the ENERGY AND PERSISTENCE 53 successful man or the successful team or the successful regiment has always those two ele- ments of pluck and persistence. Learn what it means to you at the beginning of your career to conquer discouragement, to plod ever on with confidence that it is only a ques- tion of time and that you must in the end succeed. Then and then only will come the rewards. The man who has won his way never has the dangers of the downfall which are ever present to the brilliant but erratic man whose natural talents are great but who relies upon that rather than upon hard work. CHAPTER V FAIR PLAY AN ESSENTIAL IN ANY FORM OF ATHLETIC SPORTS FINALLY, before going into the detail of the various sports in our schools and colleges, the writer is tempted to appeal to boys and young men to remember at all times that the future of athletics lies in the hands of those who are coming on and who can make that spirit good or bad, just as they wish. Thackeray once wrote: "Who misses or who wins the prize? Go lose or conquer as you can, But if you fail or if you rise, Be each, pray God, a gentleman." And upon many occasions I have taken the opportunity of quoting this at school and col- lege dinners as one of the best mottoes for any man who goes into athletics. I would further expand this by asking every football- player and every other athlete to bear in mind that one of the first principles, and a cardinal 54 FAIR PLAY 55 one, of fair play is to have confidence and belief in the integrity and good spirit of the opponents as well. It is not playing fair to yourself to start out with the belief that your opponent is not going to play fair. At the request of the editors of the Phittip- ian, a Phillips Academy paper, a few years ago, I wrote an article in which I begged every boy who loved football and believed in its future to bear in mind that it is the dirty play and not the dirty field that blackens, that unfairness of suspicion will spoil any sport. Particularly is this true in a sport like football, which involves, as it does, almost continual personal contact. Here, no amount of legislation can take the place of a prevail- ing spirit of fair play. English Rugby foot- ball presents an excellent example of this in the rules regarding the scrimmage. One of their foremost athletes, in commenting upon the methods of play known as "wheeling the scrum" and "heeling out," said: "Both these methods are illegal under the letter of the rule, but no team would stand a chance that did not practise them." Now, while that illustrated the weakness of the rules, and 56 ATHLETES ALL showed that they ought to be changed if pos- sible, at the same time it spoke worlds of praise for English football-players, in that it indicated that neither team ever thought of accusing the other of attempts to take unfair advantage. Each team tacitly accepted the weakness of the rules, but was satisfied with the play because each team thought well and fairly of the other. The main thing, after all, is to learn the rules thoroughly, and be sure of what they mean; then play as hard as you like, but play fair, and believe the other side is going to do the same. Then you will have no regrets and you will have done your part to keep a good game where it should be. Bear in mind, if you are spectators and parti- sans, that when the opposing team comes over to your side of the field and you are cheering, and the little quarter throws up his hands to show that his team cannot hear the signals, it is your part and the part of the cheering lead- ers to bring the cheer to an end and give him a fair chance. Never cheer to distract the opponents. Cheer all you like to encourage your own side. Be as quick to appreciate the good play a long run by an opposing half- FAIR PLAY 57 back as you are to recognize the worth in your own men. No one expects you to be so self-sacrificing as to feel the same amount of pleasure in a victory by your opponents as in a win by your own side, but don't let that affect the cardinal principle of fair play. Another point that is well worth considera- tion is the irresponsible gossip which begins no one knows where and spreads until its poisonous effects have done untold harm to any sport. A man or boy is rather apt to like to make a good story and consequently mag- nifies some act of his own or of his opponents, which very likely at the outset was nothing of moment, until it becomes a serious breach of what is straight and right. Suspicion is added to suspicion, then quoted as fact, and, before the story stops, it bears absolutely no relation to the original act. Don't believe these stories and don't circulate them. A tale was told, which I later had the opportu- nity of proving entirely false, of a half-back on the second team of a prominent university being accused of an attempt to lay up one of the first-string backs in order to secure his place on the team. When I heard the story 58 ATHLETES ALL I denied it on the grounds that I did not be- lieve that in any university there was not sufficient college spirit, first, to prevent a man from doing this, and, secondly, to pre- vent his boasting of it, even if he had any intention of doing it. It later developed that the whole thing was a hoax played upon a very gullible man who was known as easy to fool; two boys had told the story to him with embellishments, and he had repeated it. The man who was accused of this confessed the whole joke when he saw what a serious aspect it had been given. Every man should be particularly careful about jokes of this kind which may eventually hurt the sport in which he is interested, al- though perhaps understood by the immediate members of his team. Ill INFORMAL GAMES AND STANDARD- IZED INSTRUCTIONS CHAPTER VI DEVELOPMENT OF ATHLETICS IN SERVICE STATIONS FOR a year and a half athletics have been conducted in the stations of America on the theory that without recreational sport no civ- ilization is complete. The men who have organized and developed it are possessed of the conviction that the lack of it caused the German nation to lapse into the fallacy of militarism, and that when Germany learns the true spirit of sportsman- ship and of play there will be hope for the future of that country. Whether America would lapse into a species of barbarism or not without athletics is no longer a debatable question to the men who control the destinies of the service, for their belief and practice is that through the or- ganization and development of recreational sport in the stations the civilization of the New World has been conserved at its highest ideals during the most exacting period of ci 62 ATHLETES ALL American life the eighteen months' duration of the country's participation in the World War. I can speak most authoritatively for the work in the naval stations and aviation fields, but the same conditions prevailed in the army camps. Surveying briefly the organization and growth of recreational activities since the date of America's entry into the World War, the general statement may be made that in all the large stations and in most of the smaller a programme of sports has been placed at the disposal of the enlisted men comparable in variety and extent with that of any univer- sity or any available for the typical young man of America in his home city. Every seasonal sport has been organized by a station team, while regimental and other unit play has been developed in as complete intermural competition as has been possible under the peculiar conditions which exist in every individual station. To-day, with the curtain rung down on the drama of fire and bloodshed which has held the world stage for four years, we may for the first time take stock of results. ATHLETICS IN SERVICE STATIONS 63 How different to-day are conditions in the camps from those in existence in any and every war of the past, American, European, or Asiatic ! For the man of the past who entered mili- tary service, particularly that of the sea, the curtain fell, and his career was a closed book till, like a hermit emerging from a cave, he stalked again into public view at the close of his patriotic struggle, which he had lived through under conditions that were often depressing. Lacking the spur of wholesome sport, his days were cheerless in the extreme. To-day the boast is possible that the World War of 1917-18 was fought by America with her navy men surrounded with recreation, and the results are evident in America's achievement in placing on sea duty the best- conditioned, happiest-hearted, and highest- spirited navy ever gathered in the history of the world. Without stint or defection, the services of the organizers of athletics in America have been at the disposal of the men in uniform of their country, and a glance at the group who 64 ATHLETES ALL have directed recreational sport in the stations will attest to the truth of the statement that the service of these men in the loftiest of sportsmanship was merely transferred from the commercial to the patriotic sphere. No branch of athletic activity has been overlooked in the list which has been installed in the stations, and the programme which has been everywhere put into effect has been or- ganized to meet the peculiar conditions exist- ing in each individual station. Three divisions might be made of the recre- ational-sport activities: those directly aimed at the promotion of physical fitness, those that afforded protection for the marine fighter, both offensively and in self-defense, and those that aimed to divert and interest the enlisted men of the stations. And again, the games themselves were divided into two classifica- tions, group and small team or individual competition. Defining the training of the men at the navy stations as "an effort to fit them for sea duty," athletics became instantly of prime impor- tance as an adjunct of daily routine. Condi- tioning young men universally is a novelty in ATHLETICS IN SERVICE STATIONS 65 any American group, whether in school, fac- tory, or counting-room, as well as even in military service, but the experiment has been pushed so scientifically and thoroughly among the men in service at the stations that the dream of universal physical fitness has now dawned upon the American nation generally, until not only are the colleges of the country revising their recreational-sport programmes so as to make universal participation in some form of physical exercise compulsory, but business executives are establishing similar simple systems for their operatives, clerks, or employees as the most effective and econom- ical form of industrial insurance. The stand- ardized, shorthand system of physical-fitness exercises known as the "daily dozen" has largely revolutionized the general conditioning form of drill given the men in the service. Until its adoption, lack of standardization and installation of cumbersome, if not actually harmful, physical-fitness exercises had been reported. While the spectacular events participated in by navy teams in the popular seasonal sports football, baseball, track athletics, and 66 ATHLETES ALL rowing had the eye and the ear of the Ameri- can public with an intensity hitherto devoted exclusively to college sports and the games of the professional world, the development in the navy stations of the individual enlisted man in the art of aggressiveness and self-de- fense was no less important a factor in the general navy training. The comment which has been made and which is universally admitted to be true, that individually the German foe was no match for the individual fighting marine, is a tribute to the success of this branch of training in phys- ical fitness in the navy stations of the United States. Every device of muscular achievement, both aggressively and in the art of self- defense, was included in the programme of physical training which was taught. How to grapple and conquer a Teutonic opponent who possessed a bayonet, although his Ameri- can marine antagonist was unarmed, was shown by physical instruction, by group and by individual lessons, as well as on the mov- ing-picture screen. How to creep upon a sleeping German camp and, using the devices ATHLETICS IN SERVICE STATIONS 67 of physical cleverness taught in American navy stations, smother two slumberers, allow- ing the possibility of a third awakening and being met on equal terms by the American marine, was one of the lessons given. Both offensive and defensive physical cleverness was assured by the instruction, which was given by the most skilful boxers, wrestlers, and experts in jiu-jitsu in America. Not only were American lives saved by this skilful in- struction but the aggressiveness of the Ameri- can marines at Chateau-Thierry and in the Argonne was doubled by the specialized phys- ical instruction which preceded their gradua- tion from their home navy stations. The relation of boxing to bayonet fighting, with constant drill in the most efficient methods of obtaining proficiency in both, has been empha- sized throughout the navy-station training. Standardized rules for teaching boxing, swimming, and wrestling in the stations have been put into effect, allowance being made, however, for individual conditions in the dif- ferent stations. Mass games, allowing the participation of several hundred men, have been perfected by 68 ATHLETES ALL the athletic directors in the stations, and gen- erally introduced in the larger districts, and it is from these that we have the opportunity to develop in school and college more of the gen- eral participation. The writer's belief is that they should in no way displace the major sports, but should be supplemental to them. Many of them will probably die out in time, but some will live and give more pleasure and exercise to the American boy. CHAPTER VII STANDARDIZED INSTRUCTIONS STANDARDIZED SWIMMING INSTRUCTIONS 1. Uniformity of drill, regardless of number in class or previous aquatic training of any individual. 2. Space men so that free-arm movement is possible. 3. Land drill for arms: Position. Stand erect, heels together, arms at sides. Arms sideways; raise to level with shoulders. Bend arms forward from elbows to right angle with upper arm. Left arm brought sharply down to thigh. When this point is reached the right arm describes the same movement, while the left arm is carried upward and sideways until it reaches a position at right angles with shoulder, when the stroke is completed. The right-arm stroke is completed exactly like the left. Continuity of action is a vital point essential to perfection of this stroke. 4. Leg action: Enter shallow water. Each 70 ATHLETES ALL pupil assumes a horizontal position, face downward, supported by hands. Arch instep. Legs as near the surface of water as possible, and not more than four inches apart. Legs must have free action from hips, and alternate continuously in quick, shallow kicks. No co- ordination is required between arm and leg movement. 5. When leg and arm action have been mas- tered, divide group into teams of two. Num- ber one grasps number two about hips, giving necessary support while arm and leg action are used together. At the conclusion of a reasonable time, teams shift positions. 6. There is no deviation from this routine until all have mastered the art of swimming. 7. Have adopted the crawl stroke as the most satisfactory for the development of swimmers of all classes. STANDARDIZED INSTRUCTIONS IN BOXING AND WRESTLING Boxing 1. Instruct in balling fists, the proper plac- ing of weight on feet, with weight a little on front foot. Practise three steps advance and Boxing bout. Wrestling match. AT THE PELHAM BAY NAVAL STATION. STANDARDIZED INSTRUCTIONS 71 with left jab, three steps retreat with left hook. 2. Instruction on left hook. 3. Instructions on right cross to belly. Wrestling 1. Ordinary hold around the waist; the in- struction on how to break such hold with the knee or heel of the hand or with the head. 2. Headlock and break. 3. Strangle hold and flying mare. 4. Waist hold and flying mare. 5. Double wrist lock. 6. Jiu-jitsu leg break. 7. Knife protection. 8. Breaking arm in clinch. 9. Block to kick. SUGGESTED PHYSICAL EXERCISES FOR THREE- WEEK PERIOD First Week Squads of not more than 250 men for recre- ational thirty-minute period 1. Limbering-up exercises: Front rank, hands placed on knees, rear rank slapping backs of file leaders, about face, same exercises. 72 ATHLETES ALL 2. Pulling match: Ranks facing each other, right-hand palm down, left-hand palm up. Grasp opponent's wrists and pull. 3. Pushing match: Same formation, right hand against opponent's left shoulder, left hand on opponent's arm, push. 4. Rooster fight: Arms folded, one foot off ground; make opponent touch ground with hand or foot held up. 5. Forward relay: Each man running twen- ty-five yards and around a man stationed at that point, returning and touching next man. Man finishing falling in at rear of line. 6. Backward and forward relay: Lines facing away from man stationed fifteen yards away, man runs backward around man; returning, running forward touching back of next man, then lining up in front of front man in line. 7. Mount tag: One man is "it," and can touch any man who is not on the back of another; a man mounted on another man makes both exempt. The game becomes lively when a man being chased tries to climb the back of some man already mounted. In the resulting spill "it" can touch any one of the three. Second Week Squad of between 100 and 150 men in two rows at six-pace intervals 1. Forward relay: Partners holding inside hands running twenty-five yards around man stationed at that point, returning and touch- ing next pair. 2. Backward relay: Partners holding inside hands, facing away from man stationed fifteen yards away, running backward around man, returning, running forward and touching backs of next pair. 3. Human-burden relay : Man carrying part- ner on his back to man stationed fifteen yards away, dropping him, and being carried back to starting-point, when next pair runs. Squad in two lines at five-pace intervals 4. Leap-frog race: Station three men at ten- yard intervals in a forward-bend position, hands placed on knees; man running straddle- vaults three men, then runs back and touches next man. 5. Mount tag: Already described in first week's programme. 74 ATHLETES ALL NOTE. Each platoon is requested to have ready for the third week's programme a "billy," made of canvas, two feet long, two inches round, stuffed with rags. Third Week Squad in two lines at five-pace intervals 1. Shuttle relay: One-half each line facing in single file, the other half twenty -five yards between leading men; on starting signal lead- ing men from same side run twenty-five yards toward opposite man, who starts when touched by runner. Man finishing lines up in rear of line on the side he finished on. 2. Shuttle cane relay: Same as first, except that man starting carries cane and hands to second man, etc. 3. Shuttle backward relay: Lines about facing and running backward to reach second man. 4. Front rank play three deep. Rear rank play policeman's " billy." 5. Rear rank play three deep. Front rank play policeman's "billy." NOTE. Policeman's "billy," or "whip to the gap." Men line up in a circle at arm's length, hands behind back. Game is started STANDARDIZED INSTRUCTIONS 75 by one man running around circle with "billy " ; when "billy" is placed in any man's hand the recipient tries to hit the man on his right (runner replacing recipient in the ring), chas- ing him around circle until he reaches place again, when runner keeps on going until the "billy" is placed in another man's hand. Three deep: Form double circle facing cen- tre, front rank inside, rear rank directly be- hind. One player is "it," another player is the runner. "It" and the runner must keep on the outside of the circle and must not cut through it. The runner must get in front of some "two" before being tagged and the rear man in that "two" becomes the runner. In case the runner is tagged he becomes "it," and chases the man who was "it," who now is runner. RULES FOR HAND-GRENADE THROWING The bull's-eye of the first target is placed 75 feet from the front of the trench, the second 100 feet, and the third 125 feet. These dis- tances should enable a majority of the con- testants to score points at each distance. There will be five circles on each target, 76 ATHLETES ALL which will be outlined on the ground. The circles will increase in size according to the distance the grenades are thrown, but the same number of points will be scored for hits on each target. There will be a distance of 12^ ^et between the outer circle of the first target and the outer circle of the second, and 7^ feet between the outer circles of the sec- ond and third targets. The event is preferably a team contest. Four men will compose each squad, and the team scoring the highest number of points will be declared the winner. Following are the rules governing the event: First: The hand-grenade used shall be the standard iron barrel-shaped United States army grenade, weighing eighteen ounces. Second: The grenade shall be thrown from a space 3 feet wide, 4 feet long, and 6 inches deep. The manner of throwing shall be the prescribed military form, a brief description of which follows: No free-style throwing shall be allowed, and a judge shall be appointed to disqualify any one using other than the approved form.* * Later experiments have been tried in " baseball " swing. STANDARDIZED INSTRUCTIONS 77 The contestant faces at right angles to the line of the throw, with the grenade grasped firmly in the palm of one hand. This arm should be extended at the side, while the other arm is outstretched in the opposite direction toward the target, so that both arms and shoulders make a straight line. The feet should be about two feet apart, the foot and leg nearest the target being straight and pointing in the direction of the throw, while the other leg is bent at the knee, the foot being at right angles to the line of the throw. The body is bent sidewise at the waist and hip. To throw, the leg and body are straight- ened and the throwing arm is brought up in a vertical plane passing through the target, while the other arm is brought down sharply. The grenade is released at the highest point of the arc. The arm used should be kept straight, the elbow being bent only slightly, if at all. Third: Seventy-five feet from the throwing line or front of the miniature trench a bull's- eye with five circles shall be marked on the ground, the centre ring being 2 feet in diam- 78 ATHLETES ALL eter, the second 4 feet, the third 6 feet, the fourth 8 feet, and the outside ring 10 feet. One hundred feet away a second bull's-eye shall be laid out. The inner circle shall be 3 feet in diameter, and the others 6, 9, 12, and 15 feet respectively. One hundred and twen- ty-five feet away from the throwing line a third target shall be laid out. The inner cir- cle shall be 4 feet in diameter, and the others 8, 12, 16, and 20 feet respectively. Fourth: Each contestant shall have three throws at each target. Fifth: Each grenade landing in the smallest circle shall score five points; between the smallest and next larger circle, four points; between the second and third circles, three points; between the third and fourth circles, two points, and between the fourth and larg- est circles, one point. CHAPTER VIII FORMS OF CONTESTS INVOLVING LARGE NUMBERS OF MEN CHARIOT RELAY RACE THIS has proved the most successful of the mass games introduced into navy athletic pro- grammes during the war. It was devised by George V. Brown, athletic director in the first district, and was tried on Boston Common be- fore some 15,000 people and in other athletic meets in the first district during the summer of 1918. One of its great advantages is the fact that a hundred men can be used on a team. As many teams as are desired can be entered, making possible a total entry list in this event of several thousand men, if conditions warrant. This game is therefore ideally adapted to the larger stations and meets. Ten men run on a team in each relay, being relieved by another ten, who in turn are succeeded by the next relay, this continuing till the entire team of a hundred men has competed. 79 80 ATHLETES ALL The apparatus is simple and inexpensive. It consists of two perfectly round poles about 2 inches in diameter and about 12 to 15 feet in length, connected with ropes at the ends. Six men run in the first line, grasping the pole, and four men in the second. They drag over the grass a toboggan, which can be purchased at any store where winter-sports articles are sold. On this toboggan is seated another man, who retains his seat throughout the race, notwithstanding the changing relays of the members of the different teams. As indicated in the accompanying diagram, four or more posts are driven into the ground 100 yards between A and B, and C and D, and between each succeeding pair, respectively, each set representing the distance of the race. The start and finish of each relay takes place at posts A and C, etc., respectively. The starters line up as the starters of an ordinary relay race, grasping poles M and N. At the gun they run from A to B and from C to Z), respectively, making a turn at B and D and back to the start A and C. The next ten men of the company are all ready to relieve these men and they take up the running. Going to the start. Under full steam. Three teams making the stai THE CHARIOT RACE. 8 MEN 1 POLE K g 4 MEN' &>. /$* -^ <\x> |7| TOBOGGAN X- \ f ' I r t * N t 1 g IL 1 I 5 t *! 1 o t u 1 t t ; TEA 1 * "... 