\J 6^j^^ Lij cri^^.<^(^ o'v^, THE BOOK OF ATHLETICS EDITED BY PAUL WITHINGTON, M. D. Assistant Graduate Treasurer Harvard Athletic Association, 1910-1914; Captain Harvard Swimming Team, 1908, 1909; Member Harvard Football Eleven, 1908, 1909; Mem- ber Harvard Eight-Oared Crew, 1909; Winner New England Championship in Wrestling, 1909; Winner Boston Metropolitan Champion- ship in Single Sculls, 1912, 1913; Cap- tain Union Boat Club Eight. Illustrated From Many Photographs of Athletes and Athletic Events BOSTON LOTHROP, LEE & SHEPARD CO. Published, August, 1914, Copyright, 1914, by Lothrop, Lee & Shepard Company All Tights reserved The Book of Athletics Berwick & Smith Co. Norwood, Ma88., U. S. A. PREFACE The first '' Book of Athletics " appeared in 1895. It was edited by Norman W. Bing- ham, Jr., at that time Captain of the Harvard Track Team, and was a collection of articles " containing practical advice and suggestions from college team-captains and other amateurs on football, baseball, rowing, sprinting, tennis, golf, bicycling, swimming, skating, yachting, and other allied subjects," and was intended as a guide to young athletes. An up-to-date book of the same nature is demanded, and the same title has been used. The former book became obsolete, excellent as it was, because within the last twenty years knowledge of and participation in athletics have spread tremendously. There are doz- ens of men skilled in coaching scattered over the country, teaching men and boys both the elements and fine points of our many games, and there is to-day a widespread and almost universal interest in sports which far sur- passes that of twenty years ago. With this spread of interest, there has grown up an ever- increasing desire and demand for the expert's view, with the result that the daily papers, the current weeklies, and the monthly magazines vi PREFACE are full of accounts of games, discussions and criticisms written by star players and expert coaches. Some of the best of such material forms the nucleus of this book. The remain- der has been written especially for the editor by leading present-day athletes, or prepared by himself. '' The Book of Athletics " is a collection of articles written by players, captains, coaches, and trainers of many college teams, and by others who have had a wide experience in athletics. While it makes no pretense of con- taining exhaustive treatises on all branches of sports, or even of being a complete and suffi- cient text-book on those sports considered, it has been the endeavor of the editor in gathering material to cover in an interesting and instruct- ive way the games commonly played in school and college circles. The book is designed to give those interested a certain amount of knowledge and insight into the player's side of athletics. It is intended that the discussions shall not be so technical as to be unintelligible to beginners, nor so elementary as to fail to interest the more expert. The present book will be found to be some- what more specialized than the first. This seems to coincide with the trend of the times. The greatest space and endeavor have been given to what are known in college ranks as the major sports. Accordingly, much more space PREFACE vii lias been allotted to football, on which there are articles not only on the game in general, but on each position and on the important features of the game. Track athletics likewise have become so important that sections are devoted to its several events. In other sports, where the general knowledge is so advanced that teaching-articles would be more technical than is the plan of this book, there have been sub- stituted articles with either an historical or a psychological interest. Thus in baseball, the articles deal not so much with the coaching or playing of the various positions as with the importance of team play, quick thinking, and a thorough understanding of the intricacies of the game. But though the major sports claim most attention, the minor sports have been by no means neglected, and an effort has been made to include all the forms of athletics com- mon to schools and colleges, the list including, besides the above mentioned sports, rowing, ice-hockey, tennis, swimming, soccer football, wrestling, lacrosse, basket-ball, and golf. To have covered all sorts of sports as fully as in the case of football would have meant a book so large and so expensive that its very aim would have been defeated. For the sake of comparison, one or two arti- cles from the first edition are included in the second. Golf, twenty years ago, was a new game in America and the article was entitled, viii PREFACE " Golf the coming game." If for no other reason, a reprint of this article is interesting for comparison in view of the general popular- ity of this game to-day. The writers of the various articles are thor- oughly familiar with their subjects, and each division contains a wealth of excellent material. The men are all experts in their lines, in fact, in many cases stand at the head of their par- ticular branch of athletics. It would be quite impossible to make up a list of the greatest athletes and athletic teachers of the present decade without including such names as those of the late Michael C. Murphy, the dean of track coaches; Dr. Alvin C. Kraenzlein of Pennsylvania, who is to organize and train the German Olympic Team of 1916; Ralph 0. Craig of Michigan, winner of two first places in the 1912 Olympic Games; James Thorpe of Carlisle, the wonderful Indian athlete; Keene Fitzpatrick, Track Coach at Princeton, for- merly at the University of Michigan; all of whom are contributors to this book. Quite as impressive as any is the football section, with articles by Fielding H. Yost, Coach of the Michigan eleven; Henry H. Ketcham of Yale; E. J. Hart, Sanford B. Wliite, and J. M. Duff of Princeton, the latter now Coach of the University of Pittsburgh; Leland S. De- vore of the Army; John Dalton of the Navy; Percy L. Wendell and Edw. W. Mahan PREFACE ix of Harvard. But the other sports are quite as well and fully covered — Tennis by K. Norris Williams of Harvard, Intercollegiate Champion and member of the American Davis Cup Team in 1913 ; Hockey by Fred D. Hunt- ington of Harvard and member of the Boston Athletic Association Hockey Team; Basket- ball by Fred A. Kohler of Princeton, and Jas. A. Eeilly of Yale ; Lacrosse by Paul Gustaf son of Harvard ; Rowing by Gen. W. A. Bancroft ; Soccer by H. G. Francke, Captain of the Har- vard 1914 Association Team; Golf by the late Ralph Cracknell and S. P. Griffitts, Manager of the Harvard 1914 Golf Team. Each sport included is handled by well-known and capable athletes. The personality of these men is por- trayed in their work and adds greatly to the interest and value of the book. Where no au- thor is specified, the article has been prepared by the editor, who has covered the subject of Wrestling, and contributed articles on Foot- ball, Rowing, and Swimming. Paul Withington. Harvard Athletic Association, May, 1914. CONTENTS INTRODUCTION PAGE The Essemtials of an Athlete. By Paul Withington 3 Competitive Athletics: Their Place in School and College Sports, and a Word about Training FOR Athletic Events. By Paul Withington . . 8 FOOTBALL Team-Plu\y; Types of Players, and Rules. By Paul Withington 21 Modern Football and How to Play It. By Michael C. Murphy 27 Training for the Team. By Dr. Alvin C. Kraenzlein, University of Pennsylvania, Holder of the World's Record in the Low Hurdles and Broad Jump; Ex- trainer of the University of Michigan Football Team, and Coach of the Track Team; Coach and Super- visor of the German Olympic Team for 1916 . . 35 The New Football a Game for Thinkers. By Fielding H. Yost, Coach of the University of Michi- gan Football Team 47 Football Generalship: The Captain, and the Quarter - Back. By Paul Withington ... 52 How to Play Center. By Henry H. Ketcham, Cap- tain of the Yale Football Team, 1913; All- America Center, 1911-1912 61 How to Play Guard. By Joseph M. Duff, Princeton, All-America Guard, 1911; Coach of the University of Pittsburgh Football Team, 1913-1914 ... 70 How TO Play Tackle. By Edward J. Hart, Prince- ton, All-America Tackle, 1911; Coach at Princeton, 1913 75 Tackle Play. By Leland S. Devore, Captain of the Army, 1911, All-America Tackle 81 xii CONTENTS PAQB Importance of the End Position. By Stanfield Wells, Michigan, All-America End .... 91 How to Play Fullback. By John P. Dalton, U. S. Naval Academy, All- America Fullback . .104 The Play of the Backs. By Percy L. Wendell, Har- . vard, All- America Back, 1910, 1911, 1912 . . .112 How to Play Halfback. By James Thorpe, Carlisle Indian School, All- America Halfback; Winner at Olympic Games, 1912 120 Kicking. By Edward W. Mahan, Harvard, All- America, 1913 134 Following the Ball. By Sanford B. White, Prince- ton, All- America End, 1911 141 TRACK ATHLETICS Track Athletics. By Paul Withington . . . 153 How to Become a Sprinter. By Michael C. MurpMj, Trainer of the University of Pennsylvania and of the American Olympic Teams of 1908-1912 . . 155 How to Run the Hundred, and Two Hundred- Twenty Yard Dashes. By Ralph C. Craig, Michi- gan, Winner of the 220-yard dash, I. C. A. A. A. Meet, 1910; the 100, and 220-yard dashes, 1911, and of the 100, and 200-meter runs at the Olympic Games, 1912; Joint Holder of the World's 220-yard Record 166 How TO Train for the Distance Run. By Keene Fitzpatrick, Trainer at Princeton, formerly Trainer at University of Michigan 177 The Art of Hurdling. By A. L. Jackson, Harvard, Winner of the High Hurdles, Harvard- Yale Meet, 1913; Second in the High Hurdles, I. C. A. A. A. Games, 1913; Joint Holder of Harvard- Yale Dual Record in High Hurdles 189 FIELD ATHLETICS How TO Throw the Weights. By Joseph Horner, Jr., Michigan, Winner of the Shot-Put, I. C. A. A. A. Meet, 1911, and one of America's Best All-round Athletes 197 CONTENTS xiii PAGE The Running Broad - Jump, the High - Jump, and THE Pole - Vault. By Jay B. Camp, Harvard, Winner of First Place in the High Jump, I. C. A. A. A. Meet, 1913, and Second Place in the Pole-Vault . 213 THE OLYMPIC GAMES OF 1912 The Olympic Games of 1912. By Ralph C. Craig . 233 BASEBALL Science vs. Skill in Baseball. By Irving E. San- born, Dartmouth, 1889; Baseball Editor, Chicago Tribune; Member Chalmers Trophy Commission to select each Season the Player in each Major League who has been of Greatest Service to his Team 253 The Importance of Batting. By Irving E. Sanborn 264 Amateur vs. Professional. By Irving E. Sanborn . 278 The Inside Game as Played by Catcher and Pitcher. By Irving E. Sanborn .... 292 How Inside Baseball Has Decreased the Bat- ting BY Perfecting Defensive Fielding. By Irving E. Sanborn 303 Scoring the Game. By Irviyig E. Sanborn . . 314 ROWING Rowing. By Paul Withington 333 How to Tr.\in a Crew. By Gen. W. A. Bancroft, Harvard, 1878, Captain and Coach of many suc- cessful Harvard Eights 348 HOCKEY Hockey. By Fred D. Huntington, Harvard, Captain of the Harvard Hockey Team, 1912; Member of the B. A. A. Hockey Team, 1912, 1913, 1914 . . 363 LAWN TENNIS A Sermon on Lawn Tennis. By /awes Dwight, The Father of American Lawn Tennis .... 377 xiv CONTENTS PAGE Lawn Tennis. By Richard Norris Williams, 2d, Har- vard, Intercollegiate Champion, 1913; Member of the American Davis Cup Team, 1913 . . . 386 SWIMMING Swimming. By Paul Withington 401 The Akt of Swimming. By Harry Rose . . . 406 Sport in the Water. By Alexander Black . . 416 INTERCOLLEGIATE SOCCER Intercollegiate Soccer. By H. G. Francke, Captain of the Harvard 1914 Association Football Team . 433 WRESTLING Wrestling. By Paul Withington 447 LACROSSE Lacrosse. By Paul Gustafson, Captain of the Har- vard Lacrosse Team of 1912, Intercollegiate Cham- pions of America; Coach of the Harvard Team, 1913 457 BASKETBALL How to Play Basketball. By Fred A. Kohler, Captain of the Princeton Basketball Team, 1912 . 475 Basketball: The Offense. By James A. Reilly, Captain of the Yale Basketball Team, 1913 . . 486 GOLF Golf: The Coming Game. By Ralph Cracknell . 499 Golf as a Game. By *S. P. Griffitts, Manager Harvard Golf Team, 1914 504 ILLUSTRATIONS Paul Withington Frontispiece FACING PAGE The Forward Pass 28 A well-planned Forward Pass in the Harvard- Yale Game, 1913. Hardwick running for a Touchdown after receiv- ing a Forward Pass in the Harvard-Brown Game, 1913. Fish of Harvard about to receive a Forward Pass in the Harvard-Yale Game, 1908. Potter of Harvard throwing the Ball to Felton in the Harvard-Brown Game, 1911. Quarter - Back Play, and Tackling .... 56 Handling the Ball in the Back-Field. Harvard Football Men practising Tackling on the Dummies at Soldiers' Field, Cambridge. Punting 74 A Savage Attack on the Kicker. Flvnn of Yale Punting in the Harvard- Yale Game, 1913. Guernsey of Yale Punting in the Harvard- Yale Game, 1913. Shepard of Maine getting away a 60- Yard Punt in the Harvard-Maine Game, 1912. The Value of Interference 92 Mahan of Harvard making a long End Run in the Harvard-Holy Cross Game, 1913. Thorpe of Carlisle starting on a long End Run in the Harvard-CarUsle Game, 1911. Hardwick of Harvard making a successful End Run in the Harvard-Yale Game, 1913. xvi LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS FACING PAGE The Drop -Kick 108 Brickley kicking One of his Five successful Field- Goals in the Harvard- Yale Game, 1913. Guernsey scoring for Yale by a Drop-Kick. Harvard- Yale Game, 1913. The Fake Kick. One Method of Protecting the Kicker. Harvard- Yale Game, 1913. Play of the Backs 112 Captain Wendell of Harvard making a good Gain in the Harvard-Dartmouth Game, 1912. Wilson of Yale running back a Kick for 35 Yards in the Harvard- Yale Game, 1913. The Place - Kick 126 Brickley kicking a Goal from Placement after a Fair Catch. Harvard- Yale Game, 1913. Thorpe of CarUsle kicking a Goal from Placement in a Scrimmage. Harvard-CarUsle Game, 1911. The Army scores by a Place-Kick. Army-Navy Game, 1913. The Navy scores a Field-Goal. Army-Navy Game, 1913. E. W. Mahan of Harvard Punting . . . .134 The Sprints 166 Ralph Craig winning the 100- Yard in Record Time of 9 4-5 Seconds. Intercollegiate Games of 1911. Drew and Craig at the Tape at the Finish of the 100-Meters in the Olympic Try-Outs in the Harvard Stadium, 1912. Patterson of Penn. winning the 100-Yards in 9 4-5 Seconds. Intercollegiates, 1913. The Middle - Distance Runs 184 Young of Amherst winning the Quarter in 48 4-5 Seconds. Intercollegiates, 1911. Caldwell of Cornell winning Half-Mile Run in One Minute, 53 2-5 Seconds, and Breaking Record. Intercollegiates, 1914. 