1^ " <' . * 1 Oi ART AND FJNI8H START AN TEAM 2 t , v.... M N z --- ' g ".".... a FINISH 2 M N .. ...! ' " *M' N' ' k ' N O >> N"" 8 V.... DIAGRAM OF CHARIOT RACE. 82 ATHLETES ALL TRENCH BALL Using an ordinary football-field, or even larger grounds, teams of as many as seventy- five men line up on the 30-yard line. One of the teams is given three of the trench balls, which are made of leather and are about the same size as a 12-inch indoor baseball. There is a loop handle on one side through which to slip four fingers. The balls are thrown with an overhand motion similar to that used in throwing hand-grenades. If the balls are caught on the fly the catcher is allowed to ad- vance three steps before throwing them in return. If they are not caught on the fly they are thrown from the spot where they are picked up. The throws are consecutive, no team being allowed to throw the same ball a second time, until a return throw is made by an opponent. The game is continued, the two teams ad- vancing and retreating until the balls are thrown over the goal-bar. When a ball is thrown over the bar it counts one point and is out of play. The game continues until the three balls FORMS OF CONTESTS 83 have been thrown for goals. As a rule the game requires between nine to fifteen minutes before the three goals are thrown. Most of the games end with a score of 2 to 1. NOTE. This has proved a popular game at stations where it is desirable to keep 150 to 250 men interested in a light recreational sport. It calls for constant running, catching, and throwing. HARMLESS FOOTBALL The ball is kicked off from the centre of the field or, if the length of the playing-field is limited, from some point sufficiently distant from the receiving team's goal to allow its members to run the kick back. In a small playing space, for instance, the team kicking off would kick from its own goal-line. Following kick-off, the game proceeds ex- actly the same as regular football, with the following changes: 1. No tackling is permitted; a tag or a grasp stops the man. 2. Interferers for the runners may use their hands and arms to block an opponent. 3. Any number of forward passes may be 84 ATHLETES ALL made in each scrimmage, but no forward pass may be made after the ball has crossed the line of scrimmage. 4. Less than eleven men may play on a side. Furthermore, I have used the game as a warm-up and relaxation from the regular grind of practice, with fifteen or twenty men on a side, although confusion is apt to result from large numbers. NOTE. No equipment except a football is required. Any number of men up to, say, fif- teen can play the game. The rougher fea- tures of the game are eliminated, and it affords much recreation. Tripping, holding, and such features are, of course, barred. A similar game, devised in Australia, is known as tiggi tiggi touchwood. CAGE BALL An inflated, canvas-covered ball, 24 to 30 inches in diameter, is used on a playing-field 140 by 100 feet in dimension, one-third the size of a football-field. Two net cages, 20 feet in length, 4 feet in width, and 18 inches deep, made of rope and stretched between cross- arm uprights 30 by 50 feet apart, form the FORMS OF CONTESTS 85 goals, which are placed ten feet from the end of the field, the playing space therefore ex- tending ten feet beyond each goal. The official ball should be the Wilson No. 221 Cage Ball. The cages should stand ten feet from the floor to the upper edge, the goals attached to the regulation official up- rights, which are made of wood or pipe, with two cross-arms on each. One cross-arm is placed ten feet above the ground and is six feet in length, the other eight feet above the ground and six feet in length. Holes or eye- bolts are placed in the ends of the cross-arms. The cage is anchored by ropes coming from each corner to the cross-arms of the uprights. The field may be marked off by either whitewashed lines or by four flagpoles, one at each corner of the playing-field. The officials consist of a referee and four umpires, one at each side and each end of the playing space, to rule upon out-of-bounds plays, and to watch for all infractions of the rules, reporting them to the referee. To begin the game, the two teams line up twenty feet apart, facing each other in the centre of the field. One player from each 86 ATHLETES ALL side walks to the centre of the field, both grasping the ball. At the referee's whistle the rival teams rush toward the ball and the two players in possession of it strive to toss it to their respective team-mates. The members of the opposing teams try to bat, punch, or throw the ball till it is lodged in their oppo- nents' cage. When the ball touches the ground the ref- eree's whistle is blown and the players who possess the ball are made to raise it into the air, play momentarily ceasing till this is done. If the ball goes out of bounds, either at the end or side lines, the officials do not stop the play unless in their judgment the ball is being carried too far to make scoring possible. Then the referee blows his whistle, takes the ball, carries it to the side-line, and throws it into the air twenty feet into the field of play. Play continues thirty minutes, although two halves of different length, with five minutes' intermission, may be agreed upon. Three possible fouls may be committed: running with the ball, interfering with the cage, or kicking the ball. In case one is committed, the offended team is given the ball thirty feet FORMS OF CONTESTS 87 from the opponents' goal. The offenders must line up inside a point twenty feet in front of their own goal before play is resumed. A goal counts a single point and the total tally of goals is the final score. In case of a tie score at the expiration of time, play continues until one side has scored a goal. NOTE. This is one of the most successful games devised for mass play, and can be played by any number of contestants, from, say, 8 to 2,000. It is rugged, yet not over- strenuous. If played indoors the goals should be fas- tened by ropes to eye-bolts or cleats fastened to the side walls at each end of the playing space at the appropriate height above the floor. TUG OF WAR A manila three-stranded rope not less than 4^ nor more than 5 inches in circumference is used. A tape is affixed to the centre of the rope, and fifteen feet on each side are placed side lines. 88 ATHLETES ALL A centre line is marked on the ground, and fifteen feet on either side are two parallel side lines. The rope is taut at the start of the pull, with the centre tape over the centre line, and with the competitors' outside lines. A pistol-shot indicates the start and finish of the event. No mechanical device is used for holding the rope, but a belt is worn to protect the body of the anchor man. No man can pull on more than one team in competition, but preliminaries, semifinals, and finals may decide the winning team of a series. The event is won when one team pulls the side tape on the rope of the opposing side over the centre line, or at the end of three minutes, by the team whose side tape is farthest from the centre line. The pull must be made in a path not ex- ceeding fifteen feet in width, marked bylines for at least 100 feet away from the centre. No competitor is allowed to wear boots or shoes with projecting nails, or to make holes in the earth before starting the event. FORMS OF CONTESTS 89 Only the anchor man is allowed to pass the tape around his body. Each team is allowed one coach, who may count and use a megaphone. Every contestant pulls in a standing posi- tion and without any artificial aid. NOTE. Any number of participants can play this game, but thirty-five on a side are recommended. Seventy-five on a side makes an interesting game. Recommended for mass recreation in good-sized stations. VOLLEY-BALL, A playground measuring some 20 by 40 feet and a hollow ball somewhat larger than a tennis-ball are necessary for this game. The field is divided by a narrow net or a rope stretched across the short dimension, the top of the net reaching seven feet above ground. The object of the game is to keep the hol- low ball, or volley-ball, passing from one side to the other over the top of the net or rope, by batting it with either one or with both hands. When playing with young or inexperienced players the ball may be returned over the line 90 ATHLETES ALL either on a "fly" or after the first bound. If the ball is not returned over the line in this manner that is, if it touches the ground twice before it is started on its return, or twice during its passage from one player to another of the same team a point is scored against the side that has failed i. e., the serving side scored one point. If the serving side bats the ball outside of the bounds of the playground it is a foul, and the opposite side then serves the ball. Experienced players must return the ball on a "fly" i. e. 9 the ball must never touch the ground. If it does, the side that last batted the ball over the net scores a point. Teams may play either for a certain number of points or for a certain length of time. NOTE. As an active conditioning exercise for two teams of either eight to sixteen play- ers each, either indoors or outdoors, this game compels enthusiasm. MODIFIED FOOTBALL In modified football there is no running with the ball, tackling, or hard blocking, and groups of men can play the game without the FORMS OF CONTESTS 91 regular equipment. It can readily be played by service teams, as the only equipment really needed is a football. The game can be played on a regulation football-field marked out and with or with- out goal-posts. Or a space can be measured or paced out. Flags can be used instead of the white markings with very little change to the game. The game is entirely a passing or kicking game, and groups of men can play it in an informal way with considerable enthu- siasm. The rules are simple and can be un- derstood in a few moments. In case of dis- cussions the rules of football as explained in the Official Guide will be followed. Length of Field. 300 feet same as the regulation football-field without the end zones. Width of Field. 160 feet same as the regulation football-field. Goal-Posts. 18 feet 6 inches apart in cen- tre of the goal-line, 20 feet high, with cross- bar 10 feet from the ground. Field of Play. Marked off in 20-yard lines parallel to the goal-line. (NOTE. FLAGS CAN BE USED TO MARK OFF THESE 20-YARD LINES, PLACED ON THE SIDE-LINES, AT THE SAME TIME 92 ATHLETES ALL MARKING THE SIDE-LINES. WlTH THE FLAG MARKINGS FOR THE GOAL THE BALL MUST GO OVER THE HEADS OF THE OPPONENTS TO COUNT.) Players. Any number, preferably 11 men on a side. Length of Game. 40 minutes divided in two periods. The periods can be lengthened or shortened. Five minutes' rest allowed be- tween periods. Ball. Regulation football. Official. Referee with whistle or horn. Winner of the toss shall have the choice of goal. If winner selects goal, loser will kick- off. Loser of the toss shall have the same privileges at the beginning of the second period. Team kicking-off shall be on-side and shall line up as in regular football and shall kick- off from the regular 40-yard line. Opponents will line up as in regular football, or if there are more or less than 11 players they shall be arranged by the captains, except that they shall be 10 yards away from the kicker. On the kick-off the ball is punted out and not kicked off as in regular football. FORMS OF CONTESTS 93 PENALTY OFF-SIDE ON PUNT. BALL is BROUGHT BACK AND PUNTED FROM A MARK 10 YARDS BEHIND THE 40-YARD LINE. OP- PONENTS MOVE UP 10 YARDS. In receiving ball these rules will be followed : If the ball is caught before hitting the ground, the player catching same is allowed three long steps or jumps, and can return ball by either punt or drop-kick, one extra step being allowed for the kick. If the ball is missed on the fly, it is re- turned by a forward pass from a position where it is stopped farthest away from the opponents' goal-line, one step being allowed for the pass. If the ball hits the ground before it is re- ceived by a player, it is returned by a drop- kick from a position where it is stopped far- thest away from the opponents' goal-line, one extra step being allowed for the kick. A kick-over (touch-down) is scored by a drop-kick only over the opponents' goal-line, at any place between the side-lines. Two POINTS ALLOWED FOR THIS. The ball is then brought out 15 yards and a try for a goal is made, ONE POINT being allowed for the goal 94 ATHLETES ALL if made. If flags are used instead of goal- posts, the ball must go over opponents' heads between the flags. When a goal is being kicked, the opponents will line up behind the posts or flags and at a signal from the referee that the ball has touched the ground, they can run out and attempt to block same. If kick-over (touch-down) is made at a point near the side-lines and it is a difficult try for a goal from the allowed 15 yards, a punt-out will be allowed. With the kicker behind the goal-line at a point where the ball was kicked over, the opponents will line up behind the goal-line 5 yards away from the kicker, and when the referee's whistle has announced that the ball has been punted out, they may run out and attempt to prevent the kicker's side from making a fair catch. If a fair catch is made, the scoring side will make a try for goal from the spot where the ball was caught. If the ball is not caught, no try for goal is al- lowed. The loser of goal has the choice of the kick- off (punt-out) or receiving the ball. If the ball goes outside it is brought back Carlisle w. Yale, Polo Grounds, N. Y. MASS PLAY. FORMS OF CONTESTS 95 into the field of play 25 yards from where it went out of bounds, and the side who were in the act of receiving the ball will punt or drop-kick the ball, players on the kicking side being on-side. The opponents must be 10 yards in front of the kicker. Penalty for off-side play, 10 yards, the ball being brought back, and after penalty the team will again kick. IF THE PLAYER OF A TEAM DELIBERATELY TOUCHES THE BALL BEFORE IT IS RETURNED BY THE OPPONENTS, THE OTHER TEAM WILL RECEIVE A 10- YARD PENALTY FROM WHERE IT WAS FIRST TOUCHED, AND THE BALL WILL BE PUNTED OR DROP-KICKED FROM THE NEW MARK. PLAYERS TAKING MORE STEPS THAN AL- LOWED WILL BE PENALIZED 10 YARDS. RE- CEIVERS OF THE BALL WILL RECEIVE THE PENALTY AND BE ALLOWED TO PUNT OR DROP- KICK THE BALL. IF A GOAL IS MADE ON THE PLAY, IT DOES NOT COUNT, AND RECEIVERS WILL BRING BALL OUT 10 YARDS AND PUNT OR DROP-KICK. REFEREE WILL HAVE FULL JURISDICTION OF THE GAME. 96 ATHLETES ALL MOUNTBALL This is a game of ball played by half of the players while mounted on the backs of the other players. It is therefore desirable that the players be paired off so that the two in each pair should be of nearly equal weight and size. The players form a circle in pairs. To do this they line up two abreast, each with his selected partner. This double line then marches in a circle, halts, and faces inward. This will form two concentric circles. There should be considerable space between couples; in other words, the circle should be rather large in comparison with the number of play- ers. It is then decided by a toss-up or other- wise which of the two circles shall first be "ponies" and which shall be riders. The ponies bend forward from .the hips, pressing their hands against the knees, or thighs just above the knees. The knees should be stiff, not bent. The backs are thus bent forward and the riders mount, straddling the shoulders of the players who are ponies. The ball is put in play by being tossed from FORMS OF CONTESTS 97 any player to another, and the game consists on the part of the riders in trying to keep the ball in as active play as possible in a simple game of toss and catch, and on the part of the ponies in trying to prevent the catching of the ball. To do this the ponies must grow restive and turn around in any way they see fit, but must not lose their general place in the circle. When a rider fails to catch a ball all of the riders must at once dismount and run in any direction; the pony belonging to the rider who missed the ball picks up the ball immediately, and as soon as he has it calls "Halt !" All of the riders must then stand still, and the player who holds the ball tries to hit his recent rider. The rider aimed at may try to evade the ball by stooping or jumping, but must not other- wise leave his place on the floor. During this part of the play the other ponies remain in their positions in the circle, so that the one who is throwing the ball will not confuse them with the riders. If the player (pony) who throws the ball at his dismounted rider suc- ceeds in hitting him, all of the ponies and riders exchange places, the riders becoming 98 ATHLETES ALL ponies and the former ponies mounting them. If the player aiming the ball at his dismounted rider does not succeed in hitting him, the riders remount and the game goes on as before. It is not permissible for a rider to hold a ball at any time, no matter how difficult his position at the moment may be; he must toss it at once. It is well to have a leader, whether one of the players or not, who watches for mistakes, gives the commands to mount and dismount, and announces misses and hits. NOTE. This is one of the most strenuous games physically of its kind, and between ten and sixty players are the best number to at- tempt it. It is adapted to the playground or gymnasium, and a basket-ball or handball is used. JUMPING RELAY RACE A starting line is drawn anywhere between ten to forty feet from and paralleling a finish- ing line, in accordance with the distance it is desired to make the race, and the players line up in single file behind the starting line. When the signal is given, the first players in each file, who are standing toeing the start- FORMS OF CONTESTS 99 ing line, jump ahead with both feet till they reach the finish line. Then they turn and run back to the starting line. On his arrival at the starting line every player should touch the hand of the next player in his file, who should begin his relay in jumping as soon as his hand is touched by the returning player, who, after touching his successor in the relay, goes to the end of the file of contestants, thus allowing every player in the file to move up. The team or file wins the race whose final player is first to reach the starting line. NOTE. This game is popular at small sta- tions. No apparatus or training is necessary. Between ten and fifty players are recom- mended. OVER AND UNDER RELAY The players stand in two or more files, the files containing an equal number of players. The game is a passing relay, the files compet- ing against each other. The leaders of each file have two balls, bean-bags, or blackboard erasers. At a signal a ball (or whatever is used) is passed back over the heads of the players until it reaches the last one in the 100 ATHLETES ALL line, who keeps it. The leader counts ten after the ball leaves his hands and at once passes back the second ball between his feet, the players bending over to pass it along. When this reaches the last player he runs forward with a ball in each hand and takes his place at the head of the line, which moves back one place to give him room. At once he passes one ball backward overhead, counts ten, and passes the other between his feet. This continues until the original leader, who has been gradually backing to the rear of the line, reaches the front again, carrying both balls. The line wins whose leader first ac- complishes this. This game has some admirable exercise in it, keeping the players bending and stretching alternately. Quick play should be encour- aged. NOTE. This game is a combination of archball and strideball. It is adapted to out- door and indoor competition, and between ten and fifteen players make the best combi- nation. FORMS OF CONTESTS 101 STRIDEBALL The players are divided into two or more groups, which compete against each other, each having a ball. Each group stands in single file in leapfrog position, feet wide apart, to form a tunnel through which the ball is passed. The first players (captains) of each file toe a line drawn across the ground, and at a signal put the ball in play by passing it backward between the feet. When players become expert, one long shot will send the ball to the end of the line. The other players may strike it to help it along as it passes them, if it goes slowly. Should the ball stop or go out of bounds at any place, the player before whom this occurs must put it in play again, starting it between his feet. When the ball reaches the rear of the file the last player runs with it to the front, the line moving back- ward quickly one place to make room for him, and immediately rolls the ball back again be- tween the feet. This is repeated until the "captain" is the last player. He runs for- ward with the ball, places it on a marked spot twenty feet in front of his line, and returns to 10 * ATHLETES ALL his place at the head of the file. The file wins whose captain is first to return to his original position. Should there not be space for a point at which to leave the ball, the game may be fin- ished by the last player holding up the ball when it reaches the end of the line, or by his running forward with it to the head of the line. An Indian club instead of a ball makes a much more skilful game, the club being shoved over the ground, neck first. It is much more difficult to guide than a ball, re- quires greater deliberation for a long shot, and more easily stops or goes out of bounds. A basket-ball or small ball may be used. This is one of the best games for training self-control under excitement, as the precision needed for a long shot, especially with the Indian club, is very difficult under the cir- cumstances. NOTE. This is played both as an indoor and an outdoor game, adapted to between a dozen and a hundred players, with any ball, small club, or bean-bag as apparatus. FORMS OF CONTESTS 103 PASS AND TOSS RELAY The players are divided into two equal groups, which compete against each other. Each group is divided into two lines or ranks, which stand facing each other. There should be from ten to twenty feet of space between the two ranks. The game consists of passing a bean-bag up one of these lines to the end, when the last player runs across to the opposite line, tossing the bag as he goes to the end man in that line, who catches it and passes it down the line. The same play is performed at the other end, the last player running across to the opposite line, tossing the bag as he goes to the last player there. The lines move up or down one place each time a player runs across to the opposite rank. This play is repeated until the first one reaches his original position again, and the bag is passed to him there. Immediately on receiving it he should lift it high, as a signal that the play is completed in his group. The group wins whose first player is first to do this. 104 ATHLETES ALL The game may be made a little more definite by the first one having some distinguishing mark, as a handkerchief, tied on his arm. When players have some proficiency in the game, as prescribed, they may play with two bags instead of one, keeping both in play at once. In this form of the game the diagonal opposites start each a bag at the same time, that is, players Number 1 and Number 9. The game becomes thus just twice as rapid. The team wins whose Number 1 and 9 first succeed in both returning to their original positions, where they should hold the bags aloft. A score should be kept, each team scoring two points for winning a game and one point for every time that its opponents' bags touch the floor, either through poor throwing or bad catching. NOTE. Any kind of a ball or similar object may be used as equipment. Between sixteen and sixty players are recommended. The game is a year-around indoor and outdoor affair. FORMS OF CONTESTS 105 TARGET TOSS Three concentric circles should be drawn on the ground or floor, after the idea of a target. Their size will depend somewhat on the skill of the players, but for the youngest players the inner circle should be not more than two feet in diameter and the outer circle six feet in diameter. For those more skilled, smaller circles may be used. From ten to thirty feet from the outer rim of the largest circle a straight line is drawn on the ground to serve as a throwing line. Where there is a small number of players all may use one target. Where there is a large number, several targets should be drawn and the players divided into as many groups. Each group has three bean- bags, or, if out-of-doors, small blocks of wood, stones, or shells may be used. Each player throws in turn, throwing each of the three bags or other objects at each turn. The thrower stands with his toe on the throwing line, and tosses a bag toward the target. If the bag stops within the centre circle it scores fifteen points; if between the centre circle and the next larger one it scores ten 106 ATHLETES ALL points, and if between the middle circle and the largest, or outer one, it scores five points. For very little children a bag that lands on a line may score for the larger circle which it touches. For more expert players a bag landing on a line does not score at all. The player wins who has the highest score in five rounds of the game. NOTE. This is an indoor and outdoor game, practicable for between sixteen and sixty players. Stones, shells, or bean-bags are used as apparatus. ARCHBALL The players line up in two or more single files, which compete with each other as teams, and must therefore contain an equal number of players. The captain or leader of each team or file toes a line drawn across the ground and holds a basket-ball (a bean-bag or other object may be used). At a given signal he passes the ball backward over his head to the player next behind, who in turn passes it backward as rapidly as possible, and so on until it reaches the last player in the line. He at once runs forward, carrying the ball to the FORMS OF CONTESTS 107 front of the line, which moves backward one place to make room for him. He toes the line and passes the ball backward over his head. The play continues until the captain reaches the end of the line, and runs forward with the ball to his original place at the head of the file. As he takes his place there he holds the ball aloft as a signal that he has finished. The file or team wins whose captain is the first to return to his place. The game may be made very enlivening by passing several articles in rapid succession, each of a different and contrasting character, such as a basket-ball, tennis-ball, Indian club, heavy medicine-ball, bean-bag, light dumb- bell, three or five pound iron dumb-bell, etc. In this form of the game the last player must accumulate all of the articles before running forward with them, or the score may be made on the arrival of the last article at the rear of the line. NOTE. As a game compelling rivalry be- tween several teams of about ten players each, this is attractive, in both indoor and outdoor competition. Basket-ball, oat-sack, or bean- bag is used. 108 ATHLETES ALL MEDICINE-BALL TAG Forming a circle composed of ten to twenty players, who face inward, the game is begun with a player who is "it" standing inside the circle and trying to intercept any inflated ball of the medicine-ball type as it is being tossed from one player to the next. When he catches or touches the ball he is entitled to take the place in the circle of the man who has last handled it, and who thereby becomes "it." The game is played on a circle marked on the ground or gymnasium, about 25 feet in diam- eter, and the players may either stand or sit during the game. NOTE. Interest is lost if too great a circle, calling too many players into the game, is formed. DODGEBALL Any number of players form in a circle in two teams, one circle facing in, the players about four feet apart, the other team being collected inside the circle. The team forming the circle has a number of the basket, volley, or soccer balls which are available, and with FORMS OF CONTESTS 109 them attempts to hit players of the team in- side. As a player is hit he drops out and the game continues until all the players are out. The time required is recorded, the teams change places, and the game is again played, the team winning which requires the shortest time to put out its opponents. NOTE. The game is adaptable to either playground or gymnasium use, but a circle composed of not more than twenty -five play- ers is recommended. PRISONER'S BASE After selecting two teams of from eight to fifteen players, positions are taken on a play- field some 30 by 75 feet in dimensions, with a line across the field space marking off a section as a prison, the objective of the sport being to capture three prisoners. When either team has done this it has won the game. Any player may be made a prisoner by an opponent who left his base later than did the first player. If a member of Team No. 1 advances toward a base of Team No. 2, he may be tagged by any member on Team No. 2. He therefore quickly retreats to his 110 ATHLETES ALL own base to escape being tagged, in case an opposing player pursues him. If he is tagged before reaching his base he is sent to the prison of Team No. 2. Should a player from his own team run out to support him, this new player having left his base later than the pur- suer, he may tag the player from Team No. 2 and place him in the prison of Team No. 1. Prisoners may be freed when one of the players succeeds in tagging a prisoner without himself being tagged. If there are two pris- oners they may grasp hands and stretch toward their own team, thereby assisting in their release. Both are free if the first is tagged. When a prisoner has been captured all players must return to their own base be- fore another play is started. Only one pris- oner may be made at a time. All players must stand behind the line marking the front of their base. If one foot is put over the line, they have left their base and may be made prisoners by an opposing player who is still on his base. NOTE. This rather historic and somewhat complicated tag game allows the participation of only a limited number of players, but re- FORMS OF CONTESTS 111 quires no equipment. It is essentially an outdoor game. A referee is required and order must be insisted upon. Too many play- ers must not be allowed on the field at once. PASS BALL RELAY WITH ENCIRCLING Several teams, each, containing six to ten men, are chosen, the members of every team standing in a straight line next to one another. When a signal is given, the ball or other object which is used is passed sideward from the first to the last player in every team. As soon as the last player receives the ob- ject he turns and runs along the rear of his team, then along the front, then again along the rear until he arrives at the other end of the line, when he immediately passes the ball to the next player, who repeats the play by passing the ball again down the line, the last player in line encircling the team as before. This is repeated until every member of the team has taken his turn in the encircling, and the team members stand again as at the be- ginning. A variation of this game consists in allow- ing the players to stand one behind the other 112 ATHLETES ALL and passing the ball overhead or underneath from the first to the last player. In this case the last player runs along the right side of his team, down the left side, and again up on the right. When running around the ends a runner may hook his arm into that of the player at the end, thus enabling a quick turning. NOTE. Groups between a dozen to a hun- dred players will find this sport a lively game, adapted to agility and quick thinking. FOOTBALL BASEBALL Salient features of both baseball and foot- ball are combined in this game. The objec- tive of play is, as in baseball, to circle the four bases and thereby score in tally. Positions are taken by the nine players, as follows: One behind, one in front, one to the right, and one to the left of the home- plate; one just outside and one somewhat in- side first base; one just outside and one some- what inside third base; one just to the left of second base. The team at bat or on the attack sends a player to open the game. He steps to the FORMS OF CONTESTS 113 home-plate and, standing on it, kicks the ball into the field by means of a punt, drop-kick, or place-kick. In doing this he must not step beyond the home-plate. If he wishes to take one or more steps before kicking the ball he must begin behind the home-plate. Except as follows, the regular rules apply: (a) If the ball is kicked outside the foul-line on a fly the player is out. (6) If the ball lands inside the foul-lines and then bounces or rolls out, this is a fair play. (c) A player on a base cannot leave this base to run for the next one until the ball is kicked. (d) After a kick, a player on a base may run until he is put out, according to the rules governing baseball, or thrown out (see e), or until the ball has been placed on the home- plate by an opposing player. If the runner has passed first base and is approaching sec- ond (or third) base after the ball has been placed on the home-plate, he may continue until he reaches his base. This rule, how- ever, shall not apply to a runner approaching the home-plate; in order to score a run he 114 ATHLETES ALL must reach the home-plate without being touched with the ball. (e) A player is out who when off the base is tagged with the ball in the hands of an opponent, or who when off a base is hit with the thrown ball. (/) A fielder may throw or kick the ball to his team-mates. (</) Three outs shall end an inning, and nine innings shall constitute a game. NOTE. Two competing teams of nine play- ers are used for this indoor and outdoor event, which is usually played on a diamond of regu- lation size, with an oval football. CHAPTER IX GAMES ADAPTED TO SMALLER GROUPS WHOLLY apart from the games which are ideally adapted to large masses of men, a large list of recreational sports is available. These are of especial use for constant service in the stations or naval units in which a small number of men are quartered. The games are both for individual and mass play, and in- clude a number which call for military equip- ment and a number which require no equip- ment whatever. Most of these are designed for outdoor work, but require no specially constructed field. Many, however, can be given in gymnasiums or auditoriums where indoor sports are held. Complete descriptions of these games follow. TURN OUT ELI This event is a primitive form of football, without the ball. A man stands in the mid- dle of the field, with all the other competitors 115 110 ATHLETES ALL behind a line some fifty yards from him. When he calls "Turn out Eli," the other men run from their line the length of the field past the man the entire hundred yards to another line parallel to the line behind which they started. If the man in the middle has been able to tackle and hold one or more of the other competitors on their run across the field, the man or men held must join him, and when he next gives the signal "Turn out Eli," must help him tackle the other men as they run across the field, from line to line. The game continues till the men in the centre have tackled and held all the men who are running from line to line. This may be played by between ten and possibly as many as forty men. The game should last about fifteen minutes. HOPPING RACE In this event every individual competitor races with one foot either held in his hand and not touching the ground, or else with the foot bound and tied so that it cannot touch the ground, while the race is run with the com- petitor hopping on the other foot. GAMES ADAPTED TO SMALLER GROUPS 117 Between four and a dozen competitors should enter this race, which lasts about a minute. POTATO RACES These are the simple events in which every individual competitor picks up between ten and thirty potatoes lying in a row on the ground about two feet apart. The number of competitors varies between four and about a dozen men. THREE-LEGGED RACE In this event the competitors run a distance of between 25 and 200 yards in teams of two, each pair running with their inside legs tied together as they stand side by side. SACK RACE In this event every individual competitor steps into a sack and races, leaping ahead from 25 to 100 yards with the sack tied about his body. 118 ATHLETES ALL RELAY RACES These offer the greatest variety imaginable, including the straight relay, in which the sim- ple handkerchief or cork is passed, varied with all sorts of obstacle events and all sorts of regulations regarding clothing, articles car- ried in the hands and arms. As many teams as may be desired can be entered in these races. Usually from four to ten teams, of be- tween four and eight members each, are em- ployed. CRAWL RACE This is an individual event in which the contestants race from 20 to 50 yards on hands and toes without bending knees or elbows. A variation is for the entrants to lie flat on their stomachs and crawl 10 to 15 yards. Still another is .for them to race 20 to 25 yards on hands and feet, with backs toward the ground. HUMAN WHEELBARROW RACE The players are arranged in pairs, one be- hind the other, with the front man on the ground, with his hands on the starting line. GAMES ADAPTED TO SMALLER GROUPS 119 At a given signal the rear man lifts the front man's legs, and the teams, by pairs, race a short distance. CHARIOT PURSUIT RACE A square field, possibly a baseball diamond, or a circular track is used. Teams of four men are formed, with their arms locked, re- maining in that position till the end of the race. The teams are placed a given distance apart; if on a baseball diamond, each being stationed on one of the bases. The teams begin a pursuit race upon the referee's signal, the team winning which first catches the other. NOTE. This is not to be confounded with the mass chariot race, played with standard equipment and large number of competitors. RESCUE RELAY Any number of teams can participate. Each team is divided, one-half standing in file, one in back of the other at one starting line, the other half lying on the ground on their backs, twenty or twenty-five yards away. At a signal the first man of each file at the 120 ATHLETES ALL starting line runs, picks up the first man on the ground and carries him back to the start- ing line. The man carried is supposed to be wounded and should give no assistance what- soever, but is dead-weight, and the "fireman's carry" is used. As the first man crosses the starting line with his burden the second man in line starts. RESCUE RACE Two-men teams. Rescue men run fifty yards to "wounded men," lift them on their shoulders without any assistance by the wounded, and carry them back to the start. TRACK AND RUNNING EVENTS These may be held not only as simple run- ning races but as obstacle matches, with every competitor handicapped by material carried in his hand, on his back, or on his feet, as, for instance, wearing heavy shoes, carry- ing a bundle on his back, or a heavy stick or other weight in his hand. These races should have between four and a dozen men each, and last according to the distance over which the competitors run. The end of a sprint. Broad jump. TRACK MEET AT PELHAM BAY STATION. GAMES ADAPTED TO SMALLER GROUPS 121 SWAT TAG The men form a circle facing the centre and keep their eyes on the ground in the middle of the ring, with their hands behind them, palms up. One man goes around the outside of the circle with a "swatter" in his hand, which may be an old glove, belt, or any convenient object. This man is called "it." He starts the game by walking around the outside of the cirlce with the swatter in his hands, and placing it in the hands of any of the players. The person in whose hands the swatter has been placed, immediately strikes his neighbor on the right with it. This player to avoid being struck with the swatter runs around the circle once and back to the place that he has vacated. The player in whose hands the swatter has been placed has the privilege of placing it in the hands of any of the players. CROSS TAG A player who is chosen to be "it" calls out the name of another whom he elects to try to tag. A third, at any time, may run 122 ATHLETES ALL between the two other players. When he passes the line between them he becomes the object of the pursuit instead of the original second player. A fourth player may at any time run between the pursued player and the man who is "it," thus diverting the chase to himself, and this may be continued indefinitely. Whenever a player crosses between the chaser and the player pursued, the latter ceases to be a fugitive. Whenever the player who is "it" tags the player who is properly being chased, the tagged player becomes "it." RUN AROUND The men line up, three, four, and five deep, forming a circle, all facing the centre and representing the spokes of a wheel. One free man called "it" goes around the outside of the circle and strikes the back of a man who is the last in any line. The man struck does the same to the man in front of him, and when all the men in that line have been struck they all run around the circle to the right and endeavor to get their places in the line again. The man last to regain his position in the line is "it." GAMES ADAPTED TO SMALLER GROUPS 123 THREE DEEP The men form a double circle, all facing the centre, all the Number Ones directly in front of the Number Twos. There are two free men, one called "it" and the other the "runner." The thing is for "it" to catch the "runner," who runs around the outside of the circle, before the "runner" can get in front of any Number One. If the latter suc- ceeds in doing this before he is tagged, the last man in his line, namely, Number Three, becomes the "runner." If the "runner" is tagged he becomes "it," and chases the man who was chasing him. HUMAN BURDEN RACE The men form a double file back of a line and at a signal the men in the rear mount the backs of those in front and are carried to a line twenty-five or fifty yards away. They then reverse positions in back of this line and start back to the starting line, the one reach- ing that point first winning the race. 124 ATHLETES ALL SKIN THE SNAKE RELAY Any number of men, from eight to twenty on each side, may take part in this, forming two parallel lines. The men spread their feet, and the man in front puts his right hand be- tween his legs and reaches back and takes the left hand of the man in back of him, and so on down the line. At a signal the last man in the line lies down on his back on the ground, and each man in the line walks or topples back with his feet spread until all are on the ground. The last man to fall, the man in front, touches his head to the ground, then rises and starts forward, pulling his man after him. The hands remain grasped throughout the game, and the line first to resume its original posi- tion, skin the snake, wins. YOU'VE GOT TO Twenty or thirty men form a circle, grasp- ing hands firmly. Within the circle are hats, gloves, chairs, belts, medicine-balls, etc., and each man in the circle endeavors to make the men each side of him touch one of the objects GAMES ADAPTED TO SMALLER GROUPS 125 within the circle. The man touching an ob- ject drops out. If a break comes in the circle the man on the left of the break drops out, he being blamed for the break, as it was his right arm which let go. HAT GRAB Two teams, ten to thirty on each, face each other about thirty yards apart. The men on one team place their hats on a line between the two teams. At a signal all rush for this line and endeavor to get a hat and return to their places in line without being tagged. A man is tagged only when he has a hat in his hand, and when he is thus tagged he drops out. The game continues until one side is wiped out. BLACK AND WHITE, OR MUTT AND JEFF Two teams, up to twenty-five men each, face each other about four feet apart. One side is called "Black" and the other "White," or "Mutt" and "Jeff," respectively. We will take "Mutt and Jeff" for this illustra- tion. The instructor calls the name of one side, we will say "Mutt," which side im- 126 ATHLETES ALL mediately turns and makes for a line about thirty feet behind them. The side called "Jeff" endeavors to catch them before they reach this line, and throw them to the ground. The men thrown drop out of the game. The game continues until one whole side is elimi- nated. CANE-SPREE Canes about three feet in length are placed in the centre of the court or playing enclosure, alongside each other, in a line parallel to the ends of the court. The competing teams line up at the respective ends of the playing en- closure and, at a given signal, rush to seize the canes and to return with them to the end line of the court. The side which returns with the most canes at the end of three minutes is winner. No restrictions are made as to the methods used to secure the canes, except that no roughing is allowed, such as tripping, strangling, or kneeing. MOUNTED PUSH-BALL This is a variation of the dismounted event which has proved interesting and popular, GAMES ADAPTED TO SMALLER GROUPS 127 both with players and spectators. The rules are identical with the dismounted event. MIXED TEAM BELAY RACE This differs from the typical relay race be- cause an officer, usually a corporal, runs with the enlisted men, remaining in the rear, while the team runs in formation the entire distance. The half-mile has been found to be an excel- lent distance, and teams of seven men each are recommended. The position of the cor- poral as he finishes the race will be taken as the position of his team. CHAPTER X ROUGH-AND-READY GAMES GUN WRESTLING ANY number of men, equipped with broom- sticks, wooden rifles, or smooth clubs, are lined up into two squads facing each other some four feet apart. Every pair is given a club, and wrestles for its possession for a specified number of minutes. The side which possesses the most clubs or rifles at the end of the game wins. This is similar to the game " fighting foe for rifles." OVER THE TOP Two teams, composed of any number, ten yards apart, line up facing each other, the defensive team thus standing twenty yards distant from its goal-line. The team on the offensive tries to break through the line of the team on the defensive after the starting signal. Sides are then reversed, and the team wins which has the greater number of men 128 ROUGH-AND-READY GAMES 129 across the goal -line of its opponents after a specified time, usually two minutes. NO MAN'S LAND Two teams of five or six men each stand at equal distances from a table about two feet high and from four to six feet square, wearing boxing-gloves. At a given signal they run to the table, jump upon it, and fight for a minute or two. The side with the most men on the table when the bout closes wins. The con- testants are allowed to pull, push, or punch. NOTE. These three rugged games, adapted for a comparatively small number of contes- tants, are of direct benefit in stiffening the self-defense as well as the aggressive powers of the men in military training. They are an important aid in preparing men for overseas- fighting duty. CHAPTER XI GAMES FOR INDIVIDUAL OR PAIR COMPETITION DOG-FIGHT Two players kneel, facing each other, some three feet apart, with an endless strap or string which will not cut into the flesh over the heads, which must be kept back and up. At the starting signal the players pull until one drags the other off the mat or pulls his head forward, thus releasing the strap. THE LONG REACH The individual contestant marks a line on the ground or floor and toes it. With a piece of chalk or a stick he bends forward as far as possible from the line, and rises again to his original position without moving his toes from the line. The hand which supported the body in stooping to make the mark must not be drawn along the ground or placed on it a second time. 130 INDIVIDUAL OR PAIR COMPETITION 131 INDIAN WRESTLE By pairs the contestants lie side by side upon their backs, with arms locked and feet extended in opposite directions. They raise and lower their right feet twice. They lock heels at the third raising and each endeavors to bring his opponent's leg down to the ground, thereby turning him upon his face. COCK-FIGHT Two players are placed in a ring six feet in diameter on the ground or floor. They stoop and grasp their ankles and in this position they attempt to displace each other by shoul- dering. The player who loosens his grip on his ankles or who is toppled loses. ROOSTER-FIGHT Two players squat within a circle drawn upon the floor, placing a stick under their knees, with the arms under the stick and the hands clasped in front of the knees. In this position each player tries to tip over his op- ponent. 