1 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS xvii FACING PAGE The Distance Runs 188 John Paul Jones of Cornell making a New World's One-Mile Record of 4 Minutes, 14 2-5 Seconds. IntercoUegiates, 1913. The Field in the Mile Run. IntercoUegiates, 1913. The Hurdles 192 James Wendell of Wesleyan winning High Hurdles. IntercoUegiates, 1913. Gummings of Harvard and Chishohn of Yale over a Hurdle together. Harvard- Yale Game, 1912. Jackson of Harvard leading in the Semi-Finals of High Hurdles. IntercoUegiates, 1913. The Shot - Put and Hammer - Throw . . . 202 Joseph Horner finishing his Winning Put of 46 Feet, 7 1-8 Inches. IntercoUegiates, 1911. L. A. Whitney of Dartmouth, Intercollegiate Champion in 1913. WiUiam E. Quinn at the Beginning of a Throw. The Broad Jump 214 William E. Quinn just leaving the Take-Off. Mercer of Penn., IntercoUegiate Champion in 1912 and 1913. Piatt Adams of the New York Athletic Club. Throwing Every Muscle into a Final Effort to gain Distance before landing. The High Jump 218 The late WiUiam E. Quinn, Field Coach of Har- vard, clearing Six Feet in Perfect Style. Over Six Feet in the IntercoUegiates. The Pole -Vault 222 J. B. Camp of Harvard. Wagoner of Yale, former Intercollegiate Record- Holder, poising his Pole before starting his Run. J. B. Camp clearing 12 Feet at the Olympic Try- Outs, June, 1912, for Third Place. Wagoner over 12 Feet, 6 Inches. xviii LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS FACING PAGE Pbactice on the Machine 336 The Catch. In the Middle of the Pull. The Finish. The Recover. Some Eight - Oared Crews 358 The Harvard Eight of 1911 just before the Catch. The Cornell Crew of 1912 at Full Reach. Harvard's 1912 Crew at New London. Finish of the Columbia-Harvard Race in 1907, Columbia wirming by Three-Quarters of a Length. Hockey Pr.\ctice in the Harvard Stadium . . 372 Soccer 438 A Battle for the Ball in a Harvard- Yale Soccer Game. Legal Body-Checking. Heading the Ball. Wrestling I 448 The Referee's Hold. First Standing Hold. Second Standing Hold. Wrestling II 450 Third Standing Hold. The Full-Nelson. The Half-Nelson. Wrestling III 452 The Body Scissors combined with a Half-Nelson. Head Scissors and Arm Hold. Finishing the Arm Lock and Roll. Pinning Opponent to the Mat. Lacrosse I 464 Scrimmage in Front of Goal. The Face-Off. Goal. Body-Check. Lacrosse II 472 A Shot at Goal. Dodge. Another Dodge. Fast Playing on Attack. THE BOOK OF ATHLETICS INTRODUCTION THE ESSENTIALS OF AN ATHLETE THE BOOK OF ATHLETICS INTRODUCTION THE ESSENTIALS OF AN ATHLETE The great majority of our boys would like to be athletes. There is nothing wrong or abnor- mal in this desire, and the only thing to be re- gretted is that all do not follow up their wish and actually become athletes. There are few boys, indeed, who have not the ability, the strength, and the time necessary to make them proficient in some branch of athletics. The essentials of a good athlete are few and simple. First, what are the physical requirements of an athlete? A great many boys would like to be athletes, but say to themselves, '' We are too small — we are too light, we would have little chance against men so much stronger — others will laugh at our attempt." They are wrong. A few years ago Mr. Wm. F. Gar- celon, then Graduate Treasurer of the Harvard Athletic Association, formed what he called " a class for non-athletic freshmen." To begin with, he chose seven boys in the freshman class, 3 4 THE BOOK OF ATHLETICS whose records in studies were above the aver- age, but who had never entered into any ath- letic games and who were consequently un- developed physically. Three times a week throughout the winter and early spring he went with these boys to the gymnasium. He saw that they learned to run, to jump, to vault, to tiunble, and to hurdle. They were given a few lessons in boxing, a few in fencing and in one or two other forms of sport. None of these boys had ever attempted any of these things before, but every one of them took to it like ducks to the water. They enjoyed it and sur- prised themselves when they found that they possessed ability in things which they had sup- posed beyond their possibilities. One member of the class became so proficient in jumping that he won his numerals in an inter-freshman meet. One later became a member of the 'var- sity track team and was entered in all its games. Since its origin this class has grown in size and in compass, and each year has thirty or forty members. Its object remains the same — to interest the boy who has always considered himself non-athletic, in athletics as a source of pleasure and education. Hardly a year passes but one or two of these boys become leading candidates for some one of the many Harvard teams. I have followed this class each year, and I caii think of no boy that worked conscien- tiously, who, at the end of the given time, was INTRODUCTION 5 not a very fair performer in at least one of the chosen activities. Several of these boys have become very proficient ; one as a captain of the fencing team, several as candidates for the wrestling team, others as candidates for the track team. This being the case, let no boy hesitate to enter the great field of athletics because he is too small or too weak. There are many great ' ' little ' ' men in the athletic world to-day, and the boy who is weak has no better way of be- coming strong. Even physical defect is not always a sufiicient reason for not entering heartily into games, i To be sure, a boy with a bad heart or other organic weakness should enter competition only after consulting his doc- tor, but even boys with weak hearts have been known to get strong and become athletes of note. Physical defects of other sorts can often be greatly minimized by judicious athletic ex- ercise, and, though often a hardship, should not be a barrier to the enjojTuent of sports. I have personally known several swimmers of great ability who had the full use of only one leg — there have been men with but one arm on col- lege football teams, and others with similar handicaps making good in tennis, gymnastics, and other sports. The realm of sport is so large that physical deficiency should rarely bar one from athletics. There are games suited to big men, and games suited to small men — 6 THE BOOK OF ATHLETICS games where great strength is an advantage, and games where it counts little or nothing; games where quickness is all-important, and others where endurance plays the greater part. In fact, in following athletics closely, one is amazed at the great variety in types of ath- letes. So much for the physical, now for the mental. It seems to me that first of all comes persever- ance. A great many times men come out for athletic teams in their first college year who appear hopeless so far as ever becoming first- class players — these same men work from one year to the other, apparently improving little until finally in their junior or senior year they blossom out as stars. Now what has caused this change? Not any new coaching or any new-born ability ; not recently gained strength. It was perseverance, the determination to mas- ter the goal which had been set, the gradual overcoming of first one difficulty and then an- other until finally the lessons so tediously learned became second nature, and the old task which seemed so hard was made easy by prac- tice. These are the cases in which the coach rejoices and which go to make athletics truly worth while. Courage is a great asset, but courage can be gained by perseverance. Ability for quick thinking, or decision, is worth much to an ath- lete, but this quality has been gained through INTRODUCTION 7 perseverance. Level-headedness is often gained by continual practice. These all are essentials, but tliey are all secondary to perseverance, and this great truth every athlete should bear in mind. Lastly, what are the essentials morally? They may be summed up in the few words: the spirit of fair play. Every true athlete wishes nothing but what he gains fairly and squarely. "It is better to play fair and lose than to win by foul means," is told to boys so often that they sometimes feel it is an idealistic statement which means but little ; but not until an athlete has made this his motto and acts according to it does he really come to know the fun of competition and the true pleasure of athletic games. So if we sum up our essentials we find that few boys indeed are so built that they do not possess them all. God has given most of us bodies sufficiently strong, perseverance suffi- ciently lasting, and the spirit of fair play. If we develop all of these and abuse none, there is little reason why most of us should not be athletes. COMPETITIVE ATHLETICS: THEIE PLACE IN SCHOOL AND COLLEGE SPORTS, AND A WORD ABOUT TRAINING FOR ATHLETIC EVENTS We live in an age of competition. Wherever the youth of America gathers, and wherever the formation of a team is possible, we find competitive games going on. Schools and col- leges are often judged in the public eye more by the success of their athletic teams than by their attainments in the fields of education. Athletic clubs flourish all over the country, and in all cases they flourish in almost direct rela- tion to their achievement in competitive games. This condition is in many respects compara- tively recent, and like all rapidly growing in- stitutions, it has its good points and its bad. Few will deny that the intense interest in ath- letic contests is a factor in bringing about democracy and in breaking down provincial barriers. Another desirable condition which competition in athletics enhances is the increas- ing number of young men who are gaining the value of physical exercise. But I am not here going to discuss the merits of competitive ath- letics, but shall rather point out certain dangers 8 COMPETITIVE ATHLETICS 9 which lie in an over-abundance of competition for the growing boy. Wherever we see boys at play, we are always amazed at the tremendous amount of muscular exertion which they can endure without becom- ing fatigued and without serious after-effects. His ability to stand tremendous exertion and recuperate from it rapidly is at the same time the boy's greatest safeguard and his worst enemy in competition. In childhood, children are incessantly on the go, but while their little bodies become tired, their minds are laboring with none of the cares of their older brethren. As the boy grows up and goes into preparatory school, he becomes wrapped up in his athletics. All about him is evident the glory of athletics, and he wishes to have his share in their honors. He goes out for his school team. In the major- ity of cases the actual physical work which he undertakes is probably no greater than that to which he is accustomed. There has, however, been added to his play a serious note, the men- tal strain which comes with the necessity of doing his level best whenever he is called upon. His exercise is no longer the result of im- pulse alone, but it is a part of a well-formed plan. From the educational point of view this may be a gain ; from the physical point of ^^ew, unless carefully guided, it becomes a danger. When a boy is running and playing for fun, although he may be trying his best, he will 10 THE BOOK OF ATHLETICS never drive himself beyond the breaking point. The same boy placed on the running track with a month's training behind him, with his school- mates urging him on, will fight until he can do no more and will punish himself to the last notch of his endurance. In this case, the harm is done, not by the running, nor by the exercise, nor by the muscular strain, but by the addition of mental anxiety to the physical strain. A wise old Boston doctor once said that no man could work his brain and his muscles at top speed at the same time without breaking down, whereas any man could work either his brain or his muscles at top speed and thrive. And yet this is what our school-boy athlete, who is going through a series of strenuous competi- tions, is actually trying to do. He throws into his competition not only his arms and his legs, but his mind, working at its top rate of speed. He has not learned that his spirit is developed far beyond his physical strength. This does not hold true in all cases. There are many boys who, when they enter school, have passed that developmental stage, or that line which divides the boy from the man, and are less liable to suffer harm. But to the boy who is still growing fast and who is working hard on his studies, I would advise a minimum of competition, although the amount of phys- ical exercise may be considerable. In the long