132 ATHLETES ALL STICK TWISTING Two players grasp a broom-handle high over their heads, bring the stick down be- tween them, thereby twisting it within the hands of one of the players. HAND WRESTLE Two wrestlers clasp right hands, advancing the right foot, and each tries to make his opponent move a foot from his position on the ground. RISING PROM PROSTRATE POSITION Each individual folds his arms across the breast, lies down on his back, and gets to his feet without using hands or elbows. NOTE. These purely individual stunts, by their variety and direct application to physi- cal improvement, are adaptable in a combina- tion of the combative and the play spirit. CHAPTER XII GROUP OF SPONTANEOUS GAMES, ADAPTED TO BOTH GYMNASIUM AND PLAYGROUND, CALLING FOR ONLY A SMALL NUMBER OF PARTICIPANTS WATER-BUCKET RACE EVERY contestant travels with a bucket half filled with water balanced on his head with his hands as firmly as he can hold it. The man who finishes the race with the mort water left in his bucket or pail wins. As con- siderable of the water is sure to be lost from the bucket during the race, the event has proved decidedly amusing. EQUIPMENT RACE By squads the contestants remove their shoes and place them, each pair carefully la- belled, in a single pile. The contestants dash from the starting line to the pile, some thirty- five to seventy-five yards away, pick out their own shoes, throwing as far away as they wish 133 134 ATHLETES ALL any shoes not their own. The squad which first arrives at the starting line with all the shoes of its members wins the race. KING RUN Two teams numbering between eight and forty men each are formed, and line up, the even numbers facing each other, all the men of the same side joining hands with arms ex- tended. When play begins one man from each team will leave his place in line and throw himself against the locked hands of any two men on the opposite side. If he breaks through, all the players to his left return to his team with him. If he fails to break through, he joins the opposing team. The sides alternate in sending men to break through, and the team with the most men at the end of a given period wins the game. CROSSING THE RUBICON On a long central line two teams of any numbers each are formed facing each other, every contestant with one foot on the line. At the start of play every contestant attempts to pull another over the line and succeeds GROUP OF SPONTANEOUS GAMES 135 when both feet of his rival have crossed the line. The captured player joins his rival's team, and helps it to pull all its opponents over the line. A variation of this game is given by each team having a prison thirty yards back of the line. When a team pulls an opponent over the line that player automatically goes into the prison. Members of each team may rush across the line, and if they reach the prison without being thrown, they may, with the prisoners they take, return to their own side of the line without molestation. When a prisoner is touched in prison by a member of his own team not a prisoner, he is free to accompany his fellow -team member back across the line. When a prisoner is captured one man of the side making the capture may drop back to prevent opponents getting through to him. The team which has cap- tured the most prisoners within a set time limit is the winner. HAND PUSH Teams of any numbers stand along a cen- tral line facing each other, one foot advanced 136 ATHLETES ALL to the line. The hands are held shoulder high, with palms facing outward. At the signal every player attempts to make his opponent move one foot off the ground, and to throw him off his balance. The player who succeeds counts one toward victory, and the team whose players outnumber their rivals in tallying is the winner. TOSS THE BLANKET RELAY Any number of teams, each composed of between sixteen and fifty, arranged in parallel lines, each team consisting of an even number of members, may be formed. The men op- posite each other firmly grasp hands with arms outstretched. Each team has a runner and two extra men. The runners at one end of the line stand some five yards from that end and the two extra men at the opposite end. When play begins, the runners leap upon the arms of the men in their team, who toss them the length of their line, just as they would toss a man with a blanket. The runner is shot clear of the line at the opposite end, where he is caught by the two extra men. He immediately turns and leaps upon the GROUP OF SPONTANEOUS GAMES 137 arms of the last men, who toss him up the line where he started from, and where he is caught by the two extra men. The team which tosses its runner back and forth first is declared the winner. IV ORGANIZATION AND MANAGEMENT CHAPTER XIII COMMITTEES IN SCHOOLS AND CAMPS THE earlier a youth learns something of the salutary effect of organization, the better will he be fitted not only for the minor parts of school and college life but for the major work that comes later, when he goes out into the world or into the service of his country. Many points of this description will also prove of value to non-commissioned officers, upon whom may fall the detail of conducting athletics in a camp or station. For this rea- son I advocate, even in the younger schools, the introduction of the principle of systematic method into all then* affairs, particularly in their athletic concerns. One has only to go back twenty-five or thirty years to find that even in the large colleges and universities matters were conducted in a very slipshod way, and methods of properly dealing with the athletic affairs were almost unknown. Each organization was quite independent of 141 142 ATHLETES ALL any other. When a manager and captain graduated there was very little for the suc- ceeding captain and manager to take over in the way of knowledge and experience, and the result was that similar mistakes were repeated over and over again. The first that I am able to find of any definite attempt to correct this was in the case of a captain who kept a sort of diary. This man was captain for two years, having been elected in his junior year, and by the end of his second year he had col- lected an amount of recorded experience in this diary which was of great value to his successor, to whom he turned it over. This particular diary dealt with football and de- scribed the various attempts at plays, where the mistakes were likely to arise, how to avoid them, what plays to use on rainy days, what methods to adopt when playing with the wind and playing against it, what teams had been unsatisfactory competitors, the de- tail of arrangement with visiting teams, and a number of like suggestions, which really started the first principles of carrying over from one management to another the bene- fits of acquiring wisdom in these matters. COMMITTEES IN SCHOOLS AND CAMPS 143 A similar course of procedure is open to any schoolboy captain to-day, and would prove valuable to his successor even though the details of management have now been very considerably improved so far as relates to the business end. Since that tune the de- tail of organization has grown to be much re- spected in the larger universities and colleges and many of the schools. There is no reason why this should not be taken up in the small schools and minor athletic clubs. In the first place, it would be found advisa- ble to amalgamate all the athletic interests in a school or club, at the same time keeping a certain amount of independent individuality. For instance, we will suppose that a school supports four of the main branches of ath- letics, namely, football, baseball, basket-ball, and track athletics. Each one of these should have a captain and manager and their ac- counts should be kept independently, but at the same time there should be a general ath- letic committee, upon which committee each one of these organizations has a representa- tive, and there should be a representative of the faculty on this committee, together with a 144 ATHLETES ALL certain representation of the graduates of the school. Financially, it is well to have all the receipts pooled into one common fund, the accounts of each being, however, kept sepa- rate, so that each manager has an especial in- terest in the economic running of the affairs of his association. There should be a com- mon treasurer and all the receipts should be turned into his hands and all expenditures made through him, each organization having special order forms; the accounts of the or- ganization should be audited once a year by a member of the faculty, and if there be a school paper the reports should be published in this school paper. Of course, in the large universities, football is now the main support of the other branches of athletics, although as a rule baseball is quite self-supporting. The other organizations in a university, like track athletics and rowing, must be supported either by subscription or by the overplus coming in from football and baseball. It will be found on organizing them into a common association under a committee that purchases can be made more effectively and quantity discounts taken advantage of, COMMITTEES IN SCHOOLS AND CAMPS 145 and at the same time that the tendency toward extravagance of any one organization which makes more money than is expended in their own support is considerably checked, because there is such an evident need of the money for the support of other sports. In a majority of the schools it is probably true that athletics are supported by general subscription, either by an assessment or by voluntary contributions. In any case, the money will go further and will be more wisely expended if there is an organization of the kind described. It is true that one school dif- fers from another or one college from another in the amount of financial support necessary to certain sports, and in the returns from these sports, but the principle remains the same. It is not difficult to support an or- ganization of this kind if the accounts of the last four or five years are obtainable. If these have not been kept, or have been kept so care- lessly that they cannot be used for the pur- poses of comparison, an accounting for a year should be held, and then a basis will be given for the preparation of a budget for each sport for the succeeding year. It will be 146 ATHLETES ALL found on putting this into practice that the development of business sense in the boys who hold office or who are on these commit- tees is worth all the time and labor it costs, and, in addition, the athletic interests will take on a far more definite and satisfactory shape. This same principle should be applied, and generally is, to any well-organized athletics in a station or cantonment under an athletic officer. WHEN such a committee has been formed it will be found advisable to divide the main committee into certain subcommittees for the purposes of rapid and satisfactory action. In the first place, there should be, in order to establish this general committee, a mass- meeting of the school or club, and a committee appointed there to draft a constitution. This constitution should then be passed upon at another meeting of the school. As soon as this constitution is drafted and ratified, such members of the committee as are elective should be chosen and they should then unite with the ex-officio members that is, captains and managers, who by virtue of their office become automatically members of this com- mittee. Then this committee should meet and elect its officers, the chairman and secre- tary, and if the office of treasurer is made an 147 148 ATHLETES ALL elective office, they should elect him. It is usually customary, however, to have either a graduate or a faculty treasurer. After the election of officers it is well to have an execu- tive committee, a small number, three or four at the most, being chosen from the main com- mittee. This committee can act on matters requiring prompt consideration and decision, and where necessary its act can be later rati- fied by the main committee. There should be a finance committee, on which the treasurer is himself, ex officio, a member. After this organ- ization of the committee it may be found in later action that it is advisable to have other subcommittees, as, for instance, a field com- mittee, which should take charge of the up- keep of grounds, buildings, and field; a com- mittee on eligibility; perhaps also another committee on rules and regulations relating to the use~of the field or playgrounds, so that there may be no clashing of one organization with another in the use of the advantages provided. After the organization has been thoroughly perfected and has been in operation for a year, it may be found advisable to alter certain of ORGANIZATION 149 the provisions of the constitution or the by- laws that may have been passed; to alter somewhat the powers of the officers; to change the personnel of the committee. All these things can then be done properly and in order and to the great advantage of the interests of the school and its athletics. Now, in addition to this organization for the government and running of athletics in the school, let me revert once more to the matter of a captain's diary or log-book. This idea, if developed, can be made of the greatest possible value to the athletic interests of the school and of succeeding captains. The same may be said of a note-book of a similar kind to be kept by a manager. As a rule, the cap- tain has another assistant, unless perchance he has a field-captain, who takes his place in case he is not in condition through some acci- dent, to go on the field and lead his men. In the case of a manager, however, in all the larger organizations there is an assistant man- ager and sometimes even a second assistant. If any boy occupying the position of man- ager will keep notes set down immediately at the time of the occurrence, detailing his 150 ATHLETES ALL experience and suggesting how his successor may profit by that experience, he can congrat- ulate himself upon building up a fund of knowledge for the business end of his organiza- tion that will not only be appreciated by his immediate successor but by a long line of successors. A few suggestions may be in order for the captain and the manager in this connection. Let us suppose, first, that the captain of a basket-ball team, with his team, goes to play in other rinks or gymnasiums than his own, and he finds certain differences in the condi- tions which it would be well for his successor to know and advise the team of that they may be prepared for this on occasion of their next visit. We will suppose the captain of a football team goes to another town to play and finds that certain ground rules are neces- sary. He should jot this down for the bene- fit of his successors, so that they may be able to tell the team before the last minute what these ground rules are. He may find certain points coming up in the rulings that may take him or his team unawares, and these should be noted so that before the next con- ORGANIZATION 151 test his succeeding captain will know exactly what to expect and may talk perhaps with the officials about it. Let us suppose a base- ball captain had visited another diamond for a contest and a crowd had interfered in some way in the outfield with the game. This should be noted preparatory to making ar- rangements for another season. These are only a very few suggestions, but they will give an idea of what points of value the cap- tain may put down. Moreover, he can make his diary as full as he likes of suggestions regarding the players who are going to play another year or more, so that his successor may have clear ideas as to their capabilities and possibilities. Take the case of a manager, on the other hand. He may find difficulty in his guarantees. He may find after the trip is over that he could have made better arrangements for the ac- commodation of his players. He may have found that there is a cheaper way to make the trip with the same amount of comfort. He may have become involved in a disagree- ment with some other manager, and wish to prepare his successor for handling a similar 152 ATHLETES ALL situation the following year. All these things count in the matter of organized athletics of to-day, and the earlier a boy learns this the more capable he will be later on. CHAPTER XV MANAGEMENT A BASEBALL nine or a football team can be made or marred by its captain or manager. In the professional ranks of baseball the man- ager is the important factor, the captain being the field-captain, as a rule, and not director- in-chief of the policy of the nine. In many in- stances the field-captain has, however, played a very important part, and especially is this true if he is a natural leader of men. In ser- vice as well as school and college organizations the plan is very different. The manager un- dertakes the financial end of the business, arranges details and guarantees, and sched- ules the trips, looks after the training- table, if the nine has one, and in general attends to all the business end of the venture. The cap- tain looks after the training of the men, their daily practice, the development of their vari- ous abilities, and, finally, has full charge of them in the game itself, very much as the pro- 153 154 ATHLETES ALL fessional manager has of his team. For these reasons it is of the utmost importance for a station or cantonment, as well as the college or school organization, that a proper selection of these two men be made. There are various methods of determining whether a man or boy will make a good man- ager or not. He ought not to be selected for his popularity. It is a good thing if he is popular, for that, particularly in cases where subscriptions are to be collected, is a very considerable asset. But he ought to have a good business head and judgment. He ought to know the value of money and how to ex- pend it to secure the best results possible. He should be a good correspondent because he will have to represent the school or the univer- sity in dealing with other schools or universi- ties through the medium of letters. He should be fair-minded, with plenty of respect for his own rights, but not an obstinate man who can never see the necessity or the wisdom of a compromise. He should be, if possible, a man who is friendly with the captain, because un- less the two work together there is very little chance of success for the organization. It MANAGEMENT 155 might appear many times during the season that the captain would like to do things for his nine which are overexpensive, and there may be times, on the other hand, when the manager perhaps is inclined to be too eco- nomical. With the two conflicting tendencies it is almost essential for the two to be friends in order that they may talk it over and work it out in a friendly and fair spirit. Now, how is such a man to be found and selected for manager? In service teams the athletic officer under the commandant looks after these matters. But at school elections a choice must be made. There have been two methods in vogue, neither of them infallible, but each having its good points. First and most common is a popular school or college election of a man from a class which will have two years still in school or college. This man is chosen as assistant manager. If during the year of his assistant managership he performs his duties in such a way as to give convincing proof of the possession of the above-named qualities, he is, at the end of his first year, elected manager. If as assistant manager he has proved inefficient or a failure in any way, 156 ATHLETES ALL then he is not elected, but some other man is chosen. It can easily be seen in this latter case there is considerable risk, as the man has not been tested out in the work of the assis- tant manager. The second way is to select the man through competition. A number of men may be chosen to try for the place, and these men work under the existing manager through the season or a certain fixed period of time, and the man who makes the best showing in this testing secures the management's approval, which is practically equal to election. The weakness of this method is that in a number of cases the test is merely that of securing subscriptions, and while it may test the energy of a man it does not open a broad field to him, and much may depend upon his own circum- stances. Probably a combination of the two would work out best. The captain is never chosen by a popular vote of the school or class, as is the manager, but is elected by the men who have played with him on the nine or team. This is usually done immediately after the close of the season. All the men who have played in the important games, the MANAGEMENT 157 games where initials are awarded, are entitled to a vote. Some of these men return for the following year and some do not. The places of those who do not are thus taken by new men, and these men, it can be seen, will serve under a captain whom they did not choose. As a matter of fact, this seldom works out in a detrimental fashion, for the newcomers are as a rule quite satisfied to "make" the nine, without being overanxious to direct its policy. The captains for first-year organizations, freshmen in school and colleges, are often ap- pointed by the upper classmen or the univer- sity management. In some cases these offi- cers are appointive at first, and as the men get to know each other, an election is later held. The quality probably most essential for a captain is a reputation for perfect squareness combined with force. The men must be sure that each one is going to have a fair and equal chance, that no favoritism will be displayed, and that if a man makes good he will get his reward. Then, too, the members of the nine should be pretty thoroughly convinced that when the captain says a thing, he is going 158 ATHLETES ALL to carry it out and is not to have one mind one day and another another; that he has some definite plan of campaign in his mind, and that he means to follow it to the end. The captain, however, should not be a pig- headed man, who, when he sees a certain plan of his is working badly, is unable, on account of sheer obstinacy, to' make up his mind to a new plan. Several captains have wrecked their nines on this rock of obstinacy. It is no credit to a man to be so forceful and determined that he goes ahead unmindful of this dangerous weakness that stands as a warning in his path. The captain should have a mind which is able to size up a situation quickly, think quickly, and reach a decision that has taken into consideration all the fac- tors in the question. Before the season is hah* through, he should have made a thorough study of his men so that he knows each indi- vidual's special qualities, and when and how that individual should be used. He should know the dispositions of all his men, par- ticularly of batteries in baseball, for upon this much will hinge. He should have a thorough respect for the manager and under- MANAGEMENT 159 stand that managers' duties include the pro- vision for all expenditures. The captain should have the respect and sympathy of the athletic officer and com- mandant in service teams and in civil life of the authorities of the school or college, and he should return this respect and sympathy by seeing all his candidates keep up to the mark in their studies. CHAPTER XVI THE DUTIES OF THE MANAGER IN the last chapter we took up the matter of choice and manner of election of managers and captains for school arid college organiza- tions. I now wish to expand somewhat further the duties of these two individuals, giving, if possible, an insight into the most approved methods so that the boy who finds himself for the first time a manager or cap- tain shall have some standard to work toward and feel that he is at any rate trying for the best, endeavoring to reach the ideal demanded by the position. Taking up the duties of the manager first: In its simplest form we will take the base- ball nine that is purely a local organization and plays no games away from home. Let us suppose a boy is elected manager of such an organization. His first duty is to see that the nine has a field upon which to practise and to play its games. It may be that the 160 THE DUTIES OF THE MANAGER 161 nine is obliged to use the diamond of some other organization and has only odd times at which to use it. The manager's first duties then are to find out about this and see what privileges his organization can enjoy. If he is borrowing the diamond of some college team or local small league team, it is very possible that he may make arrangements with the manager of that team, giving him the right to have his players on that diamond at certain hours in the day and certain days in the week. If he maps this out beforehand instead of simply waiting for odd times, he will find that instead of having a hit-or-miss field he gets his boys on for their practice, he has regular hours and regular days, and his net result is twice as great as if the thing were allowed to run itself. Possibly the arrangement is that he shall pay a small sum for the use of the diamond. In that case it is probable that he is using the diamond at times when there is no other use for it, and a proper business arrangement with the owner of the ground might be brought about through the medium of friendship with the captain of the more prominent nine. It is also pos- 16* ATHLETES ALL sible that the boy may wish the use of the diamond for certain games with other local organizations. In that case he must arrange the time so as not to interfere with the regular occupants of the field. In planning this he must also take into consideration his oppo- nents, and find out what dates which are possible to him are agreeable to them, and also the time of day when the games may be played. It is very often a fact that the smaller organizations are obliged to play their games in the morning. Perhaps ar- rangements can be made for Saturday morn- ing when there is a regular game scheduled in the afternoon. It may be possible that when late in the season regular games are scheduled for 4 o'clock it is practicable for the smaller organizations to start their games at noon and finish in time to turn over the dia- mond in proper season for the regular after- noon game. The matter of percentages on gate receipts, the question of whether the ground itself will furnish a caretaker or ticket taker, or whether the smaller nine must attend to these affairs must be settled by the manager. At any rate, it is his duty to go THE DUTIES OF THE MANAGER 163 over all these matters and clear them up so that they shall not burden the captain, and yet see that the practice may be had at reg- ular times and the games be scheduled for his season's work. The next problem that faces him is possible advertising of these games. It may be that his nine is so small in the matter of importance that only the friends of the boys who are playing are likely to come. It is still possible that quite a number of the pleasure-loving public would go if they knew when the contest was to take place. Here comes in the problem of advertising for the manager, and it may be well worth his while to see the local newspapers and persuade them to give him reading notices of his game. Almost any local paper is willing to do this without charge. Certainly it can be accom- plished when the nine is likely to develop and become of enough special importance to pay for advertising. The next duty of the manager is regarding uniforms and materials for the game. He should first find out whether the manager of the grounds will furnish base-bags, and in case he will not, he must provide his own. 164 ATHLETES ALL Then he should consider the matter of uni- forms. It is very possible that his nine is not rich enough to have a complete uniform. There is certainly an advantage in having some article of the uniform common to all the boys, even though it be only a cap, and very few nines are so poor that they cannot afford at least that amount of insignia to designate their players. The manager should get prices on these caps, or on coats, or on complete uniforms, if they can afford it, and by writing to the