run, such a course will not prove unsatisfac- COMPETITIVE ATHLETICS 11 tory. I think it can be stated as a fact that the majority of great college athletes either played no part at all or a minor part in their school contests. They were either too small for the team, or had not gained their strength and poise. This is probably more true in such branches of athletics as track and rowing, where greater endurance is required in every race, than it is in games such as baseball, ten- nis and football, where lack of these qualities may be made up for by particular skill. In many cases the great school athlete finds him- self passed in college by boys who were unde- veloped in school. Although competitive athletics is a danger- ous field for the unguided boy to tread, never- theless there is so much to be learned from its struggles that it has become regarded as an essential part of school and college life. In order to make this part as sane as possible, in order to guard against its dangers, there fol- lows a discussion of that problem known as training. There is probably no factor in con- nection with athletic events which has been so wrongly interpreted as that of training. It is an essential part of well-conducted athletics, but sometimes much exaggerated and grossly abused. To the uninitiated, training, especially at one of our big universities, means trainers, masseurs, and training-tables, all so arranged as to put the candidate through a period of 12 THE BOOK OF ATHLETICS severe, gruelling preparation for his coming event. Unfortunately, in many cases this idea has had more than hearsay for its basis. Many weird practices have gone on under the caption of training. To add to the glamor of training, the professional baseball teams of this country arrange elaborate spring training trips lasting over a period of a month or more. But when one analyzes training and comes down to hard- pan, it means merely getting the body and the mind, which is fully as important in all contests as the body, into the best possible condition to undergo the strain of competition. The best way to accomplish this is the simplest way. Training means nothing more than leading a healthy, normal life. It means plenty of sleep, plenty of good, common food, plenty of fresh air and a moderate amount of well-directed exercise; it means doing the daily work in a business-like and systematic manner, so that its cares may not detract from the strength- building process. One mistake which young athletes are most likely to make while training is to overdo the amount of hard exercise. It takes very little extra work to get a young, active boy into good physical shape, and it is a wise trainer or coach who realizes that when his charges are in con- dition, very little work is required to keep them there, whereas a great amount is sure to send them to the line stale. In the beginning, the COMPETITIVE ATHLETICS 13 work should always be light until the muscles, the heart, and the lungs become accustomed to the new conditions. The increase should be gradual. If trying for speed, that is, running, rowing, swimming, a boy should not attempt races or time trials over the full distance until his condition is good. The stop-watch should be put away until such time as he is fit to do his best, and then the watch should appear not oftener than once a week. If training for a team, the men should not be allowed to lose their edge from overwork. An hour a day of fairly active work of any sort is ordinarily enough, and never should the day's work be so long as to leave the athlete exhausted. Then as to sleep. Nothing is so important as plenty of sleep taken at regular hours. En- durance is directly dependent upon sleep. No boy in training ought to do with less than nine hours of sleep; a great many need a full ten. As men grow older, they can do with less, but even old-stagers plan for a good night's sleep before their important contests, and the best athletes always make early bed hours their rule. Ten o'clock is the usual bed hour for college teams, nine-thirty before important events. Sleep more than anything else restores the muscles to their normal condition, and after exercise, it provides the best means for remov- ing the waste material and storing up of new fuel in the body tissues. So we make the rule 14 THE BOOK OF ATHLETICS that plenty of sleep is essential to training in athletics. Always a much-discussed question is that of the diet during the training period. The train- ing-table in the past has been much abused. It is now looked upon not as an essential part of athletics, but as a pleasant means whereby the men on a team are brought together on intimate terms, where they grow to know one another, and where they can obtain good, plain food. Only a few years ago the idea was prevalent that a great many foods had no place on the training-table. Sugar was ruled off. To-day we know that there are few dishes indeed which one finds on a home table that cannot be eaten at the training-table. We no longer abide by the idea which grew up from the days of Eng- lish prize-fighters, that an athlete must live on raw beef and ale, and although our training- tables are the direct result of the training of these same prize-fighters, we realize that the same methods are not necessary in training school boys and college men that were employed to sober down the idol of the ale-house. It is always dangerous to name a diet because indi- vidual idiosyncrasies must be considered, and such lists are too often taken literally. How- ever, it is safe to say that in moderation, all the common fruits and vegetables, the ordinary meats, the common cereals and simple pud- dings may play a part in the training-table diet. COMPETITIVE ATHLETICS 15 So if a list is to be given, it should be some such as the following : All sorts of plain soups, meats, fish, game, cereals, milk, butter and eggs; all the green vegetables and fruits, sim- ple puddings, stewed fruits and ice-cream. Fried foods and pastry should be eaten only in small amounts, and only when most carefully prepared. They are harder to digest and some- times cause upsets. The food should be care- fully cooked, plentiful and of sufficient variety, so as not to become monotonous. Cream, but- ter and sugar are all desirable when used with discretion. It is very important that the hours for eating should be regular. In fact, during training regularity is one of the most essential factors — regularity in sleeping, eating and working. More important than the every-day diet list is the choice of menu for the day of the contest. The meal previous to the contest should be eaten two or two and a half hours before the event is to take place, so that there will be time for the food to get out of the stomach. It should be plain, but substantial. A good lunch is made up of chops, steak or broiled chicken, boiled rice, toast and butter. It is just as well not to include soups, desserts and milk before a contest. Cleanliness is all-important. Athletes are often upset by boils and other skin diseases, because they take no care to be clean. Bathing 16 THE BOOK OF ATHLETICS too little and wearing dirty clothes while ex- ercising are causes for skin troubles. It is often a source of false pride among athletes never to allow their athletic clothes to be washed. There is no excuse for this, and many an athlete has been upset by the resulting at- tack of boils, through which not only does he endanger himself, but may infect his team- mate by his carelessness. At Harvard this sort of infection has been greatly minimized among the athletes by seeing that their shirts, *' jocks," stockings, and other underclothing are washed at frequent intervals. Besides this, it is important that the clothes should be thor- oughly aired daily. The rules for training we find sane and simple. Regular hours of work and sleep, good, plain food, a minimum of excitement and unusual strain, a moderate amount of well- directed exercise. In short, we make our train- ing period constructive rather than destructive. The body should gain in weight and strength each day. We prohibit the use of tobacco and alcohol because they detract from rather than add to our bodily condition. The same is true of other stimulants. In conclusion, no growing boy should attempt an excessive amount of athletic competition. The boy who attempts competition at all should do so under the supervision of either a compe- tent trainer or a trained physician. His plan COMPETITIVE ATHLETICS 17 of work should be carefully mapped out so as to provide against overdoing. With such re- strictions as we have laid down, harmful results from athletic sports will be brought to a mini- mum. FOOTBALL FOOTBALL: TEAM -PLAY; TYPES OF PLAYERS, AND RULES Among the English-speaking people, football in its various forms is probably the most popu- lar of all games. In Great Britain professional soccer attracts the widest attention, while rugby is played in schools and colleges. In Australia and New Zealand rugby is extremely popular both as an amateur and professional sport. In Canada the modified game of rugby has an es- tablished place in school and college seasons, and in America no game holds such undivided attention among the student body at large as does our intercollegiate football, while soccer and rugby have a strong following in certain localities. This popularity is not without its reason. No game so well as football combines speed, strength, endurance, cleverness, and quick thinking with the elements of personal contact, and no game lays such stress on the importance of team-play. This is particularly true in our American game. During its forty-odd years of development, there has been an increasing value placed on team-play, so that to-day no other feature is so essential to a team's success 21 22 THE BOOK OF ATHLETICS as its unity alike in attack and defense. There are many different schools of football coaching. There are eleven different positions on every team. There are innumerable details for the football player to fathom, but in all schools and in each position and in every lesson the under- lying current is that of team-play. The great coach is not necessarily he who can invent new and startling plays, but rather he who can teach his team to play as a unit. He drills his line to charge as one man and his backs to act with one another and with the line. Can there be anything more thrilling than a long run in a championship game of football, and is any ath- letic performer more deserving of the credit which falls upon him than the runner? Yet in every case this brilliant run belongs in equal measure to the linemen who have opened the hole and to the backs who have given interfer- ence or acted as decoys for the runner's pro- tection ; and likewise when play after play fails in its attempt, the failure is not that of the individual, as a rule, but of the machine of which he is a part. If the young reader will bear in mind this importance of team-play, he will gain much more in his study of his individual position, for in every case the positions are so closely woven together that a complete understanding of one involves a knowledge of the other. A center who learns only his own play and not that of FOOTBALL 23 his quarter-back and Ms guard, will not fit on his team. The guard who is ignorant of his tackle's every move will find himself out of play. The tackle and the end must continually call upon one another for assistance. If the bond between the two is not complete, the oppo- nents will find the weakness. The backs must play in unison with one another, and with the line, or their efforts are futile ; and the quarter must reflect the whole team as he performs his work. It is only when team-work is perfected and such unity is established that a team accom- plishes its goal and surmounts by cooperation difficulties which to the individual would be im- possible. If, then, football is so dependent upon team- play, why is it that the types of players vary so? There are several reasons. First of all, the eleven positions offer opportunities for many styles of play. However, far greater than this is the fact that football is unlimited in its adaptability to the individual. Occasion- ally one finds a school of football in which making a certain type of player is an important part, but in the so-called new game, we find the leading coaches more and more adapting their style of play to the men with whom they are dealing. It often happens on a big university field that the plans of the entire season are gradually changed with the development of the material at hand. Instead of a running game, 24 THE BOOK OF ATHLETICS a kicking game will be developed, or the passing game may become the most effective attack, and vice versa. As a result, we see in the papers that this or that coach has become a strong ex- ponent of the kicking game and has discarded the running game, or that that coach has adopted the intricate passing game and is, as a result, progressive in his style of play. On close analysis we find that in the majority of instances, this change of policy is dependent on the ability of the men who are candidates for the team. A man who possesses an extraordi- nary kicking ability may be the cause for re- shaping his team's attack; another set of men because of their strength in the line may lead to the adoption of the rushing game; a third group of men may possess peculiar ability in handling the forward pass with an equally stri- king result. So we find all types of men on the football field — short men and tall men ; heavy men and light men — and each may be a star in his particular way. This very fact gives to the boy who is ambitious to become a football player his greatest encouragement. If he is a keen observer, he realizes that though his physical endowment may be less than his brother's he may make up for it by his skillful- ness or cunning, for although the game of foot- ball is one in which strength and endurance are important, they are not the only attributes nec- essary for good playing. FOOTBALL 25 The rules of the American game have under- gone many changes since their first codification. This is particularly true of the last decade. The result has been that players and spectators alike have been somewhat confused in their in- terpretation of the rules. There are certain fundamental principles, however, which always have been a part of the American game of foot- ball, and with these principles every player should familiarize himself. Failure to know the rules may cost the team a victory. It be- comes the duty of every player each year to familiarize himself with the rule-book, and not only should he know the rules, but let him study out the reasons which underlie them. In this way he will find their interpretation less diffi- cult and him.self less often in strange situations. By studying the rules a boy can do more to make himself valuable as a football player than in any other single way, for he then will be less liable by breaking a rule to cause his team the loss of yards gained by hard work. In spite of the fact that players and coaches alike realize this fact, every year one sees on college and school football fields violations of the rules through nothing but ignorance. Here I shall endeavor only to call attention to certain points which are often neglected, and whose neglect may prove costly : Firstly, the rule in regard to onside play should be thoroughly understood. The failure 26 THE BOOK OF ATHLETICS to realize when the opponents are on-side and may recover a free ball has often cost a touch- down. The rules in regard to holding and use of hands are frequently neglected. The defini- tion of the safety and touch-back have led to many a long discussion. A situation which often arises through ignorance is the failure of players to realize that the umpire's horn does not declare the ball dead and that this preroga- tive belongs only to the referee. These are but a few of the rules more commonly neglected. It is not the intention here to go into detailed discussion of rules, but merely to impress upon the young player the importance of knowing them thoroughly. As has been said, no one thing will go so far toward a player's success as his thorough knowledge of the rules. MODERN FOOTBALL AND HOW TO PLAY IT BY MICHAEL C. MURPHY There is no reason under the sun why any healthy boy should be denied the right to play football under the present rules. I have never had any sympathy with those parents who de- cline to let their children take part in this greatest of American college games, simply be- cause of a fear that they may be hurt. I have always contended that participation in the sort of games that require a certain amount of the strenuous '' give and take " spirit is good for the normal boy and makes better men, phys- ically, morally, and mentally. A boy who is afraid to play football because it may result in bruises is the sort of a boy who always will be afraid to take his own part. They are the type who come out of college " mollycoddles," and we have no room for citizens of this stripe. New Types of Player Demanded There is no doubt whatever that the changes in the rules and the steady development of the 27 28 THE BOOK OF ATHLETICS game itself have made it imperative that we have a somewhat different type of player to- day from what we had ten years ago. The abolition of the mass formations has taken away the premium on beef and placed it on brains and speed. Of course, weight and strength are very essential to a good football player, but they are totally useless unless they are reinforced with speed and the ability to think quickly. The forward pass emphasizes the need of a man who has speed and strength. When this play was first introduced the majority of coaches had a sort of good-natured contempt for it. They seemed to regard it as unsafe and of little value in advancing the ball. Conse- quently it was used in only one simple forma- tion and not enough attention was paid to the development of that. But within the last few years a wonderful transformation has taken place in the play. At last its offensive value is beginning to be under- stood and many new and startling formations are sure to be developed from it. The success- ful manipulation of this play demands men who are fast as well as strong. The tendency of the forward pass, I think, will be to develop forma- tions in which any one of four players may be V selected to do the passing. Further, I think many of these plays will be executed while the team is on the move. It will therefore be essen- MODERN FOOTBALL 29 tial that every player concerned be able to pass or catch the ball while in motion and nnder al- most any condition. The new style of play calling for speed, agil- ity and strength is sure to result in more care- ful training by players. Primarily, it is more essential than ever that the players master the rudiments of the game, such as catching the ball, falling on it, etc. In fact, the man who can handle the ball as one would a baseball is sure to attract the attention of his coaches at the start. He has acquired a big advantage over his rivals who have not this skill. It is no longer possible for a player to rest content in his belief that he is indispensable to the team. The style of game which such a man could al- ways play has passed. More Careful Training Needed With the improvement in the game its pop- ularity has increased and the fight for places on the big college elevens is keener than ever. It is not unusual now for a big university to have enough men for two elevens, almost evenly matched. Two players not infrequently work throughout almost an entire season before the coaches are able to determine which is the better fitted for the position. It is for this rea- son that a player who hopes to secure a place on his team ought to present himself in pretty 30 THE BOOK OF ATHLETICS fair condition. The season is so short that the man who reports over-weight and soft is likely to find himself hopelessly distanced by the time the season is under way. In this connection players should be cau- tioned not to allow themselves to be over- trained before the season actually starts. I have frequently seen players who, either from their anxiety to be in proper shape or a fear that otherwise they might not make the team, worked a whole summer and then presented themselves at the beginning of the season under-weight and in no condition to stand the hard training required of them. As a result they fell by the wayside before the season was half over and were of even less value to the coaching staff than men who went to the other extreme. The ideal system is for the candidates to do just enough hard work playing baseball, tennis or swimming to present themselves without too much fat, but in condi- tion to work themselves into pretty fair shape without being weakened by the process. Inter scholastic Football Many times I have been asked what steps should be taken to control interscholastic foot- ball and club games to the end that injuries might be reduced. I state without hesitation that the authorities of schools and athletic clubs MODERN FOOTBALL 31 are guilty of gross negligence and are really to blame for most of the injuries. This is because they either permit boys to play the game with- out having had the proper training or allow games between two teams that are hopelessly unequal. What else can be expected if a boy weighing 130 pounds is pitted against a man with an advantage of from 25 to 50 pounds in weight and four or five years in experience? Under these circumstances injuries are bound to occur. There is also an inexcusable lack of precau- tion displayed, when men and boys are allowed to continue in the game when exhausted, or after being injured. I have been associated with football almost from its inception in this country. Years ago the sport was far rougher than it is to-day. Since that time our big uni- versities have not only eliminated many of the rougher features of the game, but they have surrounded the players with many safeguards. Those who are constantly criticising our col- lege football would do well to consider the fact that at the six leading colleges of the East: Yale, Pennsylvania, Princeton, Cornell, Har- vard, and Dartmouth, football has not, so far as I can recall, ever resulted in a fatal accident. I call attention to this to show what can be done to make the game safe. I am not disposed to deny that football is a rough game. But when cleanly played, as it 32 THE BOOK OF ATHLETICS is in our big colleges, and when properly safe- guarded, the element of danger is almost en- tirely eliminated. It is only when the minor colleges ignore the precautions that the big uni- versities take, when they play injured and un- trained men, that we hear of such fatal acci- dents. I take very little stock in most of the statis- tics of college football accidents. Many of them are totally inaccurate, some without any foundation whatever, and nearly all of them exaggerated. It is a well known fact that more people are killed automobiling in a week than in football games in years. What would some mothers think if they were told that they risked more danger to their lives in shopping during Christmas holidays, than did their sons by playing football? It is a fact, nevertheless, and capable of ready proof. These perennial agitations against football are to be deplored. If the football Rules Com- mittee could be permitted to study over the problems that come up and study out reforms as they are needed, the game would work out its own salvation. It does little good for agita- tors to raise a great howl every time an acci- dent occurs, and then insist that radical changes be made forthwith in the rules. These people by such measures really defeat their own object and hinder, rather than help, the purification of football. MODERN FOOTBALL 33 A Good Training Diet Every fall I am asked a great many times to name a good training diet for football players and other athletes. For a period extending over nearly twenty-five years I have made ex- periments in dieting athletes, and have also studied the results of experiments on myself. This subject of diet has gone through a good many stages. A great many cranks have writ- ten concerning it, and there is an idea in some quarters that to be a successful football player one must eat certain food. We are getting away from such foolish notions now, and get- ting back to nature. I always insist, first of all, that the diet shall be as plain as possible, with enough nourish- ment to keep the men strong. It should never be forgotten that the stomach is the most im- portant factor in condition. Yet I have known football players and other athletes to invite in- digestion by taking large dishes of oatmeal with cream and coffee. This causes more indiges- tion than any other dish I know. Fresh fruits should also be partaken of sparingly, or they will disturb the digestive process. The best training table diet that I know of consists of the following: Breakfast: One chop (sometimes two) or eight ounces of beef, two soft-boiled eggs, one baked potato, toast or bread, milk or mild tea ; 34 THE BOOK OF ATHLETICS prunes or apple-sauce (no cream or sugar added). Dinner: Eoast beef, lamb, mutton or fowl, boiled or mashed potato, vegetables and fruits in season. Boiled rice and milk, or cornmeal mush. A light pudding, milk or tea, toast and bread. Supper: Cold meat, roast beef, lamb, mutton or fowl, one small steak, one potato, toast or fresh Graham bread, prunes, apple-sauce or baked apple, milk or mild tea. If a man is over-weight and wants to reduce flesh he should refrain from drinking milk, for this is one of the most fattening foods there are. It is also injurious to the wind, and should be taken with judgment. In case it is impossible to have a training table, athletes should not be worried. The diet I have given is as good as can be secured, but if care is exercised an equally good diet can be secured at one's own home. What the athlete should be most careful about is to chew his food well, eat nothing dif- ficult to digest, and always keep the stomach in good order. This can usually be done with any simple diet selected. TRAINING FOR THE TEAM BY DR. ALVIN C. KBAENZLEIN Years ago when it was said that a man was going into training, people conjured up a pro- gram of some grilling sort of life, hampered by- countless rules which could not be violated without impairing the success of the process. That idea prevails to-day with some who are not familiar with the life of an athlete, but it is almost needless to say that it is a far-fetched misconception. To be sure, young men in training live in a different manner from what they do when out of training; they are forced to obey certain general rules ; they follow a fairly well-defined program. But, when all is considered, every- thing looked over and weighed carefully, train- ing consists of just one thing — good living. There was a time when the life of an active athlete was narrow and hard. But that time is past. New ideas have replaced the old and to- day training merely means that a man is taking the best of care of himself, both mentally and physically; that he gives heed to the rules of 35 36 THE BOOK OF ATHLETICS hygiene and that he does not abuse the gifts of nature. It would be a difficult matter to draw up any program that men could follow while in ath- letics, especially in football. In track, each man has his specialty and must do certain things in order to bring about the best results. Although individuals do these things in a different way and with varying degrees of intensity they fol- low the same general line. The same is true of basket-ball, while in baseball very definite rules can be laid down. But football includes so many phases of physical and mental activity that any set of regulations compiled for the direction of the training of a football squad would be quite useless. Here the individual must be carefully stud- ied. Some men need development along certain lines; need to be urged on in some particular activities and held back in others. No two bod- ies are alike ; no two hearts perform their func- tion in exactly the same manner; science has never found a pair of lungs that exactly dupli- cated another; stomachs are all different; mus- cles and tendons vary greatly. All these things must be taken into consideration, and careful consideration, too. It would be impossible to say at what age a boy is strong enough to play the gridiron game. We cannot reckon strength by age in human beings. Some boys are sturdy and strong, pos- TRAINING FOR THE TEAM 37 sessed of good lungs and hearts, well-muscled, strong-limbed, when they are fifteen years old. Others are physically immature at twenty ; and there are those ,by the thousand who never at- tain the physical strength necessary to permit them to play football with any degree of suc- cess and without endangering their own health and, perhaps, their life. Football is a man's game. It is a game for those who can stand the physical punishment of men, and a game for those who can think quickly and clearly, as men think. It is not a game for poorly developed youngsters. They cannot play it in that stage ; they may overdo if they attempt to play it and spoil any oppor- tunity that they may have of playing football in the future. Every fall hundreds of boys' teams are or- ganized all over the country. There are the school teams, the club teams and the independ- ent organizations. I believe that few of the latter ever do the players any good ; I mean by this that they do not tend to make the boys better players of football to any appreciable degree, merely because they are not, as a rule, supervised by competent instructors. School teams, in the majority of cases, have some su- pervision, and by playing on them or following them closely the average boy can learn much of the game. But when yon are placing on a team of boys 38 THE BOOK OF ATHLETICS you should always endeavor to keep within your sphere; that is, you should play against boys. Don't aspire to too much glory and at- tempt to compete against teams made up of players who are bigger, older and stronger than you are. That is one of the grave dangers of football and should not be tolerated by the man- agement of any eleven. I do not mean to infer by this that little fellows can safely play football against teams which compare favorably in weight and age. Although the knocks they might get would not ordinarily be dangerous, their hearts may not be able to stand the strain of competition that, to the outsider, appears to be exceedingly light. The fact that no boy can safely play football until his body is well developed cannot be put too strongly. Judgment in regard to this re- mains up to the boy himself and to his father or his physician. Another thing that must be considered is the fact that sixty minutes of playing, in spite of the three intermissions, is a long time. A team of boys can easily be conceived who could play half that time without trouble and without tax- ing themselves too severely, while any attempt on their part to play sixty minutes of football would be foolhardy. Do not attempt to overdo. That is the one warning that must be sounded by every man and boy who is interested in football. Study TRAINING FOR THE TEAM 39 the game, begin your work gradually, learn to handle a ball, know mistakes when you see them and try to find your way out of difficult situa- tions that you may imagine. But do not over- tax your strength. To be a successful player on a big college eleven takes years of training, and the sooner you boys begin to study the game the better prepared you will be to play it when the times comes. But do not think that just because you are not wearing a uniform and exerting yourself until your heart pounds against your ribs that you are not progressing. Many a man has learned enough football from the side-lines to put him on a par with those who have been in the game for years, just because he has not abused his body and is ready to go into a game with a sound heart, deep lungs, and strong limbs ; and, knowing the game as he does, he can outstrip the fellow who began playing football too early and has called upon some of his organs to do more than their work. So much for that. When you commence your training do not attempt to do it all at once. Go at it gradually. Some men could jump right into the middle of a season, scrimmage the first day, run, kick, pass, and charge without suffering any lasting ill effects. But most players cannot do that. When they have been out of training for months their muscles become soft and they must build them up by careful, patient work. 40 THE BOOK OF ATHLETICS In the first place, it is necessary to spend some time at the beginning of every football season in practising the rudiments of the game. No man can properly pass or kick without prac- tice and until he can do those things he cer- tainly cannot play the game. So if you devote the first few days to that sort of activity you will be undergoing a necessary part of your preparation and, at the same time, avoid many dangers. To be sure, stiffness and minor in- juries will arise from even this light work, but they can be guarded against to a certain extent. If the weather be warm, do not load yourself down with too much clothing. As soon as you have finished your daily practice — which should not be too long for the first few days; a couple of hours is enough — take a cold shower, or, better still, if conditions permit it, take a plunge in some stream or body of water. Do not enter the water in an overheated condi- tion, because such a thing is apt to bring about bad results. It will be well to watch your ankles during these first few days. A turned ankle early in the season has put many a good man out of the game for weeks. If your ankles are weak, bind them up comfortably with bandages. Also watch your feet carefully. In hot weather heavy football shoes and coarse stockings often blister feet. Keep any chafed parts bound up in cotton and adhesive tape while you are work- TRAINING FOR THE TEAM 41 ing. Wash them often and apply any of the numerous healing preparations that are com- monly known to athletes. Stiffness is to be expected. No man has ever trained for football and avoided it entirely. The bath will help alleviate this discomfort and, if possible, have a rub-down after your work-out. There is almost as much in the rub- bing itself as in the preparation applied, of which there are many equally good. After the first soreness has worn off you will be ready for harder work. While you have been mastering the art of passing and kicking and running through signal practice you will find that your wind has improved steadily. To my mind, road work — that is, merely jogging across country — is unnecessary in training for football. Most men get all the running that they can stand in their signal practice and, in reality, they are doing two things at once : mas- tering their style of play and building up their wind. But take to this harder work gradually. Do not jump into it at once. Remember that football is a hard game and that the season is long and that you must build a firm foundation for your condition in the last few days, which are, in most cases, the all-important ones. Take things gradually. Make your first scrimmages short and you will profit in the end. Here again we can draw no sharp lines. Some men are readv for hard work two weeks after 42 THE BOOK OF ATHLETICS they commence training; others will require a month to enable them to stand the strain. It all depends on your own strength. Don't overtax that strength. That cannot be said too often. When the hard work of the season is at hand, when you are playing weekly games and scrim- maging four or five afternoons between games, running signals and chasing punts, you must watch yourself with all care. Don't stick to the cold bath at this time. Take a warm shower after every work-out. It will help take out the soreness and, above all, will keep the pores open and allow free exit to all the waste material that your body is continually throwing off. Use soap; keep clean. It is an essential to training. The rub-down has now become an exceedingly important part of your training. Do not neg- lect it if you can possibly have one. It is not necessary to be rubbed down by another. You can do it yourself if you will take the time. Keep the muscles of your limbs, shoulders, and back well massaged. And now we will take up the eating. This is, as every one knows, one of the problems of training. But what you eat isn't such a big problem as is the one of proper preparation and proper eating. There are few forms of food that are injurious if properly cooked ; but no form of food will do you much good unless it is properly eaten. Do not allow food to go TRAINING FOR THE TEAM 43 down to your stomach until it is made ready by proper chewing. Plenty of eggs and milk; beef, chops, roasts, will all help you. Keep away from fried meats. Food fried in heavy fat is likely to upset your stomach, and when that organ is not working as it should no man can be at his best. As for vegetables — well, almost any fresh vegetable, properly prepared, will help you. Luckily, the football season is at that time of the year when fresh vegetables are obtainable. The desserts should be light. Custards and light puddings will hurt no one, but I would ad- vise keeping away from rich dishes and pies. A soggy pie-crust is well nigh indigestible. Eat plenty of fruit, but do not gorge yourself on it. Excess of any kind is dangerous. It is best to let tea and coffee entirely alone, but if you have been accustomed to drink such beverages do not cut them off suddenly, for such will have a worse effect than their con- tinued use. And while we are dealing with drinking it might be well to warn against too great a consumption of water. Do not drink with your meals, of all things. Drink before and after, if you will, but let it alone while you are actually eating. Do not drink while you are practising or overheated. If your mouth and throat get dry, take a swallow of water, but don't drink like a thirsty horse. Too much water will ruin your wind. 44 THE BOOK OF ATHLETICS Eat slowly. Chew your food well. Your stomach has a certain important function to perform and you are supposed to help it in every possible way. Thorough mastication is the greatest aid you can give your digestive ap- paratus. The man who bolts his meals will find that his stomach will not endure the strain very long and when he cannot properly nourish his system then is the time when he cannot play football. I take for granted that any boy in athletics knows that tobacco and alcohol are to be ta- booed. No matter how strong you may be, you can not summon all your strength in the time of need if your throat and lungs are irritated with tobacco smoke or if your stomach and intestines are irritated by alcohol. Let tobacco and drink alone. They are the biggest handicaps that an athlete can have put on him. Sleep regularly and soundly. You can do this by training yourself to keep your mind off certain subjects. If you become so deeply en- grossed in football that you think of it while in bed you may not sleep. This you must not do, because sleep is an essential. Wlien you are ready to crawl in for the night forget every- thing. Don't worry about your own standing on your team or the welfare of the eleven. By so doing you will only be impairing your effi- ciency and the efficiency of the eleven. Get eight hours of good, sound sleep every night at TRAINING FOR THE TEAM 45 the very least. And don't take this all after midnight. Retire early in the evening if pos- sible and be out early in the morning. Have all the air that yon can get in your sleeping-apart- ments. If 5"ou sleep in a close room it will have a bad effect, while a good sleep in pure air is doubly invigorating. Do not think about football all the time. Of course, it is the natural thing to do, but you will find that by diverting your attention you will avoid that nervousness which sometimes comes to football players and which makes them hesi- tate in tight places. You cannot hesitate in football. The game has changed so greatly in the last few years that it takes a different type of man to succeed on the gridiron from that of a decade ago. The big football men of to-day are of alert minds. They can foresee what will be the result of some little action and they will be on hand either to aid or repulse that action. This requires instantaneous thought and action. Punting has grown to be such a big factor in