various sporting-goods houses he will improve his business knowledge and at the same time probably be able to get some saving in price through competition. He must also see to the matter of balls and bats, both for playing games and for prac- tice. In a nine of small pretensions some of the boys will furnish their own bats, and most of them will furnish their own gloves. Pos- sibly they will all have to subscribe to the catcher's cage and protectors. All these, however, come in the province of the manager, and he should find out just how far he is likely to be helped out by the individuals. When he has determined as to whether he THE DUTIES OF THE MANAGER 165 will have to pay rent for the grounds, or whether he can have them for nothing, what parts of the uniform or playing paraphernalia must come out of a common purse, he can figure out how much money he needs to pro- tect himself for the season's work, and by collecting it from the boys or friends of the nine he starts on a fair business basis, and whatever he gets in on gate receipts above the immediate expenses of the game may go to reimburse the general expense column. Then it is the duty of the manager, acting in consultation with the captain, to arrange about umpires and other details regarding cleaning up the field or things of that kind; for every boy should realize that he has cer- tain duties to perform toward the owner of the grounds and that if he leaves everything in good shape when he finishes he is much more likely to be allowed to use the ground again. So much for the most simple duties of management. The next step is when a nine makes out-of-town trips. There the manager's duties are to provide the tickets and see that the nine knows what time to appear for the 166 ATHLETES ALL train, and that every boy brings the articles that are necessary for him. Out-of-town games also usually involve guarantees of travelling expenses, or some arrangement about the division of gate receipts, and it is well to make these plans several days ahead, so that there may be no difference of opinion at the time of the game. Every manager should get his agreements in writing, and put his own acceptances in the same form. Next we come to the school nine, and here the only difference is that the nine is usually supported by subscription from the school at large, and it is the manager's duty to solicit and collect these subscriptions. For this pur- pose he should have a small book with stubs, so that he can enter the amount of the sub- scription, give the subscriber a proper receipt, and retain a written record. In this case he generally graduates to the form of manage- ment where a certain amount of bookkeeping is essential, and he should enter his expenses and receipts in such form that he can make his annual report to the school. From this it is only a step to the college organization, and the boy who has begun with a small local THE DUTIES OF THE MANAGER 167 nine and who has later managed a school nine is a fair candidate for the management of a college nine. One thing for him to bear in mind in all these questions is that the more he carries out the exact detail of the manage- ment and plans ahead, the more he is edu- cating himself for good work in whatever position he may be placed. CHAPTER XVII THE DUTIES OF THE CAPTAIN WE come now to the position of captain: The same sequence of the small local nine up to the prominent college nine prevails ex- actly as in the case of the manager. For this reason we will start again with the local boy organization. It is a captain's duty to take charge of the training of his men; to see that they are on hand at the specified hour for practice; to see that every boy gets a chance to show his capabilities; and, finally, when he has sifted out his material, to place them in the proper positions, and then to educate each boy along the most approved lines of playing that position. The captain should always be elected by the players, and that, too, at the very beginning. By this election they promise allegiance to that man. They agree to follow his lead, to respond to his orders, and to do it cheerfully and will- ingly. Harmony in an organization, no mat- 168 THE DUTIES OF THE CAPTAIN 169 ter how small a one it may be, is the only sure road to success, and the sooner boys learn respect for their captain and implicit obedi- ence to his orders the earlier they will fit themselves for better work as they grow older and more accomplished players. Any col- lege captain or any league manager will tell a boy what a nuisance an insubordinate player always makes of himself, and how little such players are tolerated on good nines. In a boys' organization where the boys are very young there is apt to be a tendency toward each boy thinking that he is going to have his own way and be his own captain. The sooner the captain settles this matter, once and for all, the better, else he is going to have trouble all through the season. Having made this clear, the captain's next duty is to see that his men practise properly and in sufficient amount, and that no one boy is overlooked or overworked. It is usually a mistake to let pitchers who are relied upon to do the pitching for the nine do too much of the pitching for the batsmen, but in small organizations some portion of this work must be done by the regular pitchers or else the 170 ATHLETES ALL nine will get very poor practice in batting. It is the captain's duty to see that these men take proper turns in doing this hard work, and that no man because he is willing and unselfish is forced to do more than his share of it. I cannot put it too strongly, that the usual weakness of small and minor organiza- tions is in the batting, and here the captain should spend infinite time and patience on his men. It is foolish to make every boy bat in a certain form, but his faults may be corrected. For instance, the two faults most common to batsmen are what is known as "shy foot"; that is, drawing the forward foot away when the ball is delivered instead of stepping up and meeting the ball squarely; the other is dropping the shoulder farthest away from the pitcher, so that the bat describes more or less of an arc and the result is strikes, fouls, or little flies. These two habits once eradicated almost any boy with a good eye can become a batsman if he will spend enough time and thought on the subject. Another duty of the captain is to agree to ground rules whenever a match is to be played on a field that requires such rules. He should THE DUTIES OF THE CAPTAIN 171 arrange this with the opposing captain, if possible, before the day of the game. If im- possible to do that, he should arrange it before the toss. These matters being arranged, the captain's duty is to toss, or rather call the toss of the umpire, to determine which nine goes to the bat first. This having been set- tled, the captain takes charge of his own nine, and it is his duty to interfere as little as possi- ble with the opponents in any way, to avoid discussion or any bandying of words. In other words, in common language, to "mind his own business" and let the other nine mind theirs. Any talking at an opposing pitcher to rattle him or exchanging facetious com- ments with players of the other side is poor business and a breach of good manners. In handling his men the captain should be ever ready to place his fielders in proper position, to change them according to what he knows of the opposing batsmen, and where it is nec- essary, to encourage his men after an error or something of that kind. At the bat he should teach his men to have plenty of initi- ative of their own, but he should be ever ready to tell a batsman when he is coming 17* ATHLETES ALL up whether he wishes him to bunt, to instruct the coach whom he sends out to the bases when and how he wishes the runner to be sent down, and, in addition, to handle the strategy of the game. The difficulties which will come to the cap- tain are many, and while experience is the only teacher, there are few captains who would not have benefited had they known some of the situations which were likely to confront them before they came up. In the first place, the captain must work with the manager toward a businesslike method of running the nine. He must realize that no nine, no mat- ter how rich, can have everything that is wanted, and he must keep down expenses to the smallest point compatible with the inter- ests of the nine. Furthermore, it is unfortu- nately often true that the captain must keep the expenses down lower than that point. In other words, there will not be funds enough to meet what seem to be the necessities of the nine, and then the captain must work with the manager to eliminate every possible ex- travagance and to cut off things which are least essential. He should not allow the THE DUTIES OF THE CAPTAIN 173 members of his nine to criticise the manage- ment, but should back up the business end with all his influence. The question of discipline among his men is paramount, and here he must exercise dis- cretion and not invite trouble; but when he has once made up his mind that a certain move is necessary for the welfare of the organiza- tion he must carry it out, and while it is not necessary to do this roughshod he must ac- complish his end, and if necessary meet with some antagonism and conquer it. A weak- kneed captain is worse than no captain at all, and any boy will find that his nine respects him proportionately to his strength of char- acter. He should not be ashamed to change his mind or policy when he finds he is making a mistake; but, on the other hand, he should not let any one feel that he can be influenced regardless of the rights and wrongs of the case by any amount of argument from his men. The great thing is to start right, and the sooner he impresses his force of character upon his men and that, too, without self-conceit or aggressiveness, but calmly and determinedly, the sooner the rough places will become 174 ATHLETES ALL smooth and the better work his nine will do. A man who simply represents the views of the last person who talked with him and, hence, becomes a weathercock, is useless as a leader of a nine. Experience has taught this to many organizations, and the successful ones have usually been those which have had lead- ers who have maintained the strictest disci- pline tempered with good judgment. It has been the general consensus of opinion of all our military authorities that this knowledge and experience of leadership in athletic organ- izations has been the greatest factor in de- veloping our men and youths into competent officers in the service. Any boy who has the opportunity to become captain and handle a ball nine may congratulate himself upon the fact that in doing this work he is preparing himself for larger fields of endeavor, and if he learns the secrets of leadership here he will carry them on into the larger things of life. CHAPTER XVIII HOW TO CONDUCT AN ATHLETIC MEET WITH the great stimulation of interest in track games of late years, owing to the Inter- collegiate championships as well as the Olym- pic games, and last, but not least, to the wide spread of these sports throughout the camps, cantonments, and naval stations of the country, many a boy has studied into the question, and thousands more than formerly have taken part in such contests. Now, in track games as well as in the other sports, it is the part of wisdom of every boy who is going into these contests at school or in the service, and, in fact, whether he is going to enter or not, to understand thoroughly the rules of the games, because it may be that with his development later, either at college or elsewhere, he will be able to become a good performer at some one of these specialties. A crack runner, jumper, or weight putter has a 175 176 ATHLETES ALL most enviable reputation, and as a rule the physical development contingent upon taking part in these sports is excellent. Moreover, it was found during the recent war that hardly one officer out of a thousand had any definite idea of running off an athletic meet among his men, and the call for officers who could handle these affairs was loud and persistent. It would be well for boys in summer and fall to organize athletic meetings wherever they can get together a group of contestants and a track to run upon. Most of the tracks of the colleges are not in use in the late sum- mer and could be secured for schoolboys' meets without much difficulty. Briefly, what is necessary for the contestants and judges to know can be summed up in a few words, and contestants and judges will be able to carry out their contests under these suggestions in an orderly and fair manner. First, as to weight putting: In the big con- tests like the Intercollegiates there are always two days Friday, the day of trials, and Sat- urday, the finals. In putting the shot on Friday the field-judges allow each contestant three trials, and out of those who do the best HOW TO CONDUCT AN ATHLETIC MEET 177 in the three trials five go into the finals on Saturday. These five are then allowed three trials and the best four of the two afternoons that is, if a man does not better his put of Friday it still stands the best four then go into three additional trials, and the best per- formance of the two afternoons decides the contest. As most boys know, the shot is put from a circle seven feet in diameter. This circle may have a wooden framework around jt or be simply whitewashed. If the compet- itor's foot goes outside the circle it is a foul. The shot is a sixteen-pound metal sphere. In throwing the hammer the same rules pre- vail as in the shot, regarding the trials and the finals. The hammer and handle (the han- dle is usually made of wire and not more than four feet in length) must weigh at least six- teen pounds. The hammer is thrown from a seven-foot circle. If the hammer breaks in making an attempt, the contestant is allowed another trial. This means if the hammer breaks in the hands while making the attempt and not if the hammer breaks when it lands. In the broad jump in the preliminaries each man is allowed three trials, and the best four 178 ATHLETES ALL of these have three additional trials. If any part of the competitor's shoe is over the scratch line, which is the outer edge of a joist set level with the ground as a take-off board, it is a foul. The length of the contestant's jump is from the outer edge of this joist to the point nearest it that is touched by the jumper during his jump. The ground is well broken up and made soft and the mark is pretty manifest. If the jumper falls back, the mark made by him on falling which is near- est the take-off board is the mark of his jump. In the high jump it is customary in the Intercollegiate rules to hold on Friday three trials for each contestant at each height, and the best five of Friday compete again on Sat- urday, the event being decided by the contest of Saturday, the jumps on Friday not count- ing except for a record or for the purpose of qualifying. If a tie occurs on Friday that would result in qualifying more than five men for the Saturday contest, the tie must be jumped off on Friday. In the high jump it will be seen from this that the event is decided by the Saturday contest. In jumping the high jump the contestant may omit any HOW TO CONDUCT AN ATHLETIC MEET 179 height if he likes, but he cannot have the bar lowered to try at the height he omitted; that is, he must jump continuously as the bar is raised for the other competitors, but if he omits any height he must take the next height, and cannot go back to try the lower height. When a contestant has taken one trial at a given height he cannot omit the other two trials, but must finish his three trials at the height he commenced. The rules regarding pole-vault are the same as those regarding the high jump. Two balks that is, a man starting and running under the bar count as one try. A con- testant breaking his pole is not considered a trial. A contestant may not raise his lower hand over the other during a try. He can bring his lower hand up to his other hand, but not over it. He cannot raise thfe upper hand. Contestants are allowed to dig holes for their poles if they so desire. Pegs that are set in the uprights should extend out not over two inches, and the cross-bar should be marked "top" and "bottom," and as it is replaced after each jump the side "top" must be turned up. It is possible for a field-judge 180 ATHLETES ALL to excuse a contestant called off for a track event, and after that event lie may come back and take his missed trials. The officials at track games consist of the clerk of the course, who really has entire charge and designates to his assistants their specific work. Then there are the field- judges who decide all field events, such as the high jump, pole-vault, broad jump, throwing the hammer, and putting the shot. There are four judges at the finish in the track contests and three timekeepers. There are one or more starters. The clerk of the course, with his assistants, sees that the men come out and go to the mark, he or his assistants check them off, and after they have answered their names they are then in control of the starter. There is a chief scorer with his assistants who \ keeps a complete record of all the times, an- nounces the names of the next contestant in the field events, and keeps a complete record of all the contestants that start and all that finish, recording fouls and the like. The referee is the final authority on all matters. He has several inspectors as assistants to him who take positions in the track events at HOW TO CONDUCT AN ATHLETIC MEET 181 various points around the course to report any jostling, shoving or crowding, or fouls of any nature. The inspectors also report the number of hurdles knocked down. The mar- shals have control of the individuals who are on the field when not competing. There are usually three timekeepers, two on one side of the track and one on the other. If the watches disagree, the slowest time is usually taken. In all running races in important contests like the Intercollegiates there should be four judges at the finish, two standing at one end of the tape and two at the other. The judges in case of disagreement meet together and the majority decides. These judges pick first, second, third, and fourth places. One thing that is often forgotten in track contests when one sees a man rush forward, endeavoring to break the tape, is that the finish is not the tape but a line drawn on the ground across the track from post to post, and a contestant is not considered to have finished the race un- less his entire body crosses that line. If a man falls and only part of his body is over the line, he is not considered to have finished 182 ATHLETES ALL the race. In the hurdles, if a competitor knocks down three or more, or any part of three or more hurdles in the race, he is dis- qualified. In all running races contestants are obliged to keep their own courses, that is, in sprint races, 100 -yard races, and 220 -yard races lanes are marked off by tape or string, and a contestant must keep in his own lane. In the long-distance races no such lanes are marked out, but a competitor may be disqualified by the referee for jostling, running across, or in any way impeding another competitor, and where there are contests like the Intercolle- giates it is possible for all the competitors rep- resenting a member of an association in any one event to be disqualified by the referee for the act of any one of them. It is easy to see why this rule must prevail, as in distance races a man who himself might be unable to win might foul an opponent and some other of this man's own track team thereby win out. V TRACK, GYMNASIUM, AND FIELD CHAPTER XIX OLYMPIC GAMES MUCH has been said and written about the wonderful Olympic games held at Stockholm, but their effect upon athletics, and particu- larly upon boys' sports, promises to be so wide-spread that a careful consideration of the results should be considered. In the first place, J. E. Meredith, the modern schoolboy from Mercersburg, later a Penn athlete and finally an American aviator, set a new Olym- pic and world's record of 1 minute 51A sec- onds for the 800-metre race. In the final heat this schoolboy was lined up against Braun, Germany's noted runner, also Brock, of Canada, while the other American contend- ers were the veteran Sheppard, Davenport, Putnam, Edmundson, and Caldwell. The starting system used at the Olympic games unfortunately was not the same as that used in this country. There was no " setting back " for a false start. The result under this sys- 185 186 ATHLETES ALL tern has always been that men endeavor to get away in advance, that is, "beat the pis- tol," and it is pretty sure that even when they are started there is a very distinct advantage to some and disadvantage to others. Now, as it happened in this race, Sheppard got the start, but Meredith set out to overhaul him, with the result that at the quarter-mile post Meredith was practically at Sheppard's side, and they had covered the distance in 52^ seconds. As they came into the stretch Shep- pard and Braun were both making their efforts, and less than 100 yards from home Sheppard was leading, with the German second and Meredith third. Then the schoolboy began his work. Like a lion he fought his way up on the leaders, and the veteran Sheppard and the noted German "cracked" just at the finish, and Meredith came by a winner by a foot. The German had dropped, Sheppard just got over, and Davenport was only a couple of feet behind Sheppard. It was indeed a wonderful performance and means much to the schoolboys all over the country, but a word of caution should go with it. Meredith is an exceptional boy, and OLYMPIC GAMES 187 what he can stand in the way of training and running is not to be taken as a standard for boys of less sturdy physique. The lesson really to be learned is that it is possible for even a schoolboy to defeat the veteran run- ners of the world. But it takes some excep- tional natural ability upon which the founda- tions can be laid. We must avoid what the English criticise in us, and at times criticise fairly, and that is the exaggeration of an eager- ness for victory, which eagerness is highly commendable until it becomes an overeager- ness; in other words, until either the mind or the body suffers under the pressure. The Englishman has been forced to learn that more specialization in training is necessary if he is to compete with the carefully organized systems that are coming in in all sports. The American, on the other hand, should consider with very careful attention a letter written by an Englishman in which he says "Americans have carried athletics beyond normal limits and strive only for records. The mark of human endurance has been passed and many of the boys after winning collapse and are carried from the field." 