football that better eyes are required. It takes a good eye to judge a punted ball. Your mind will be active, your nerves will be steady, and your eye will be clear if you live well and think well. Let me repeat: do not overdo, but be content to accomplish a little at a time; keep your body clean; eat good food and eat carefully ; keep away from tobacco and alcohol; sleep well; don't worry; don't keep 46 THE BOOK OF ATHLETICS your mind too closely on football, but when you do think, think hard. And when you get into a game, throw every ounce of energy into the fight. Don't be foolish, but don't quit. Foolish players who take foolish risks and men who quit do not win football games. THE NEW FOOTBALL A GAME FOR THINKERS BY FIELDING H. YOST Football has been changed ; changed for the spectator, and changed for the player. The former sees an open, running game; the latter is forced to think faster than ever before and must be able to cope with many new and novel situations that are bound to arise. The game as it is played under the new rules is a game for strategists, for thinkers. The boy or man who cannot think quickly and reason clearly cannot hope to play football success- fully. The forward pass has become a great factor in football within the last two or three years. The rule revision has done much to make its use more effective and I believe that it will be the principal form of attack. In the first place, the old mass play is gone absolutely and some- thing must take its place. The ruling which prohibits the pulling or pushing of men, coupled with that which demands that the team on offense have seven men on the line, has made the mass play all but an impossibility. This 47 48 THE BOOK OF ATHLETICS is obvious. Suppose that an eleven should at- tempt to direct a mass play on guard. What would they do? The only thing that they could do would be to send three of the backfield play- ers crashing into the line and let the man with the ball follow them, trusting to the possibility that those before him could open a hole. The yards that were made by mass plays were not made in this way. They were made because the player who carried the ball was dragged into the line and then pushed forward by others on his team. That is an impossibility now. Let us see what has been done to encourage the use of the forward pass. In the first place it can now be thrown over any point in the line. That is a great improvement, because many forward passes were declared illegal by officials who did not think that they crossed the line five yards to one side of the spot on which the ball rested when put in play. Again, the pen- alty has been changed for an incompleted for- ward pass. When the ball touched the ground before being touched by a player a few years ago, it cost the offending team a penalty of fifteen long yards. This was very discour- aging. But now the penalty is much lighter and captains can afford to take the chance more often. Greater accuracy is required of centers. Many balls have to be passed at an angle, and it requires a vast amount of steady, sincere FOOTBALL A GAME FOR THINKERS 49 endeavor on the part of a man playing center to do this accurately. The man who is to play center cannot have too much practice in pass- ing. The trick play, the cunning generalship, the taking advantage of openings that are only of an instant's duration will be the means of win- ning football games from now on. The ar- rangement of the backs will help deceive the men who are on the defensive. The direct pass has so quickened the game that a man waiting to break up a play has little opportunity to find which way it is going until it is actually in progress. The elimination of the mass play makes it possible to draw from the primary defense and build a stronger secondary defense. The line need not be as strong as it once was because it does not have to bear the strain that it once did. On the other hand, the secondary defense must be stronger because it is on these men, who are placed in a way that makes it possible for them to shift easily and quickly, that the responsibility of breaking up open plays rests. It is a faster game and a better game; also, it is a safer game. The serious injur- ies that befell men while playing football were, in my opinion, brought on by exhaustion, with only a few exceptions. For this reason I think that the division of the game into four periods does more than any other one thing to bring 50 THE BOOK OF ATHLETICS about safer conditions. The men have an op- portunity to rest every fifteen minutes. Even though this rest period be a minute, it is enough to freshen a man up. Besides, this new game involves so many penalties that a man has time to rest while the officials are working. In the game that was played a half-dozen years ago the penalties were few and far between. It was a steady grind with little chance to rest and it was the sort of a thing to wear men down. That has all changed, however, and any normal man who is in good condition should be able to stand the labor that is involved in playing a game of football. The opportunities for re- substituting men also help greatly. Many coaches were tempted to leave a good man in the game despite the fact that he had played until he was not capable of protecting himself. They were so tempted because they knew that if they once called him to the side-lines they could not send him in again. As it now stands, they can take this man out and then return him later in the game. The prohibiting of body blocking on forward passes and kicks, and the passing of mass plays will also do much to eliminate danger. On the whole, the game under the revised rules should be such that it will endanger no life or limb. Football is a game only for those who study it. No man can play it who does not study its various phases and place himself in every FOOTBALL A GAME FOR THINKERS 51 situation that his imagination can conjure up. It is a game for thinkers. The boy who is not sincere, determined, and possessed of the right sort of fighting spirit cannot excel in football. FOOTBALL GENERALSHIP: THE CAP- TAIN AND THE QUARTER -BACK Generalship in football falls under three heads, first the planning and manoeuvering of plays and men by the coach or coaches, sec- ondly, the leadership of the captain, and thirdly, the actual selection of plays by the player, usually the quarter-back, who is chosen to direct the plan of attack and defense. Of the first nothing will be said, as this book is written for players rather than coaches. Successful captains may differ widely in personality, ability as players, and in their methods of leading, and yet there are certain characteristics, which are common to all good leaders. If a captain has a strong personality and is a man of deeds and action, it will go a long way in gaining the confidence of his men, but even men who possess these attributes may fail as captains if they do not possess certain other qualifications. Some captains find suc- cess by driving their men, others by leading, but the great captain, whether he leads or drives, must always be sure of his ground. A certain amount of self-assurance and assertive- ness is essential; pig-headedness is sure to be detrimental. Above all, a captain must keep 52 FOOTBALL GENERALSHLP 53 his head, be cool, and always master of the situation. A quick temper is always a handi- cap to a leader. In planning his season, the captain should remember that it is a long strenuous siege, and realize that if he begins at once to assert him- self to the limit, his influence by the time the big games come will have worn off its effective- ness. It is wise, therefore, to start slowly, and in the early developmental period of the team try to guide and mould the organization rather than attempt to drive. At this period it is bet- ter for the captain to say little on the field of play and have that little count. A word of encouragement is always in order, criticism and sarcasm rarely accomplish the ends to which they are directed. Many of the best captains often stand somewhat aloof from their men during the early season and, if not carried too far, this often adds to the respect in which their men regard them. As the important games draw near, the cap- tain should take his players to his heart, so to speak. Then more than ever should he make his .presence, on the field and off, felt by his men. Encouragement is helpful, and at times a sharp word of command addressed to the whole team may add to the esprit de corps. Individ- ual criticism is always unpleasant, and a dan- gerous implement. In regard to the choosing of the plays, the 54 THE BOOK OF ATHLETICS captain sliould usually not interfere with the quarter-back, who is specially trained in this work. However, the captain should himself have studied the plays and be able to detect the errors in his quarter. In this way, without openly interfering, he may often show the quar- ter-back a new opportunity, or even correct his mistake. To the quarter-back falls the big task of pilot- ing the team in its entire offensive play. He chooses the style of attack. If his team comes off the field without having used its strongest plays and used them correctly, he must bear the brunt of the blame. The quarter-back's position is important and arduous, and no place demands such careful and persistent training, for not only must he play his own individual part well but he must plot and plan for the whole eleven that they may put forth their best and strongest front. The play of the quarter-back may be divided into four large headings. First, the handling of the ball. Second, the handling of the plays. Third, the handling of the team on the offense. Fourth, the play on the defense. Under the first and last headings come his own individual play, while under the second and third fall his part as field general for the team. In handling the ball, the quarter should be sure there are no fumbles. He pays attention, first, to getting the ball from the center. There FOOTBALL GENERALSHIP 55 should be perfect coordination between these two, as a fumble here means that the play called for will not be run off successfully. The quar- ter stands with his hands and arms well under the center, forming three baskets with them, the first with his hands, the second with the bend in his arms at the elbow — the elbows being held close together — and the third formed by the hands, arms, stomach and knees combined. The ball should be handled in the first basket, but the other two are maintained so as to make doubly sure there are no fumbles. In getting the ball and in passing it to his backs, the quarter should work low and at top speed so that the opponents will have as little chance as possible to see where the ball is going. As a further means of baffling the opponents, he learns to assume a varying position each time he crouches under the center, so that his stance shall not give the play away. In passing the ball to the backs, the quarter faces a difficult task. His work must be so clean and clever that the back does not have to slow up or even think where the ball is com- ing from. Especially is this true on line plunges where the distance is short and speed must be gained instantly. The quarter has to pass very rapidly or the back will have plunged by and the opening be lost. On such plays the quarter tucks the ball into the basket which the back forms with his hands and stomach and holds 56 THE BOOK OF ATHLETICS it there until he is sure no fumble can come. This pass must be quick but not too hard. On end-plays the pass need not be made so quickly but the accuracy is even more important as the pass is longer and if the back has to stoop or reach to get the ball, he will surely lose speed. As was said before, the ability to hold on to the ball and not fumble is the first requisite of quarter-back play. While no boy who fumbles continually will ever be chosen for the quarter-back position, there are many who handle the ball well but do not possess the ability to handle their plays successfully. On this one point may depend the final choice in a close competition of men. What, then, are some of the points for the quarter to remember in choosing plays'? First of all, he should never lose the ball on downs. Instead let him get the full price of it, which means the distance his best kicker can punt, or if it be near the opponent's goal, try for a goal. In choosing plays he should always consider the score, the time left to play, whether the wind is with him or against, and whether the sun makes the catching of punts difficult or not. All of these points have often won and lost games. The quarter-back should know his men and use them to the best advantage. Thus he should not tire out a good line-plunger by making him run the end when he has a better man for that purpose in his backfield. iiAMH.iNc; i;\i,L i\ i>, V( K-ll i:i.li. xnTl^, i-dSiTiox di' (,HTAi; 1 i;i:-i. \i Is Hl'.NDll> OI-ENIM:. THORPE OF CARLISLE STARTING ON A LONG END RUN IN HARVARD- CARLISLE GAME, 1911. N<1TE INTERFERENCE GIVEN THE INDIAN i'LAVER. -4^ IIMtOWKK OF HVK\MtI> M \ I\ I M . A M(>ill. J-.M> RUN' HARVARD-YALE GAME, 1913. NOTE INTERFERENCE ON END, AND NUMBER OF YALE PLAYERS PUT OUT OF THE PLAY. THE VALUE OF INTERFERENCE IMPORTANCE OF END POSITION 93 will plays be used which are based on kicks or long passes, and all this open work will mean more for the men on the line extremities to master. The end is the logical man to receive the ball on the forward pass. It is easier for him to break away from the mass of players and get down the