188 ATHLETES ALL This, he further says, is "a tragedy and a joke; a tragedy to the lives of the boys, and a joke because the real point in athletic de- velopment has been missed." He thereupon calls upon England and the Englishmen to be satisfied and stay as they are, and concludes with the statement that if they do this "Eng- land's boys will be stronger fathers of a less nervous and happier race!" But this war has taught us many lessons in which the English and American athletes have shared alike. I would say, then, to the boy athlete, don't take it to heart if the physical director of your school or college or if the athletic trainer tells you to go slow and drop out for this year and work up to the next. Our greatest tendency for the present is to overdo, to drive the machine at too great a pace, and this is just as true of the boys in their athletics as it is of their fathers in business and their mothers in social pleasures. He who sounds a note of warning may not be heeded, but it is time that warning is sounded and was observed. The fable of the tortoise and the hare is OLYMPIC GAMES 189 repeated over and over again in play and work as well. A boy should realize that as in all his sports a preparation or training is necessary, so it is vital that he should under- stand that the preparation for his life's work, or even for his development in college, his school discipline and sports are only the train- ing the preparation and if this training be overdone, if he attempts too much, too soon, he is only making the foolish mistake of run- ning the early part of his race too fast, and others will surely pass him when, before the tape is reached, he finds himself fading away ? Some boys stand training better than others can do more work without going stale but every one should remember that in school athletics undertraining is preferable to over- training, and the majority of failures come from overdoing and "going fine" rather than from insufficient work. A boy should be frank with his trainer. He should not make the mistake of believing that it is the part of wisdom to deceive that trainer or physical director, but rather even at the present seem- ing confession of weakness to admit an over- effort and time given an opportunity of re- 190 ATHLETES ALL pairing the defect. He should never be fear- ful lest his pluck or courage should be ques- tioned when he tells the truth to those who are responsible for his physical condition. He should realize that they are as anxious as he can be to make the best possible show- ing, but not at the expense of later usefulness. Meredith has set a high standard and every boy who admires that work of his should feel proud of him and should desire to do some bit of work in his own line in the same effec- tive way, but he should be careful not to make the mistake of trying to reach that goal by short cuts or at the sacrifice of the sound body. CHAPTER XX CROSS-COUNTRY RUNNING THERE is always an opportunity for a young man to develop himself physically, even though he may seem to have very few chances. For instance: it certainly is not possible for every schoolboy to get athletic sport with others the year around. Baseball nines, football teams, and crews all require the co-operation of a number of other boys. Track events are somewhat different, but even there some accessories are necessary. But almost any young man may enjoy cross-country running by himself, and it is almost impossible to imagine the condition where a boy cannot get exercise and develop- ment of this character. Perhaps this is diffi- cult in a crowded city, but even here it is far from impossible. In fact, I have seen a crowd of fifty or sixty boys coming through Broad Street of Philadelphia past the Pennsyl- 191 192 ATHLETES ALL vania Railroad Station in one of these runs. But real cross-country running is, of course, more desirable than city pavements, and the sameness of running through ordinary streets is much less inspiring than running out in the open country. Any one can tell how far he has run by carrying a pedometer a little watch-like attachment which is now made at a very reasonable price so that any boy can have one without saving up his money very long. Of course in cross-country running one of these instruments may not keep the dis- tance with absolute accuracy, but for all intents and purposes it will be close enough. The question arises: How far ought a youth to run? That will depend entirely upon his condition and amount of practice, as well as the country over which he goes. It is like all other athletic sports. A youth should be- gin with jogging pretty easily and not over- doing it, but after two or three weeks he will find himself getting in condition and his dis- tance can be proportionately increased. In fact, cross-country running for any boy is far better performed during the first year or two without any conditions of extreme competi- CROSS-COUNTRY RUNNING 193 tion, like championships or rival school runs. When a man is hardened to cross-country running and has done it for two or three years, he can then go into competition. The dress for this kind of running depends, of course, upon the season of the year, but two cautions should be borne in mind, foe many a cross-country runner makes a mis- take by erring on one or the other. It is not an unfamiliar sight to see a group of these runners coming along on a cold day in the fall dressed as thinly as though it were mid- summer. Now I doubt very much if a man who was in fair flesh and who did not train off very much under running would find any disadvantages in this, for the exercise would keep him comfortably warm after he was started ; but a man or boy who is rather thin, while he would not take cold from this ex- posure under exercise, would find his powers of endurance somewhat affected. On the other hand, the most foolish thing possible is for a cross-country man to wear heavy clothes so that he is in a continuous perspiration, unless he is merely using his run to reduce flesh. Especial care and attention should 194 ATHLETES ALL be given to the feet, for here the misery of a blistered heel or a raw spot can well be appre- ciated. Every youth probably has a pair of shoes that are so well adapted and moulded to his feet that no amount of running or walk- ing in them would produce any trouble. If so, these are the shoes for him to wear even though he has to have a new sole put on them or spikes or hobnails; then, he should break in a new pair gradually until they are as pliable as the old ones. In case of a bad abrasion, especial care must be taken against infection, and while a man can protect a raw spot by a bunion plaster strapped over it with a surgeon's tape or bicycle tape, it is a point of wisdom to take it easy until the spot heals. In gauging the distance to be run, and the amount of speed, effort, etc., the best measure- ment for each youth is to come in comfortably tired but not exhausted. His .condition may be judged by two points: whether he has a good appetite and whether he sleeps soundly and well. If he finds he is losing weight and that he is not hungry when the time comes to eat, or that he does not sleep well or feel re- CROSS-COUNTRY RUNNING 195 freshed after a night in bed, he should make up his mind that he is overdoing it. Of course the best way to develop a special talent in cross-country running is to have a first-class man running with the others. Un- derstand, this is not essential, but it can readily be appreciated that the stimulus of competi- tion and careful development can be brought about in this way when it could not be effected by any other means. Now the advantages of this cross-country running lie in the fact that it develops a man for any sort of athletic work he is likely to go into, and especially for the service. It is splendid, of course, for distance runners in track events; it is an excellent preparation for crew men; it is a fine way of keeping in condition the year around for foot- ball and baseball men, and, finally, if a man or boy goes into no other athletics, it is one of the best of the sports possible where no special apparatus or other men are necessary. CHAPTER XXI GETTING READY FOR OUTDOOR WORK WHILE the first beginnings of spring are on the way every healthy, normal youth is look- ing forward to the time when his outdoor sports begin in earnest again. His hockey and coasting are about over and soon the base- ball season will begin. Meantime, for the younger boys there is the kite-flying season, and with the development of the conquest of the air by men this promises to become a far more interesting subject for the older boys. Gliders of all kinds can be experimented with, and while the winds of March are not the ideal ones for aeroplane work, they will furnish much experience for the boy who has graduated from kites to the more finished product. When it comes to the beginning of outdoor work for spring sports, boys should remember that in spite of their having kept in pretty good condition throughout the winter, they are still soft as far as violent straining exer- 196 GETTING READY FOR OUTDOOR WORK 197 cise out-of-doors is concerned. The man may have kept himself at work on various ap- paratus indoors and may also have had con- siderable outdoor exercise, and yet if he goes out in March and endeavors to pitch a base- ball for fifteen or twenty minutes he will find his arm plenty lame the next day. In fact, it may be that he will give it a strain that will hurt him all the season. I cannot make it too impressive that boys and college men should not undertake to pitch very much when they first start in. It should be very easy, and they should work up gradually, taking a week or so before they are delivering the ball with much speed or snap. It pays a great deal better in the long run than to have an arm which is painful or useless later in the season. The same is true about other violent exercise of a similar nature throwing very hard, running fast, or attempting to slide all these should come along gradually, and it is better to take two or three weeks to get over the initial stages. A case in point is that of a prominent col- lege team : In their spring recess they made a trip and as they had not done much of any 198 ATHLETES ALL outdoor work before starting off, the experi- ence was not surprising. In one of their games the captain, endeavoring to slide to second, caught a spike and twisted his foot under him and broke his leg, thus incapaci- tating him practically for the season. I know of other cases where nines have, on Southern trips, taken four or five pitchers with them and brought back at least two, and sometimes more, box men with "glass" arms who were not available again throughout the season. These mistakes are not worth while and should be borne in mind. While the average boy has almost always an opportunity to play baseball and while that is the most common and the easiest play to get others to take part in, there are other forms of sport which are well worth the con- sideration of any athlete. First of these is rowing, where opportunity affords, but in this, unless the school where the boy attends is a boating school, the matter is difficult and of course requires suitable water and weather, and some expensive equipment. But there is another sport which is available in every way, and that is the sport of track athletics. GETTING READY FOR OUTDOOR WORK 199 Almost any boy, no matter what his circum- stances, can make himself a success in some form of track athletics if he is patient and persevering. First and simplest of these is the long-distance and cross-country running. Wherever a man can carry himself by the use of feet he may practise cross-country runs. Then, too, it is almost always possible to se- cure a place where something other than dis- tance running may be enjoyed; short sprints and sprinting on turf is just as good as on a cinder track; in fact, rather better. The ham- mer throwing and shot putting are rather more difficult to arrange for, particularly the former; but the jumping, both broad and high, and, in fact, the hurdling, is not difficult to practise. Taking up first the cross-country; while there is no season of the year that does not admit of work along these lines, there are days in winter when the slush and snow make it a pretty disagreeable task, but by the time February is passed and March is at hand the weather begins to be more propitious and the going better. The first thing for the cross- country candidate to remember is that, as in all other sports, he should begin easily; he 200 ATHLETES ALL should jog-trot and walk ordinarily, and sim- ply work on the theory of getting a couple of hours of outdoor exercise, no matter how little distance he may cover. He should then ex- tend this a little at a time, shortening up the walk and adding to the run, by no means en- deavoring to keep up a pace that exhausts him. He can well afford to spend three weeks in this kind of work before he endeavors to try himself out at anything like a pace. His next step is to find out what kind of a pace is best adapted to him under trying conditions. Moderate hill-climbing and some soft going will tell him something about his peculiarities, and it is safe to say that the most expert cross-ountry runner is the man who knows best when to force himself and when to save strength. Another thing should be noted in this early preparation, and that is that it isn't worth while, nor is it necessary, to run over the same course every day. In fact, it is much better (it keeps a man's inter- est up to a higher pitch and is much more developing) for him to take different routes. One other thing: the cross-country candidate should not be deluded with the idea that the The start. In mid-course. THE MODIFIED MARATHON, NEW YORK CITY. GETTING READY FOR OUTDOOR WORK 201 more thinly he is clad the more he toughens himself. Especially is it well to bear in mind in the breaking up of winter and beginning of spring that if a man is so stripped as to make it an effort to keep warm he is taking a little more out of himself than if he were not quite so much exposed. This doesn't mean bundling up, but it does mean running in such a costume as to carry as little weight as possi- ble and at the same time not feel every pierc- ing blast after one is warmed up. CHAPTER XXII GENERAL BASEBALL SUGGESTIONS ALTHOUGH professional baseball was eclipsed by the war, the game itself is greater than ever in camp and cantonment. National League, American League, "Bush" League, College and School leagues had given way to service teams, still the boys in the back lots and every player from the lowest to the high- est wishes to make himself a little better, a little more effective, and a little more certain of "making good," and it should be remem- bered that it is the boy who has the best chance. He is all the time "coming," getting better and stronger, and if he is observing all the laws of health and putting his mind and heart into his work, whatever that work is, his chances of improvement are far greater than even those of the league player whose habits are formed and who in a very few years will begin to go back. I presume by this time many a boy has found how easily the eye and hand adjust 202 GENERAL BASEBALL SUGGESTIONS 203 themselves when certain pressure is put on, as, for instance, the penalty of having to chase the ball if he did not reach it with the bat. Of course there will be times even after a boy has become very adept at hitting the ball in almost any position when an unusually deceptive pitcher will be able to fool him, but if he keeps up his batting practice under the instructions given in another chapter the number of pitchers that can fool him and the number of times that they will fool him will grow steadily less and his batting average will begin to creep up. Now as to the general fielding of the school or college nine; most of these organizations spend too much time on the fielding and too little on the batting, and a good captain will bear this in mind and make sure that his men get plenty of hitting. Moreover, the fielding practice is apt to be poorly divided and rather poorly proportioned, a good deal of practice being devoted to plays which would not come often, while only a small amount of practice is devoted to the play which is liable to occur more frequently. Let me give an illustration of this: 204 ATHLETES ALL School and college nines seem to have a particular desire to practise double play, short or third to second base and second base to first. Now this is good practice good throwing practice, and good practice in speed and agil- ity. But as for its being directed toward a play which is of great importance in school and college games, that is a mistake. Even with their practice the school and college nine do not make a great many of these double plays in the course of a season. They either cannot speed up enough to make it or when they try to get unusual pace they bungle the job. Any one who cares to keep a record will find that for one double play thus made the school or college nine will make three or four misses of it, that is in games, and the missed play here counts so much more that one could almost say it would pay a school or college nine never to undertake to make a double play of this nature. They would save runs un- doubtedly by so doing, for either the second baseman muffs the ball in his haste to get it and throw it to first and then neither man is out, or what may be still more fatal in hurry- GENERAL BASEBALL SUGGESTIONS 205 ing his throw over to first he throws wild and the runner who hits the ball comes all the way home for a run. Start then with this idea an idea that any captain or manager could work out for him- self. Don't spend all the time in trying to execute double plays or fancy plays, but let those be practised only enough to reach a fair standard. But let the plays which come four or five times as often and which are, therefore, of much more relative importance, be practised a greater proportion of the time. The throwing of any baseman or short-stop to first base, for instance, is of vital importance, as it comes far more often than a throw to second or third or home. Make every man letter-perfect on this play from any part of his position. A nine that can always get that ball to first base is what you want in the first place. Then comes the question of handling of ground hits by the infield. As stated in another chapter, it is well to have a great deal of their practice come from the kind of balls that are hit in games and not from the kind of ball a man tosses up and bats, each man taking his turn and knowing that the ball is 206 ATHLETES ALL coming to him and is going to come with a regular roll or bound such as it always gets from this kind of a hit. The kind of ball he will get in a game has an ugly twist or shoot to it probably, and that comes from the fact that the ball is pitched to the batsman in- stead of the batsman throwing it up and hit- ting it. Keep this standard in mind and see that your team get the amount of practice that is going to improve them for the game and not the kind of practice that is merely going to use up their time. The same is true in a measure of the out- field. If an outfielder never gets any flies but those that are tossed up and batted and what is generally considered to give practice to the outfield, he may or may not prove reliable in an emergency. If he gets the kind of bat- ting that comes in all sorts of ways he may become a far more reliable man. As to the outfielder's throwing, with due care, exercis- ing to see that their arms are kept in good condition, they should become thoroughly ac- customed to throwing the ball so that it reaches the home-plate on a low first bound. Of course if a man runs far out he must re- GENERAL BASEBALL SUGGESTIONS 207 lay it in, but the practice of throwing the ball home is very valuable. Above and beyond everything else the cap- tain should impress upon his outfielders the necessity of getting that ball back into the diamond promptly. Many school and col- lege outfielders hold on to the ball, and a clever base runner is liable to get an extra chance by it. As soon as the ball is in the hand it should be fielded in, usually to the second baseman. But get it back there somewhere, and get it in without delay, is the cardinal principle. The schoolboy nines can learn these points and be as quick and active and up to date in method as the best pro- fessional teams, and the captain and players should pride themselves upon this part of their work. As to battery practice, the first thing to bear in mind is that neither the pitcher nor catcher should get a lame or disabled arm. Upon the first signs of any trouble of this kind he should be stopped and rested and his arm worked over. If the nine has two or three pitchers they should be worked alternately, so that one man shall not have all the pitching to do. 208 ATHLETES ALL It is very wise at all times to have a coat or something to throw over the arm, even in warm weather, for when a pitcher is warmed up he is more sensitive possibly to cold than the rest of the men, and whether more sen- sitive or not, it is more vital not to have his arm go wrong. I will reserve the various minor points of pitching for a later chapter, but in connection with this one about fielding it should be re- membered that the pitcher should be taught the same as the other fielders to cover his position and cover it promptly, to make that throw to first so that he is sure of it almost with his eyes shut, and he ought to have a good fair amount of practice of whirling and throwing to second. One other thing: it is well for him to have some practice on his running in on a slow ball coming along the first and third base line that is the ordinary kind of a bunt. He is sure to get some of these, and upon his abil- ity to field them will very often depend a game. Finally, the catcher beside his regular bat- tery work should have practice in catching high fouls, and here it is best for him to prac- GENERAL BASEBALL SUGGESTIONS 209 tise with his mask on and throwing the mask off after the foul is batted. This is what he will have to do in a game, and it is just as well that he should do some of it in his or- dinary practice. Of course throwing to sec- ond is very vital for him, and for the most part he should practise receiving the ball from his regular pitcher, having the batsman stand up in the box. This reproduces the con- ditions under which he will have to work in a game. CHAPTER XXIII DANGERS OF BASEBALL AS A PROFESSION NOT so long ago professional baseball- players were receiving salaries never before dreamed of, contracts being made for not one year but two or three. A new league had been started to compete with the old- established National and American Leagues, and, naturally, the attention of every boy in the country was directed even more strongly than usual to the American national game. Then came the war and all this was changed. But the American boy still loves baseball. It should be remembered that a very large pro- portion of these men drawing high salaries and who otherwise made good in the baseball world, were practically unknown or their value unrecognized when they came from or to the bush leagues. With all this glamour, a boy should realize, however, fully that these men who came to the top were the exceptions and that there were thousands of others who 210 DANGERS OF BASEBALL AS A PROFESSION 211 did not succeed, and, furthermore, that the general effective life of a baseball-player and by this we do not mean the number of years he will live but the number of years when he can draw a large salary is comparatively limited. True, there are splendid exceptions, and these only go to prove how a man who lives a temperate life and takes care of him- self will continue in the full possession of his physical faculties and prowess for a very con- siderable period of years. But boys should remember that for every success there are hundreds of failures. In fact, in baseball prob- ably it is more true than it is in any other line that the proportion of failures is large. More than that, following baseball as a means of livelihood does not fit a boy for any other work. As a matter of experience, it is rather the reverse of this. A boy who has played baseball well enough to reach the point where he can earn a little money at it, finds after a season or two that he has not improved him- self in any way in preparation for any future work save that of baseball. I am going over all this in order to be sure that the readers of this book will appreciate 212 ATHLETES ALL fully that to sacrifice other things, studies or work, to this particular mania, is the height of folly in ninety-nine boys out of a hundred. In fact, I think it is in nine hundred and ninety- nine out of a thousand. Other kinds of work prepare a boy to go into many kinds of busi- ness. He learns in any office or store business ways that prepare him, no matter what his shift may be later on, but baseball in local aggregations and minor class unfits a boy for other more serious work. This is not to say that a boy should not play baseball, and play it to the very best of his ability and try for his school or local nine; play all he can in his spare time; perfect himself; become a star, if possible; but it is to say that he should not let this sport interfere with his studies or with his regular work, and that he should xegard it as of less importance than these matters, and should endeavor at all times to appreciate fully what the difference is, and if, perchance, he develops into a star in spite of not regard- ing his baseball as the main object in life, he will have secured other education and experi- ence to fall back on when his star begins to set. DANGERS OF BASEBALL AS A PROFESSION 213 We don't hear much about the old-timers who have dropped out. Once in a while, a man has made such a mark that the news- papers follow him in his later career, but when they do it is rather apt to be a sad story. The case of "Rube" Waddell is one in point. Here was one of the best League pitchers; a man whose name was known by every fan throughout the country. It was known that "Rube" was dying slowly but surely, and that the end was coming nearer and nearer. Some of the advice that "Rube" gave to young players under these conditions was forcible, and it is hoped will be effective. He spoke most strongly against cigarettes and alcohol, and warned all young players to let them alone. "Rube" was a big, strong fellow, but tuberculosis got hold of him, and in April, just at the time when baseball interest was beginning to stir, he passed over into the great beyond. But "Rube " was only one of many, and the many are those whose names no longer appear in the newspapers and who are practically forgotten until perhaps a death-notice brings them to the front once more. Some of them 214 ATHLETES ALL are men who were successful for a few years; others are those who ran on somewhat longer, but in the end nature will have its way. A baseball-player when he nears the forty mark may expect that his last time at the bat is coming very soon. Hence, boys, do not view with too eager and envious eyes the hero of the diamond, and do not be deceived into the belief that it is worth while sacrificing more tangible pursuits to become one of them. Those who do come to the top are products of brain, eye, muscle, nerve, patience, and pertinacity, and in a great many cases the same qualities put to work in another line would have proved equally effective not per- haps in drawing such a large salary, but in preparing the way for a salary that should last a great many more years. It is the development of these qualities that counts, no matter what the later pursuit may be, and it is certainly a fact, proven time and again, that it is the hard worker in any line that usually comes to the top, although the brilliant performer may stand in the lime- light temporarily. CHAPTER XXIV THE IMPORTANCE OF COACHING IN BASEBALL IT is worth while to devote a chapter to one of the most important features of base- ball, namely, the coaching. This applies not only to the instructions given, we will say, by a manager in the league teams, or by a coach in college or school teams, to all the members of the squad, but also to that side of baseball which deals with the