field under the passed ball than it is for one of the backs, unless the back be shifted to a position on the line of scrimmage. It would be folly continually to send a man from behind the line to receive a forward pass, when the ends could be used for that purpose. It would take the back longer to work his way down the gridiron, and any one who knows football as it is played to-day knows that speed is the pri- mary essential. Without snap and go no team can succeed, and in no place is rapid action needed more than in executing the forward pass. A fraction of a second's lagging will enable some opposing player to throw up his hand and block the pass. Then the passing side loses ground, which is not exactly the object of at- tacking. So it is that the end is the player who must bear the brunt of the work when forward passes are being used, and, as the forward pass promises to become more popular as the game progresses, it is reasonable to believe that the end is going to be called on for greater effort in years to come. The same holds true of the plays based on 94 THE BOOK OF ATHLETICS short kicks. It seems certain that coaches will devise methods of using the short kick. And here again it is the end who is called on to do the heavy end of the labor. It is no easy matter getting down under a low, short kick and down- ing the ball before the secondary defense of your opponents can turn the trick. It is almost impossible for a back to do this, and if the for- wards are evenly matched it is also almost im- possible for them to get through. So it is up to Mr. End again. He must be the busy one, work his way through and carry out the busi- ness end of this important style of attack. If there is one piece of work which the end must place before all others it is getting down under punts. "When his team boots the ball, it is up to the end to follow the pigskin just as fast as he possibly can. He should make it a point to exert every ounce of his strength to be right under that ball when it strikes the ground, for the effectiveness of punting de- pends to a great extent upon the ends. Those who have made no study of football are inclined to give too much credit to the man who kicks the ball when kicks result successfully. They do not take into consideration that the greatest punter in the world would be ineffective unless his kicking was backed up by the work of strong ends. Say, for instance, that the ball is punted forty yards and that when it comes to earth again there are none of the kicker 's team-mates IMPORTANCE OF END POSITION 95 near it. Then the defensive backs of the op- posing team will gather up the ball and carry it back for twenty yards before they are downed. This punt resulted in takmg the ball only twenty yards towards the opponents ' goal. But suppose that the punt had gone only thirty yards and, at the same time, the ends went down under the ball and were able to stop the oppo- sing player the instant he caught the oval. Then the kick would result in a thirty-yard gain although it was shorter by ten yards than the other. I hope that these illustrations will go to show how important it is for ends to cooperate with the man who does the punting. When a punt is called, the end should prepare to fight with renewed vigor. He is in a hard position. In. the first place it is absolutely necessary that he work his way through the opposing line, and of equal importance that he go in the right di- rection. Of course, signals will help warn the end in what direction the ball is to be kicked — to the right, left, or straight across the line of scrimmage. But it is imperative that the end should see that ball going. The best of punters will go wrong now and then and the man whose business it is to follow that ball cannot atford to run the risk of misjudging his direction. Keep your eye on the ball as much as is possible without impairing your progress and make up your mind that 3 ou are going to meet that ball 96 THE BOOK OF ATHLETICS when it alights. Don't let anything stop you, because ground gained by punting is just as important as that gained by carrying the ball forward; in many cases it is of more impor- tance. And the end is just as responsible for the success of punts as is the man whose boot sends the ball flying. High school teams are inclined to overlook this important phase of football and the result is that the players are forced to learn it when they join the squads of larger institutions. It is difficult to teach an old dog new tricks and it is difficult to break young football players of bad habits. Learn to do these things as they should be done when you first commence to learn football and it will save you much time and effort when you get to the top of the ladder. Those who have had the opportunity of work- ing under a good coach will remember the con- tinual cautioning against giving away plays. There are many ways in which the play to come may be betrayed to your opponents. The shift- ing of a foot, the turn of a head, a false start — any of these things and many more will give the opposing players a good idea of what is to come. And the end, being exposed to a closer and more comprehensive view from the other eleven, can give a play away quicker than any other man on the team. The end should drill himself to make no false moves, to always start from the same position, and not to start until IMPORTANCE OF END POSITION 97 the ball has been passed. Some men can start from the right foot only and some can start better from their left foot. It makes no differ- ence which foot you start from so long as you always use that foot. To change may divulge a secret and break up a play. Keep your head well down and your eyes always on the ball. Keep your nerves steady and learn to move when the ball moves and not before. Always crouch in the same position, move when you should move and you will not be the man to give away the attack of your eleven. In newspaper accounts of big football games you will often read that one team outblocked the other, and when you read such a statement it is a safe guess that the team which put up the better exhibition of blocking was the team which carried off victory. Without a proper knowledge of blocking no man can expect to play football with any success, and a team made up of men who are ignorant of this phase of the game is beaten before it starts playing if it is matched against a team of good blockers. This art of running into ^ man and knocking him over looks to be easy; it also looks to be a small part of football. It is not easy and it is no small part of the game. Any man who has ever played on a college eleven will tell you that. The end must do his share of the blocking, and his share is a big share. On end runs, he must knock opponents out of the way ; on line 98 THE BOOK OF ATHLETICS plays he must help open holes for the man with the ball. To tell a person how to block is a difficult matter. It is something which should be viv- idly illustrated. Blocking in the line and block- ing in the open are, of course, two distinct mat- ters. The essential thing in both is to get your man first and get him low. If he is the quicker of the two your work will be ineffective ; if you block high he will slip past you somehow if he amounts to much as a football player. In the line you must outcharge your opponent if you are to outplay him, and, once outcharged, you will have him at your mercy. You can open holes, then, by pushing him this way or that. In the open, however, the blocker faces an entirely different situation. He may be on the run just before he blocks an opponent. If such is the case, he should leave his feet and hurl himself at the other's legs. Many men block by diving. This is usually an effective method, but if a man can throw his body directly across the path of his opponent it is easy to see that the chances of causing a bad spill will be much better. In diving, your ** blocking surface " as it might be called, is only the width of your shoulders, but when you throw yourself across another man's legs or knees, this surface con- sists of the whole length of your body. Thus far, the duties of an end on offense have been discussed to the exclusion of anything else. IMPORTANCE OF END POSITION 99 The work of a man on the extremity of the line does not lag when the others are in posses- sion of the ball. Far from it. Then he has tackling and blocking and sprinting after passes and kicked balls to do just as he has those things to do on the offense. Much has been written about tackling and there is little that any one can add to the fund of Imowledge that every football player has on this phase of the game. With the open style of attack now in vogue, the ends have much tackling to do. End runs are used to a greater extent than they were a few years ago; the forward pass makes more tackling for the ends. Coaches used to urge their men to dive in tack- ling, but the new rules have made such tactics illegal. The tackle should always be low. You can do it without diving. Get a man around the knees, and he is going down, but if you grab his waist or shoulders he can drag you along for yards. In earlier paragraphs we discussed the ne- cessity of getting down the field under punts. If this necessity is clear, is it not also clear that it is imperative to keep your opposing end from getting under his own punts? That is one of the most important parts of the work of the defensive ends. Use every power at your com- mand to keep that man from getting down under the ball. If he outgenerals you in this maneuver, your defensive backs will have little 100 THE BOOK OF ATHLETICS or no chance of carrying the ball back. Knock him off his feet if you can do it legally. If you can't get him down, stay with him; keep your shoulder against his body and do your best to steer him away from that ball. The ends, as well as all other players, should continually keep an eye out for balls passed by their opponents. Oftentimes the intercepting of a forward pass has turned the tide in a foot- ball game. In the Michigan-Minnesota game of 1909 Magidsohn grabbed a Gopher forward pass and could have almost walked to the goal line, so clear of players was the field before him. Just because he was on the lookout for passes, Michigan's score was increased by six points and the game cinched. But, as well as having an opportunity to actually gain ground after catching the enemy's pass, you can often pre- vent him from making long gains. In almost any big game you will see a defensive player literally snatch the ball from an opponent's hands and thereby prevent a tremendous gain. The above consists merely of a few hints for those who are to play at end. As has been said, it is almost impossible to lay down any set rules for playing the position. Experience is the teacher of all teachers and a season of football will teach a player more than any coach can talk into him in three seasons. As for the physique of an end : it makes little difference whether a man is big or little; as IMPORTANCE OF END POSITION 101 long as he can " deliver the goods " tig one* will bother about his physical endowments. In gen- eral, big men are playing the ends'- nO'A^dayg. It is easier for a tall man to catch forward passes than it is for a short man. The bigger the man, the greater are the possibilities of making him a good blocker. In general, the big fellows have the advantage over the little ones in contests for the end positions. This does not mean that men of small stature have no chance of holding down such a job. There are small men playing at end now and they play a good game ; but they are the exceptions. How- ever, if you are small and want to play end, don't give up. Keep trying. This has won letters for many a football player. The one thing that all boys who want to play football on big teams should do is to master the rudiments of the game as soon as possible. Many a man with the body and spirit of a foot- ball player has been kept out of the big game for a year, possibly two, and, sometimes never got in at all just because he had not started learning the little things early enough in life. Football has ceased to be a game for mere brawn. It is a game for men who can think quickly and sanely ; who can act as they think ; who do not hesitate ; in a word : for men who have clear heads and steady nerves. There is much to learn about football before you can play it well. Perhaps you think that training 102 THE BOOK OF ATHLETICS consists in a couple of hours ' work every after- noon. If so, jQu are mistaken. One of the most important parts of football training is the lec- turing that every good coach gives his men. Long hours are spent in this manner and the fine points of attack and repulse are talked into the players just as in the classroom, the laws of mathematics and physics are pounded into the student. This goes to show that you cannot learn football in a week, a month, or a season. After you have played your three years of col- lege football there is still a world of informa- tion that you have missed. Just keep that in mind and then think of the hopelessness of trying to learn all the big things about football before you have mastered the little things. It is an impossibility. Years ago, coaches made star players in a season. They do it no longer. The boy who enters col- lege with a knowledge of tackling, passing and catching the ball, and such matters will stand a far better chance of getting on the 'varsity squad his second year than will the man who knows little or nothing about these rudiments of the game. Don't overdo. Don't try to play football with bigger and heavier boys until you have your growth. It will gain you nothing. Prac- tise passing and catching the ball; learn how to tackle; learn to fall on a ball and secure it when it rolls on the ground. Learn to start IMPORTANCE OF END POSITION 103 quickly and to charge low. Keep yourself in good physical trim. Do these things and you will have built a foundation that every football player must have. HOW TO PLAY FULLBACK BY JOHN P. DALTON Necessity of Good Physical Condition It is my purpose in this article to offer a few suggestions to the young man who is starting out on a football career and who has ambitions to play the fullback position. There are many points which he will very likely not be familiar with, and unless they are pointed out to him he will probably proceed blindly and with no thought of the rudimentary principles which are all-important in football. Primarily, he must fit his body to withstand the strain imposed upon it, all of which is summed up in the word training. The result of failure to regard this necessity has been brought home to me on so many occasions that I unhesitatingly state that under no conditions would I permit a player who failed to observe training to engage either in practice or in games, because being untrained he is much more liable to injury, and such injuries received might mean the loss of a valuable player in later games. 