instructions from a fel- low player to the men on bases when the side is at the bat. In a way, all the preceding chapters have dealt with the first part of this question, namely, the instruction given teams by man- ager or coaches. Here there is one all-impor- tant fact to remember, and it is the rock upon which more hopes have been shattered and gone down than any other. A manager or coach must not sap the initiative the indi- vidual thinking qualities of his players. If he 215 16 ATHLETES ALL does, he makes mere automatons of them, and such a nine, although it obey the pulls on the strings, can never hope to reach the highest standard of baseball excellence. It is the nine that can obey instructions, but composed of individuals each one of whom is quite capable of thinking for himself, that will eventually win. If a manager or coach starts out, however, to make the man do all the thinking for him- self, he oftentimes finds that his men are slow to progress. What he should do is supple- ment that thinking, encourage it, do every- thing he can to set it in right channels, and then put it up to the man himself. There are times when it is well worth while for the manager or coach to tell a man going to bat what he wants him to do. On the other hand, if a man at the bat is all the time look- ing over to the bench to find out what new instructions he is to get, his batting average will certainly go down and his effectiveness as a member of the nine be lost. The same is true in every department in the game. In the school and college nines this element of developing individual initiative is even COACHING IN BASEBALL 217 more important than in the professional ranks, for in the latter men have served a pretty hard schooling already before they reach their positions, and as their salary and livelihood depend upon their effectiveness, they natu- rally keep their wits pretty well sharpened to the main chance. The school or college organ- ization may, on the other hand (and there have been plenty of instances of this), drift into a way of leaning upon the coach to such an extent that they are absolutely flabby, and can neither think nor act for themselves in any emergency. This hurts them, both as baseball-players and as coming men as well. To take up the other side of the coaching that is, the instructions given by a fellow player or an appointed man to the base-run- ners. There is a coach allowed over at first base and at third base, restrained by certain lines so that he may not approach too near the diamond. Now, first let us see what are his legitimate technical duties and how he should perform them; then we will consider some of the other phases of the position. In the first place, take the man on the right, or occupying the position behind first base. 218 ATHLETES ALL Until the batsman has actually reached first, his duties are limited to just one thing, namely, perhaps urging the man after he has hit the ball and is coming toward first, to run or run it out. But instantly upon the man's arriving on first, his duties multiply. If the man has made a hit that offers any possible chance of turning it into two bases, the coacher is the man to tell him what to do, so that he may be able to act instantly without lessen- ing in his speed and go on and perhaps make an additional base which the slightest hesita- tion would lose. But suppose the man has, however, arrived at first on a single with no chance of going farther. From the moment that the ball is hit the coacher must know where it is. Who has not seen a good single made and the runner reach first base, the pitcher turn back and get ready for his de- livery, the runner step off and the first base- man calmly pull the ball out from under his arm and touch him out? The best league players have been caught by this trick, as old as the hills, and it is the duty of the coacher to know where that ball is every instant and to keep his runner posted. A motion made COACHING IN BASEBALL 219 by the first baseman to return the ball to the pitcher and then holding the ball, is another common trick which should be looked out for at all times. The next duty of the coacher is to interpret the signals of the batsman as to going down, so that the runner is ready for the hit-and-run play or any other trick of the game. Should there be a partially passed ball, the coacher must be able to tell his runner whether to go on a try for second or go back. But if the first-base coach has important duties, what shall one say of the man over behind third, for that is the position of the most vital interest to any nine that wishes to win games. A man to act as coach over at third must be a real student of the game, and a man who knows just when to take a chance and when not to. It should be remembered that when a man gets as far as crossing third he becomes a mighty valuable asset toward scoring possibilities. He is two points further advanced than the man on first, and the loss of him over at third is therefore far more serious. Think how often it has taken a sacrifice and a hit to get this man from first ATHLETES ALL to third, and some idea can be had of his value. As soon as a man leaves first on his way to second he passes out of the hands of the first-base coacher, in a general way, and comes into the hands of the third-base coacher. True, if he stops on second then both these men watch second and short to warn him in case the pitcher or catcher throws to second to catch him. But when he comes around second, full tilt on a hit, it is the man at third who is going to tell him what to do next whether to hold third or go on home with that run that is so vitally important, and here comes in the judgment of the third-base coach. He must know just what kind of a single will put a man home from second; he must know how fast that man on second is able to run, and he must calculate to a nicety all these factors, as well as the position of the fielder who gets the ball. With some men it is intuition, and they are the men who make the best coaches. After all, their intuition is a developed understanding, but they get quick action. The study of this coach in position will well repay any boy in his future baseball. Now, before closing, just a word on some COACHING IN BASEBALL 221 of the illegitimate supposed duties of the coach, and my advice to boys is to let them entirely alone. First is his endeavoring to steal signals of the other side by watching the catcher's hands, and the second is endeavor- ing to rattle the pitcher or other players on the opposing nine by calls or comments. These are not a proper part of baseball, and while they may take the fancy of the crowd at times at professional games, they have no part in school or college contests. CHAPTER XXV WINTER SPORTS ICE-HOCKEY A BOY should have sport of some kind the year round. He should not "hibernate" in the winter. No one who has not been out to the Pacific coast can realize the advantages that the boy athlete, as well as the athlete of maturer years, has in the fact that sports may be con- tinued there almost uninterruptedly through- out the entire year. It is probably this fact that is leading to the development of the stars in all lines of sport that are coming from the Pacific coast. Tennis-players, track ath- letes, baseball men and, in fact, all represen- tatives of sport now realize the quality and caliber of coast players. The writer made a visit to the shores of the Pacific, going from San Francisco up and down, covering the en- tire coast as far south as Pasadena and as far north as Vancouver, and has found sport of 222 WINTER SPORTS 223 all kinds in a remarkably high state of devel- opment. Football can be played out there much later than here. In fact, a great game is always played on New Year's Day. The two universities, California and Stanford, a few years ago adopted the Rugby game, and several of the schools followed their lead. Others, notably Behnont, which had the ad- vantage of the former Harvard coach, William T. Reid, Jr., continued playing the American game. The University of California, how- ever, soon returned to the American Intercol- legiate, and in addition to these schools and universities there are hundreds of boys round- about San Francisco, from Vallejo down to the Presidio, who are playing the American game, and playing it with remarkable facility. They adopted all the new rules, and are mak- ing the most of the forward pass. The writer had the opportunity of seeing a team whose only chance for practice lay in working by electric light in the evening, develop such a game through constant drill that they were able in a match contest to defeat a team from the soldiers which outweighed them six or seven pounds to the man. In one period out 224 ATHLETES ALL of four forward passes they made every one effective. Farther north the American game is played exclusively, and there are first-class teams from the universities and schools. A boys' high-school baseball team also made a very extended tour to Australia and else- where, and were most hospitably entertained. These boys carried the respect for American manhood into many sections, and were roy- ally treated. Boys of this country who have not the facil- ities granted in the climate of California must bear in mind that during the winter seasons there is still plenty of sport by means of which they may perfect themselves for the work of the open season. Referring back to our earlier chapters, the boy should remember by cold baths and outdoor exercises whenever possible to keep his condition throughout this season, so that when spring comes he may be fairly fit for the beginning of the baseball sea- son and track work. There is some compen- sation in the cold weather, for it brings in new sports of a nature which the Pacific coast boy has no opportunity to enjoy. First among these probably stands ice-hockey. In WINTER SPORTS 225 many of the schools, such as St. Paul's, of Concord, this is a very highly developed sport, and this school alone turns out more effective skaters than almost any other. The game is a good one, but has of late taken on some of the objectionable roughness that leads to complications. Any one who has seen the most expert of Canadian teams play this game has a chance to realize that it is not roughness which wins matches, but skill, and this should be borne in mind in all the coach- ing and playing. The first requisite for a good hockey-player is ability to skate well. The next is good judgment, and these two combined go far to perfect any boy in this sport. It is not necessary for him to be big or powerful. Some members of the team may to advantage carry considerable weight and strength, but there is always a place for the active, clever, fast skater who keeps his wits about him, knows every moment where his comrades are, and can take advantage of any weakness on the part of his opponents. For the development of this sport a rink is not necessary, although the college champion- ship games are mostly played in these enclosed 226 ATHLETES ALL places. In fact, the very best practice of all is, from the outdoor exercise, on open ponds or lakes, and it is surprising how simple it is to develop a small pond by flooding a field after banking up when the frost has once got the ground well set. In this sport practice is the great essential, and team practice very vital. It is not necessary always to have the entire team on hand, for three men together may get excellent practice in passing the puck and learning to shoot, as well as to dodge, on a surface that would be altogether too small to play a regular game. The equipment consists of a good hockey skate and a stick. The goal -tender needs shin-guards, but apart from this and heavy winter gloves there is very little necessity of purchasing articles for the sake of the game. Two stones set up on the ice will serve for goals, and it is not absolutely necessary even that a player should have the traditional hockey-skate, although this is undoubtedly an advantage. Condition is of prime importance in hockey, for a fast game will try the wind and endurance of any skater. In some sec- tions of Canada the game has grown very fast WINTER SPORTS 227 and furious in championship, and the writer saw one season a Winnipeg player whose equipment would startle even the most radi- cal opponent of football. He wore steel pro- tectors over his ankles inside the shoe, shin- guards, and protectors on his upper leg. Then he wore under his jersey a sole-leather cuirass, or jacket, which reached up to his neck, while he had gauntleted gloves, a nose- guard and a head-gear! But it is by no means necessary that this sport should be carried by extreme body-checking to any such state as to make such equipment for protection necessary. Rule-makers may take up this proposition, as they have in football and basket-ball, and another sport may be continued in a reasonable and sane manner. CHAPTER XXVI MORE ABOUT WINTER TRAINING MANY times I have been asked by boys in the preparatory schools just what the winter training for athletes in the universities is, and perhaps a description of the work at a big university will be of interest and benefit to the readers of this book. It will also be a great aid to those who desire to condition themselves for later military service. Formerly, there used to be a considerable hiatus between the end of the football season and the taking up of indoor winter work in preparation for the spring sports. In most of the universities there is a ball, promenade, or dance, by whatever name it may be called, in midwinter, and as this usually comes along about the middle of January, it used to be the fashion for all the athletes to enjoy a period of rest from the end of the football season un- til after this festivity, and then take up in- door work. Nor was this an unmixed evil, 228 MORE ABOUT WINTER TRAINING 229 as it is really rather hard on a man to train rigorously the year around without a break. Now by this I do not mean that a man is better for breaking training in the sense of smoking, drinking, eating inordinately or anything of that kind, but that some change in the variety of his food and some let-up in the severity of his continuous exercise is not a bad thing. However, nowadays the athletic interest is so stimulated that, as a college pro- fessor once put it to me, "there is no longer any closed season for athletics." Almost at once after the Thanksgiving re- cess, the basket-ball men are called out and begin to do their work in the gymnasium. The soccer-players are still out-of-doors and continue their good sport. The swimming team and wrestlers get to work very early in the gymnasium, so that we have the basket- ball men at work on their floor, the swimming men at work in the pool, and the wrestlers taking their turns on the mats. Then there are the squash-courts, indoor tennis-courts, and, where they have the opportunity, hand- ball is played. In the sport which has already been com- 230 ATHLETES ALL mented upon, namely, ice-hockey, practice cannot, of course, begin for those who are not fortunate enough to possess an indoor rink with an ice-making plant until the weather turns cold enough to freeze the lakes and ponds. Boys located near a big city where there is a rink with artificial ice could enjoy this sport soon after Thanksgiving. The rowing men, baseball men, and the track men generally get to work directly after the winter recess that is, soon after the first of January, and with perhaps a few days' let-up at the time of the promenade, continuing it steadily until they get out-of-doors and then on until the season closes the track men the first of June, the baseball and crew men the first of July. This makes for the latter two six months of pretty strenuous training, and five months for the track men. The baseball and track men make use of the cage, where one is available, and at many universities now the cage is a very important structure. The one at New Haven has a good dirt floor and has curved board runways at the corners, so that the track men can really get excellent actual practice in running. The ventilation MORE ABOUT WINTER TRAINING 231 is good, and the composition of the dirt floor is such as to make it useful both for track and baseball men. The latter can get admirable practice in this cage in the way of fielding balls, throwing, and, to a certain extent, bat- ting, although the light in the cage is always quite different from that outside, and there is some question as to the value of batting practice under these conditions. The crew men may work either in a tank, providing an artificial duplication of actual rowing condi- tions, or with the machines that is, pneu- matic machines. The former, tank rowing, has been experimented with a great deal, and, if one could only duplicate the actual condi- tions, would be of the greatest value. Un- fortunately, no amount of experimenting has ever seemed to quite solve the problem. The Syracuse tank comes, however, very near to this. Seats placed in the middle of the tank can be made to duplicate the seats in the boat without any trouble, and the oars are the same, but the water, being confined, is very dead, and as the boat does not move but is fixed, the pull that one can get with an oar-blade is something enormous. To 232 ATHLETES ALL solve this difficulty plans were made to have the water moved by a wheel so that there was a constant current flowing with the stroke. Other plans were to cut holes in the oar-blades so that the water came through the blade. None of these plans, however, have seemed to quite duplicate outside conditions, and there is a shift about every two or three years from tank rowing to pneumatic and back again to tank. Which is the better, no one has yet been able to determine finally. Now in addition to all these regular sports, there are, of course, men who exercise on various apparatus in the gymnasium and who thus keep themselves in fair physical condi- tion throughout the winter. It should, how- ever, be borne in mind that games are better than apparatus and in outdoor air far better than those within four walls. Probably in a university the size of Harvard or Yale three- fourths of the men take pretty regular and constant exercise through the winter. There are three main things to be borne in mind in indoor exercise. The first is the problem of ventilation. Of course it is im- possible to get as much fresh air as one has MORE ABOUT WINTER TRAINING 233 out-of-doors, and the result is that there is some deficiency in the revivifying power of oxygen, and consequently the exercise is not really as beneficial as out-of-door work. The second point, and one intimately connected with the first, is that a man or a boy should bear in mind that he cannot do as much work without exhaustion under indoor conditions. The third is the increased liability to catch- ing cold and therefore getting stiffened up. Perspiration is more freely induced and the pores of the skin do not respond as actively in the natural closing process, and hence an indoor athlete must be more careful to get his bath and rubdown promptly, for there is nothing more dangerous than to exercise in- doors and then stand near an open window and thus cool off suddenly. CHAPTER XXVII WRESTLING AND BOXING ONE of the best of indoor sports for general development is that of wrestling, and it re- quires very little apparatus. Every boy knows that from the time he is old enough to recognize other boys he has, at the same time, faced the fact that boys will always have certain trials of strength usually resulting in wrestling. For the most part these boyish encounters have no definite rules governing them, and hence it is well as the boy grows up to have him realize that there is a method in this sport, and that there are certain rules governing it which insure to each contestant fair play and no favoritism. Such rules are carried out by the wrestling instructors in camps and stations. There are some half-dozen or so recognized styles of wrestling, the most familiar being " catch -as- catch-can" and "Graeco-Roman." There are also various others as "collar-and-elbow," 234 WRESTLING AND BOXING 235 "side hold," and those known by localities, "Devonshire," "Cumberland," "Westmore- land," and the like. Then there are various foreign styles, the most well known being the Japanese "jiu-jitsu" and "sumo." Of all these forms "sumo" is probably the highest grade. It differs from all other forms of wrestling and is regarded as a high calling in Japan. A representative of sumo wrestling visited this country not long ago, and gave ex- hibitions with his assistants in various places, one of these exhibitions occurring at the Yale gymnasium. Hitachiyama was a giant in physique and must have weighed in the neigh- borhood of three hundred pounds. His as- sistants were lighter but well-built men. He wrestled with them individually, and then finally took on all three at once without seri- ously incommoding himself. Furthermore, during the entire exhibition, which lasted some three hours, he disdained altogether the chair that was provided for him, and when resting simply squatted on his heels in the ap- proved Japanese fashion. Sumo consists of a bout in a 30-foot ring, made by drawing a circle on a mat. The two 236 ATHLETES ALL wrestlers face each other, squatted on their heels, with their clinched fists on the mat in front of them. This is usually preceded by a religious ceremony. They then lift one fist and then the other slightly off the mat, but the bout does not commence until both wrestlers have taken both hands up. Then the bout commences instantly. The object of the wrestling is to force the opponent to touch any part of his body save his bare feet (for they wrestle barefoot) to the mat, or to push him outside of the 30-foot circle. Either one of these constitutes a fall. None of the Yale men undertook to wrestle with Hitachi- yama, but they did undertake the contest with his assistants, the understanding being they would wrestle one fall sumo and a second fall American catch-as-catch-can. The Japs had not the slightest trouble in disposing of even the heavy-weight Yale wrestlers in sumo at the rate of about a fall every few seconds, for the Americans were unable to keep their hands off the mat after once started. On the other hand, in the American catch-as-catch- can the Japs betrayed their manifest profi- ciency, but were not powerful enough to over- WRESTLING AND BOXING 237 come the greater strength and skill of the Yale contestants. But to return to the usual fashions in this country. Catch-as-catch-can, as its name in- dicates, is the ordinary form of wrestling for boys who indulge in rough-and-tumble forms, except that it has different rules as to what constitutes fair play and what constitutes a fall. These may be summed up as follows: Two shoulders touching the mat or ground constitute a fall. Flying falls do not count. Throttling is barred and certain definite periods are usually arranged for. The ring is usually twenty -four feet square. It is allow- able to seize the opponent in any fashion, bar- ring throttling, and the match is usually mostly contested on the mat that is, with the two wrestlers down and each struggling to force both of the two shoulders of the other man to the mat. In Grseco-Roman instead of sparring for a hold and being allowed to seize the legs or take practically any grip, the wrestlers only take hold from the head, not lower than the belt or waist, and each wrestler may grasp 238 ATHLETES ALL his own wrist, but is not allowed to interlace fingers or the like. The shoulders touching the ground simultaneously constitutes a fall. In collar-and-elbow the men wear coats or jackets of canvas, so made that they may be satisfactorily grasped at the collar and elbow by an opponent. In catch-as-catch-can and Graeco-Roman wrestling the contestants wear stockings or sandals or go barefoot. In col- lar-and-elbow they usually wear rubber-soled sandals. In collar-and-elbow when a man breaks his hold to save himself he forfeits the fall. A fall consists of two hips and one shoulder or two shoulders and one hip striking the mat simultaneously. In Devonshire wres- tling men usually wrestle in boots or shoes, and any man falling on his knees or putting out his hand to prevent a fall loses the fall. Here again two shoulders and one hip or two hips and one shoulder striking the mat or ground constitute a fall; but the fall must be clean, no part of the opponent's body touch- ing the ground before the fall. This is en- tirely different from the catch-as-catch-can, where most of the wrestling is done on the mat. WRESTLING AND BOXING 239 In Devonshire wrestling the hold is by the jacket, and catching by the legs or waistband is a foul. In Cumberland and Westmoreland the op- ponents stand up facing each other, each placing his chin on opponent's right shoulder, and each grasping the other around the body, placing his left arm above the right arm of the antagonist. When both men are thus ready the wrestling starts, and, kicking alone barred, they are allowed to use every legiti- mate means to throw each other. Either party breaking his hold while the other still retains his hold loses a fall, and if either man touches the ground with his knee or any other part of his body, though he may still retain his hold, he is the loser. If both men fall to the ground, the one who strikes first or who falls under the other is the loser; but if they fall side by side at the same time it is a "dog fall," and must be wrestled over again. In the side hold each man takes hold of his opponent's belt with his right hand and grasps with his other hand the opposite hand of the opponent. The men toss for a choice of holds. A fall consists of striking on the 240 ATHLETES ALL back fairly on the ground, or breaking the hold, but the contestants may drop on one or both knees and rise again, but may not seize the legs. The men should be in stocking feet or light sandals. The preparation for taking up wrestling consists in securing a mattress or mat of some kind. Two or three can be placed together with a strip of canvas over them. The space occupied ought to be about twenty-four feet square, but less will answer. There is no kind of wrestling described above that may not be attractive to boys and may not be indulged in with benefit. BOXING Boxing, too, is an excellent sport. In fact, in camps and stations during the war this sport furnished the most general competition of all. In addition to this it was found to be the best method of teaching and demonstrat- ing bayonet fighting that could possibly be devised. For that reason it should become more standardized and practised in school and college. It is capital exercise and a good developer of wind and muscle, as well WRESTLING AND BOXING 241 as of quickness and agility. Here are some good rules for its government: Section 1. In all boxing competitions the ring shall not be less than 16 feet nor more than 24 feet square, and shall be formed of posts and ropes, the latter ex- tending in triple lines, two, three, and four feet from the floor of the ring. The floor of the ring shall extend beyond the lower rope for a distance of not less than two feet. Posts must be properly padded and padding on floor shall be not less than one-half inch in thick- ness. Section 2. Competitors must box in regulation ath- letic trunks, reaching to the knee, in shoes without spikes, or in socks, and use boxing-gloves not less than five ounces in weight. Section 3. Classes to be: 115 pounds and under; 126 pounds and under; 136 pounds and under; 145 pounds and under; 158 pounds and under; 175 pounds and under; and over 175 pounds. Section 4. An athlete who fails to compete after entering an event shall be required to furnish a satis- factory excuse for such failure or render himself liable to censure or suspension by the athletic committee. Any athlete who weighs in and then fails to compete without an excuse satisfactory to the athletic commit- tee, shall be suspended for a period of one month. Competitors shall weigh in within three hours of a contest. Weighing in shall cease in each class when the drawing for bouts in that class commences. Com- petitors shall sign their names to a weighing list upon weighing in and whenever demanded by the referee. 242 ATHLETES ALL Section 5. The boxing committee shall prepare an official list of competent boxing officials to serve as referees, judges, weighers, timers, announcers, and clerks of boxing. All tournaments must be conducted by officials selected from this official list. Section 6. In all competitions the number of rounds to be contested shall be three. The duration of rounds shall be limited to one and one-half minutes each in- stead of three minutes. The interval between each round shall be one minute. The referee may order one additional round as provided in Section 9. Section 7. A competitor failing to immediately respond to the call of "time" at the beginning of any round shall be disqualified by the referee and the bout awarded to the opponent. Section 8. Immediately before the contest, com- petitors who have weighed in shall draw numbers to determine the bouts they take part in. The contest to be as follows: Have the first preliminary round to reduce the number of competitors to two, four, eight, sixteen, and so on. (Thus, if there are three competi- tors, have one preliminary bout to reduce to two; if five, have one bout to reduce to -/our; if six, have two bouts to reduce to four; if seven, have three bouts to reduce to four; if nine, have one bout to reduce to eight; if ten, have two bouts to reduce to eight; if eleven, have three bouts to reduce to eight, and so on.) In all drawings where Numbers 1, 2, 3, 4, and so on are drawn, Number 1 competes with Numbers 2, 3, 4, and so on. When the class is brought to a multiple of 2, 4, 8, or 16, the contest proceeds regularly to the final bout. The winner of the final bout receives first prize, and the loser receives second. WRESTLING AND BOXING 243 Section 9. The manner of judging shall be as fol- lows : There shall be two judges, stationed on opposite sides of the ring, and a referee in the ring. At the end of the bout each judge shall write the name of the competitor who in his opinion has won, and shall hand same to the announcer. In case the judges agree, the name of the winner is announced, but in case the judges disagree, the announcer shall so inform the referee, who shall thereupon himself decide. If the referee is in doubt, he can order a further round, limited to two minutes. If the judges then fail to agree, the referee must decide in favor of one of the contestants. Section 10. The referee shall have power to caution or disqualify a competitor for any infringement of rules, and to end the round in the event of either man being knocked down. The referee, however, shall not count over a competitor who has been knocked down. If such knockdown, in his opinion, shall incapacitate the competitor from continuing, the referee must stop the bout and announce the winner. Section 11. The decision of the judges or the referee, as the case may be, shall be final. Section 12. In all competitions the decision shall be made in favor of the competitor who displays the best style and obtains the greatest number of points. The points shall be : For attack direct clean hits with the knuckles of either hand on any part of the front or sides of the head or body above the belt. For defense guarding, slipping, ducking, counter-hitting, or get- ting away. Where points are otherwise equal, con- sideration to be given to the man who does the most leading off. 244 ATHLETES ALL Section 13 (very important). The referee may dis- qualify a competitor who is boxing unfairly, by kick- ing, gouging, or hitting with the open glove, hitting with the inside or butt of the hand, the wrist or elbow, hitting or catching hold below the waist, hitting when down (one knee and one hand or both knees on the floor), striking an opponent on the back of the neck or on the spine or over the kidneys, holding with one hand and striking, butting with head or shoulder, hit- ting in the clinches, wrestling, or roughing at the ropes, using offensive and scurrilous language, or not obeying the orders of the referee. Section 14. Any athlete who competes in a boxing contest of longer duration than provided for in these rules shall be suspended for such period as the athletic committee shall decide. Section 15. Nothing shall be used for the protection of the hands and wrist other than soft cotton bandages of not more than three thicknesses and not more than two layers of tape back of the knuckles, hard bandages or substances of any kind being prohibited. Bandages are subject to approval of the referee. Section 16. In the event of any questions arising not provided for in these rules, the referee shall have full power to decide such questions and also interpret the rules. CHAPTER XXVIII KEEPING FIT IN WINTER THERE is a far better knowledge nowadays regarding the evil of "suddenly breaking training," as it is called, and those who have been exercising as vigorously as they have been called upon to do should remember that the wise plan is to let down gradually. Of course, after the final game, it is only natural that the boy should want a rest temporarily, and it does not hurt him at all to put in a few days of relaxation so far as violent muscular exercise is concerned. He will do well to make up for some of the arrears which possi- bly worrying over an important contest have brought in its wake. Plenty of good sound sleep is the best rejuvenator in that respect. Nor because a boy just at the time of the great contest of his year does worry a little should parents or others consider that unfor- tunate, or charge it up as a detriment to the sport. A boy should have his ambitions and a strong desire to win and to do the very best 245 246 ATHLETES ALL at everything to which he puts his hand or mind. If he does not have such a disposition he is not likely to make any great success of American life as it is to-day. But he cer- tainly should throw off that condition after the contest, and two or three days of interest in other subjects, and good sleep, should find him normal again. It is at this period, however, that a boy should think for himself, and he will be wise to understand that he should go on with his general athletic development, even though not spurred to the extreme by the thought of competition. Now is also the time to apply himself more vigorously than ever to his school work, but at the same time in his play hours to take good, vigorous exercise, and on his holidays good long tramps which leave him in a condition to put in nine or ten hours' sound sleep at night. He will be fitting him- self for his winter pastimes by doing this and getting ready for the skating season, with its hockey and, perhaps, also, in the winter, basket-ball. Just a word of caution about this latter. It is usually played in gymnasi- ums where the air is not always the best, and KEEPING FIT IN WINTER 247 where it never can be as good as the outdoor air. A boy may safely play it, however, if he gets enough out-of-doors besides this, but if he stays indoors all day at his work, and then relies entirely upon an hour of basket-ball in the gymnasium in the evening, he is making a mistake, and he will sooner or later find it out. Basket-ball is an excellent pastime, and played out-of-doors nothing can be said against it, but many a man taking it up as his only exercise for the winter has found, much to his surprise, that late in the season he feels seedy and lacks that vigorous feeling of health that should come to the normal boy who is taking proper care of himself. This is caused by two things: First, the lack of suffi- cient oxygen in the air of a gymnasium, and, secondly, by the usually rather warm condi- tion of that air, which causes more profuse perspiration than is really needed or is advan- tageous. [The rules of basket-ball are too long to reprint here, but most boys are familiar with them.] For these reasons, hockey out-of-doors is a better builder-up. Rink hockey has some- thing of the same objection as basket-ball, al- 248 ATHLETES ALL though not so marked, as the air is colder and there is usually more of it with a greater admixture of the outside atmosphere. Many boys do not have the opportunity to play these games in the winter, but every boy has a chance to exercise in some way, and plenty of skating and coasting will keep the average boy in first-class condition. And let him re- member never to give up the instructions at the beginning of this series of articles relative to his morning plunge and drink of fresh water, and keeping his mouth and body clean. A certain amount of indoor gymnasium work may be taken on, provided, as stated in the case of basket-ball, that he does not, in view of the fact that he is exercising in the gymna- sium, go without some kind of exercise daily in the open air. As to what the boy may do in the gymnasium, it is always well to adopt some definite plan because that will keep his interest up. If he feels that he is developing himself for some one of his special sports, it will enable him to do better work, and cer- tainly will have the effect of making that work do more for him. The general setting-up exercises may be KEEPING FIT IN WINTER 249 practised as well in his own room with the windows open as in the gymnasium, and there are several of these that are of great benefit not only to the boy's carriage but his ability to perform the work in his other sports. These setting-up exercises are of various kinds, but a list of them will enable the boy to make a selection, not doing them all, perhaps, but picking out various ones and taking five minutes a day at some of them. First, let him stand erect with his heels together, and then, bending the knees and lifting the heels, go down, still keeping the body in an upright position until he touches, or almost touches, his heels, coming up again into an erect posture. Then let him stand with his feet somewhat more widely apart, extend his arms at right angles to his body with palms down, and then turning at the hips, and at the same time letting the body come forward at the hips, put the fingers of one hand to the ground, or to the floor, keeping the other arm extended up into the air; then let him reverse after com- ing into erect position again and let him touch the ground with the fingers of the 250 ATHLETES ALL other hand, bending alternately first one knee and then the other. It will be found when he thus swings forward and puts his right fingers to the floor he should bend his right knee, and reverse this, bending his left knee when he puts the fingers of his left hand to the floor. Then let him stand erect once more with his arms straight by his sides, then gradually raising the arms, take a deep inspiration until they are once more horizontally extended from his body; then let him let them down by his sides and slowly let the air out of his lungs. Once more raising his arms to the level of the shoulders, let him bring his hands together in front of him, and then slowly separate them as he once more draws in a long breath. When his arms are back again on the level of his shoulders, let him, while still holding his breath, bring them down flat against his sides and then let him let the air out of his lungs. Let him then stand some three feet from the wall and, raising his hands once more extended straight out from the shoulders, turn and lean forward, touching the tips of his KEEPING FIT IN WINTER 251 fingers to the wall, and then by a spring from his fingers push himself back on to his feet once more. He can do this first with one hand and then with the other; and try gradually extending the distance from the wall until it is with difficulty that he can push himself back into balance once more. These exercises help the legs, the lungs, the muscles around the waist, and particularly give the boy a well-rounded shoulder. They have the advantage also that they may be practised without any gymnasium apparatus, and if they are persevered in will give almost any boy a good symmetrical development. Here is a description of a regular standard "daily dozen" set-up, used very largely in the navy and by aviation trainers, which will keep any boy in good condition when taken in connection with his sports. It is a muscle stretching which creates suppleness and re- sistive force. THE DAILY DOZEN SET-UP The DAILY DOZEN SET-UP consists of twelve exer- cises which, for ease in memorizing, are divided into four groups of three exercises each. Each exercise 252 ATHLETES ALL or movement is given a name, and the names of all the movements of a group commence with the same letter, thus: I II III 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. KEEPING FIT IN WINTER 253 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 rooms! or 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. 254 ATHLETES ALL 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.) 1. Hands. 7. Grasp. 8. Craw (upright position). 10. Curl (curl position). THE DAILY 16. Weave (combination turn and bend). 17. Win)? (stretch position). 18. Wing (wii-g position). DOZEN SET-UP. KEEPING FIT IN WINTER 255 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 "ORDER": 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 and speed. 256 ATHLETES ALL ORDER: grind, one two three four five to ten. Reverse, one to ten ORDER: rest. hands down and arms forced back as far as pos- sible. See Figure 5.) (At grind, and in time with the Leader's measured counting, circles of twelve inches diameter are de- scribed with the finger- tips which move forward and downward, then 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.) (At reverse, the same process should be gone through, the circle being described in the opposite direction.) Ten circles are described in each direction. 2. GRATE GRATE: READY: cross. ORDER: grate, one (At grate, and as the Leader counts one, the arms are KEEPING FIT IN WINTER 257 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 58 ATHLETES ALL i 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 KEEPING FIT IN WINTER 259 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, 260 ATHLETES ALL 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 at/owr. 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 KEEPING FIT IN WINTER 261 Figure feet are together, which is incorrect, for this exercise.) This is the wing 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 &tfour. 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 262 ATHLETES ALL 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. WAVE WAVE: READY: ORDER: cross. 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 KEEPING FIT IN WINTER 263 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 264 ATHLETES ALL 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 KEEPING FIT IN WINTER 265 this position. See Figure 15. At four, 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. 266 ATHLETES ALL 3. WING WING: READY: cross. ORDER: wing. (At wing, and as the Leader one counts one, two, three, two four, the arms are raised three laterally until they are four extended straight up- ward at one. See Figure one 17. At two, the arms be- two gin to fall forward and three downward and the body four 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 267 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. CHAPTER XXIX CONDENSED FOOTBALL PLAN As it is impossible within the scope of this volume to deal in detail with such a matter as the full instructions for coaching that most popular of our fall sports, football, we are giving what will prove the most serviceable advice, namely, a condensed schedule show- ing how to handle spring practice or the pre- liminary practice in the fall. GENERAL PROGRAMME FOOTBALL SQUAD SPRING OR EARLY FALL FOOTBALL PRACTICE MONDAY tt Candidates for Back Field. Punting, catching punts, goal-kicking, place and drop kicking ten to fifteen minutes. All Candidates for Line. Falling upon the ball- five to ten minutes. Charging five minutes. Squad is divided, the backs practising forward pass- ing and interfering (light), while the linemen practise blocking five to fifteen minutes. Backs also work on standing dummy practice, keeping their feet. 268 CONDENSED FOOTBALL PLAN 269 Linemen practise "duck walk,"* while the backs practise starting five to fifteen minutes. Ends join the squad of backs and practise passing, also work on the standing dummy. Keeping their feet when striking it, while the other linemen practise start- ing five to ten minutes. TUESDAY Punting, catching, goal-kicking, place and drop kick- ing, while the squad is gathering ten to twenty minutes. Backs practise forward passing and interfering on dummy, while the linemen practice breaking through and charging each other five to fifteen minutes. Linemen tackle each other and do the duck walk, while the backs fall upon the ball stationary and roll- ing two going after it at once five to fifteen minutes. Running down under punts five to ten minutes. Running through signals ten to twenty minutes. WEDNESDAY Same practice as on Monday and Tuesday, while squad is gathering. Open field running with the ball and phantom tack- ling ten to fifteen minutes. After first week this can be real tackling with three men in line, five yards apart, for the runner to carry the ball through. Backs and ends practise passing and catching, while * " Duck Walk." Bend the knees, keeping body straight. Then walk, or rather waddle, along in this position. 270 ATHLETES ALL the linemen practise falling upon the ball in competi- tion ten to fifteen minutes. Duck walk by linemen five minutes. Running through signals ten to fifteen minutes. THURSDAY The same programme as on Wednesday. FRIDAY Punting, catching punts, goal-kicking, and quick place or drop kicking, the same as upon other days. Practise falling upon the ball, tackling, and charg- ing, running down on punts, with especial attention to slowing up before reaching runner. Short but fast signal practice. Backs kick quickly from close behind line. PRELIMINARY PRACTICE DUTIES Detail a man to watch each job, if possible. Kicking. Charging. Interference. Catching. Snapping. Quarter Play Covering Kicks. Forward Passing. Blocking. Use of Hands. Tackling Backs; Line. Protecting Kicker ATHLETES' CODE ATHLETES' CODE I SHOULD like to impress upon every boy who reads this book one most important fact, and that fact is this, that the boy is the most promising member of the community. Professor Sumner, that noted social-science scholar, has said that it is almost impossible to accomplish much in changing or improv- ing the man of thirty; that his habits and ways are by that age so formed that it is doubtful whether in the main they may be materially altered. But the younger genera- tion is the promising material, the material from which the structure of the coming so- ciety must be builded. It is that material that may be moulded. And every youth should remember that no amount of labor and care and foresight on the part of his elders can accomplish much except through the willingness and desire of the man him- self to develop, to acquire strength of mind and body, courage, and manliness. 273 274 ATHLETES ALL This same gentleman, Professor Sumner, has supplied a test to which he subjected those who would offer an innovation in meth- ods. When any one came to him with a prop- osition, he asked him three questions: What is it? How do you know it? What of it? That is what each man must put before him- self. We wish to have every man in the service or in the school take his athletics in the high- est spirit. He should in the best sense "play the game" fairly, honestly, and earnestly. He begins at the beginning with the sup- position that everything is to be learned; he starts at the bottom, hence it is that when we send the athlete out into the world he is ready to begin the same way, and not expect to know it all, or to aspire to responsible positions without long and earnest work in the form of training. Those who think that the remarkable athlete is spoiled by the adulation of the newspapers and his fellows, say that he expects unusual or undue pre- ferment when he goes out into the world, must, it seems to me, regard him as un- usually in need of brains. He is only sepa- ATHLETES' CODE 275 rated from the outside world by the class who went before him, and he has seen the stars of the previous class go out and work immediately as office boys. Can one suppose for a moment that he does not take this les- son to heart and does not fully realize that he must do the same? In fact, he is better prepared by his athletic experience in school and college to take up the drudgery at the bottom than a man who has not acquired exactly that experience in sports in his col- lege days. Young men need strenuous games at the time of life when they are fitted for them. Their very virility depends upon this, and the greater their desire for such games the better the signs of their future development in integrity, strength, and masterful pur- poses. But they must not use their powers as bullies and tyrants, and the organized games prevent this. Times may change, but not nature. Let not the parent think that his later experiments in diet, in more mature life, mean that there will never be a desire for the same "cakes 276 ATHLETES ALL and candy" that he enjoyed when he was young. "For lo, the same old myths that made the early stage successes, Still hold the boards, and still are played with new effects and dresses." Nature will always smile at the desire to make the weak youth the popular hero of the young man's world. She has embedded in the marrow of the boy's bones the admira- tion for physical prowess, because she wishes the boy to become physically developed be- fore a great strain is thrown upon his whole mental processes. It is not the physical bravery alone that excites admiration. It is the capacity to overcome the feeling of de- pression that ensues in the face of impending failure. The sound pluck, or call it what you will, that leads the boy or man to fight on heroically when the other side is ahead is a splendid asset, not alone for the man who goes into the service of his country on the battle-field, but also for civilian advance- ment. ATHLETES' CODE 277 If one examines into the real facts, he finds that in the days before organized athletics, it was not studies that filled up this gap, but town and gown riots and dissipation of many forms. Athletics teach, also, team work in opposition to individualism and selfish pur- poses, and it is working for others or for a common cause that is necessary for the de- velopment of the best forces in military life and also for municipal and civic life. Play fair, but play hard; win if you can, lose if you must, but take a whipping with- out whimpering. Thus, and thus only, will a youth make of himself what we all admire, and what we class as a thoroughbred, and, started right, he will always be a thorough- bred. UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LIBRARY Los Angeles This book is DUE on the last date stamped below. HAY 15 1953 RECEIVEC LD-URL . <^%F 3 .^f\ V **l' D ma 91 969 Form L9-10m-6,'52(A1855)444 A 001 341 367 9