104 HOW TO PLAY FULLBACK 105 In dealing with the body, a clean, healthy mind is absolutely essential since it is the mind which governs the actions of the body. One cannot afford to have a sluggish mind in the game of football, for it is the man who thinks quickly with judgment emanating from a clean mind who succeeds. On the football field there is only one way to do things and that is the right way. Do every- thing with earnestness, exerting every effort to do it well. A most requisite quality of the fullback is his ability to analyze the opponent's play and to act quickly in order to prevent its success. This can only be had by years of experience, but with close application and continued observation, watching the smallest points, such as facial ex- pressions, unconscious shifting of positions by opposing players, it is very remarkable how proficient one may become in diagnosing plays. The fullback who studies this will in the major- ity of cases be prepared for the attack, and con- sequently his chances of stopping it are greatly increased. On the defensive the fullback should occupy a position from four to eight yards behind the line of scrimmage, depending upon where the center plays. If the center plays w^ell back from the line the fullback plays farther back; if the center plays close to the line the fullback should play closer accordingly. AVhether cen- 106 THE BOOK OF ATHLETICS ter and fullback play close up or back depends upon the ability of the center and whether the opponents are using a line-plunging or forward- passing game. The fullback should stand fairly erect so that he can see the opponents' backfield and note their formations. He should vary his position relative to the opponents' formation, moving in a direction parallel to the direction of the oppo- nents ' shift. Be careful to realize that certain shifts are employed only as a ruse to weaken the defensive at designed point by removing fullback from backing up the line. Follow the Ball The fullback should constantly keep in mind the necessity of watching the ball from the mo- ment it is put in play. If the location of the ball is doubtful, his duty is first to ascertain where it is or is most likely to be, and as soon as its direction, or rather the direction of the runner carrying the ball, is noted he must get quickly into position to meet the runner at the earliest possible moment. How to meet such plays most effectively is a question which rests entirely upon the physical make-up of the full- back and in fact upon the team as a whole. Should the fullback have a reliable rush-line capable of eliminating a greater portion of the runner's interference his work is compara- HOW TO PLAY FULLBACK 107 tively easy and his duty is then to play for the runner alone. If, however, his line is weaker than that of the opponents' he must direct his efforts to meet the interference as a whole, which is a far greater tax upon his strength. The fullback should not permit himself to be drawn back by any assumed punt formation ; at least not until he is quite certain that the oppo- nents will kick. In the first place his efficacy in handling punts is not a matter of particular importance since it is seldom that he would have such opportunity. The number of plays possible from the kick formation Avarrants his remaining near the scrimmage line. In this in- stance good judgment is a sheer necessity, for supposing the opponents have eight or ten yards to make on the third or fourth down it is almost certain that they will punt, if they are in their own territory and they have not been gaining consistently. In this case the full- back should drop back about ten or fifteen yards from his regular defensive position and en- deavor to get into the interference for the ** running back " of the punt. The Art of Kicking Ability to punt, place-kick, or drop-kick is one of the most valuable assets a fullback can pos- sess. It takes years of practice and patience to develop one's eye and boot and to instill suf- 108 THE BOOK OF ATHLETICS ficient self-confidence to kick successfully from behind the line of scrimmage. The young aspirant may labor along ignorantly and won- der why his efforts bring no apparent success. Men who have worked consistently with the kicking game for years may suddenly find them- selves in a so-called " slump in kicking." From personal experience I have found that this is entirely due to the kicker's failure to keep in mind small details. The holding of the ball just prior to the in- stant of kicking is perhaps the greatest secret in the art of kicking. If held properly it is most surprising how great a distance may be gotten with but comparatively little effort. On the whole the " spiral " is the most effective kick for distance but not always the most advan- tageous. A kicker must vary his kicks, consid- ering the wind, the ability of the opponents to " run back kicks," and the territory in which he is playing. In saying this I presuppose that the player or kicker has ability to drop his kicks approximately where he wishes them to fall. I would advise the lad who is desirous of learning how to kick to think and reason out the best way to kick the ball. Keep in mind the relative position of shoe and ball, the point of impact on both, and decide for yourself the rel- ative merits of a short, choppy swing of the leg to meet the ball or a long " follow through " swing. I taught myself how to punt and believe IJUIi KLIV KIi KlNii '■>!; "I HIS FIVK >r( ( K-Sl I I. HKI.I>-<.i'\ IN THE HAltVAl:l)-VALE (.AME, 1913. ^'>TE THE I'EUl K( I FKOTECTIUX GIVEN THE KK KKIJ BV TEAM-MATES. r.fSadl?ii>»> f/.-'^^v^-^: G\ME, 1913. XiPTE THAI' Al.lHulMiH FKOTECTION OF KICKER IS FAIR, THE BALL WAS NEARLY BLOCKED BY THE HARVARD RIGHT TACKLE. THE FAKE Kl< K. To lltOTECT KICKER. HARVARD- YALE GAME, 1913. BRICffLEY DUOil'ED BACK AS IF TO TRY FOR A GOAL. BRADLEE WAS GIVEN THE BALL AND GAINED EIGHTEEN YARDS. ON THE NEXT PLAV BRICKLEY SCORED A FIELD GOAL. THE DKOP-KICK HOW TO PLAY FULLBACK 109 any young fellow can do likewise with equal success if he follows the above general sugges- tions. Hard and fast rules for kicking cannot be laid down. If the aspirant has football sense he can reach conclusions for himself and in a short time marked improvement in his efforts will be noted. Drop-kicking and place-kicking are seldom done equally well by the same kicker. Each requires an entirely different form of kicking and I would advise the beginner to take up one or the other, rather than both. Place-kicking ability can be acquired by con- sistent practice with both kicker and holder using thought and foresight. Apparently it is a difficult matter to place-kick and most of us are incUned to feel discouraged at repeated fail- ures. The first and most important phase of place-kicking is the time available to accom- plish it. A fraction of a second must be thor- oughly appreciated in order that the ball may be kicked clear of scrimmage before the defense can get within blocking distance. The kicker must cultivate confidence in his snapper-back and holder to such an extent that he should have his swing imder way to meet the ball be- fore it reaches the holder's hands. Carrying the Ball A fullback must be able, and know how, to carry the ball both in end running and through no THE BOOK OF ATHLETICS the line. End running requires that the player carrying the ball be quick to pick his openings, ward off pending tackles, and primarily he must have ability to run and to know how to use his speed. In the majority of cases the fullback is not called upon to carry the ball on end plays. This has arisen from the fact that in the old style of games the fullback was used for plun- ging especially, and no dependence was placed upon his end-running possibilities. With the new game, however, the fullback must perform all the duties of a halfback. In fact, there is little to distinguish these two positions now. It is difficult to lay down any ironclad rule as to how a fullback should carry the ball in line plays. In off-tackle plays, the ball may be safely carried in the ordinary side forearm position. Inside of tackle it is apparent that the danger of losing the ball increases. I be- lieve that the safest way is to carry the ball with both arms across the front of the body, holding the ball by its ends and against the upper part of the abdomen. In running I sug- gest that the knees be carried up as far as pos- sible, giving a sort of reciprocating motion, chest well forward and head erect. The greater momentum the fullback has on hitting the line the greater are the chances of success for the play. Again I state that it is a difficult matter to lay down any set of rules which the beginner is HOW TO PLAY FULLBACK HI to follow. Football simply amounts to apply- ing a little common sense to physical ability. If you don't use your brains in football you never will succeed at it or derive the pleasures which participation in the game holds in store. It is a strenuous game and some of the les- sons it teaches are dearly learned, but it is worth the while. Play " cleanly," no matter what the irritation is that may tempt you to play otherwise. Play to win, but, in defeat, ac- cept your lot in the true spirit of sportsman- ship. THE PLAY OF THE BACKS BY PERCY L. WENDELL Properly speaking, the term, backs, refers to the quarter-back, the two halfbacks, and the fullback. This article, however, will deal only with the three latter positions. These three backs, as we shall learn, are closely associated in everything that they do. On the offense they alternate in carrying the ball and in making in- terference for one another, while on the de- fense, at least two of them, and sometimes all three, are called upon to help the rush-line and at the same time cover forward passes. First of all, a back should enter into his work with the proper spirit. Unless he is willing to subordinate his personal mshes to the general welfare of the team, and what is more, to do so heartily and enthusiastically, he cannot hope ever to be a great player, even though he have marked individual ability along every line of play. Team-play is the essence of successful football, and he who is looking first of all to his own interests will never make a " team " player. 112 CAJfTAl>' WKNUELI, ill liAl:\ U:ii ^l\l^l^., DARTMDl-TH i.AMi:, I'.iU. WIN]. 1. 1, WOL-LD-BK iA( KLKli 1^ < II \1:A AIN IN HARVARD- ING OVER A STYLE. ■- I -, ALE RrNNIX THROWN HARVARD TACKLERS OFF THEIR B.\LAXCE. PLAY OF THE BACKS THE PLAY OF THE BACKS 113 A back who can run, kick, and pass is an ideal back, and although a back may not be able to learn to run well with the ball, the average back can learn to kick and pass. Backs should have enough practice in passing the ball to feel at home with it. They should learn to throw it with accuracy and speed. Every year sees an improvement in throwing the ball, which shows that it is practice that makes a player better able to throw it. To kick is difficult and takes much time and hard work, but a good kicker is a very valuable man, and time spent on learning to kick is time well spent. Carrying the ball is the main function of the backs, of course, hence the need of knowing the way to hold the ball. For end runs, one end of the ball should be tucked under the arm — not too far under so that it can be knocked out — while the other end should be firmly grasped and covered with the hand. In bucking, the ball should be held against the stomach with a hand on each end. After the line has been pierced either hand may be taken off to ward away the tackier. The grip on the ball should always be firm, yet it is often well to shift it from one side to the other so that the arm toward the oppo- nent may be free. Use both hands to shift the ball, always holding it firmly. To interfere is, in the new game, a big factor. To tell a back how to do this is very difficult. It is well to throw yourself at the opponent's 114 THE BOOK OF ATHLETICS knees with all the power you can muster. This method is effective if the opponent is advancing or standing still. If he is retreating, as an end should do at times, the back is in a difficult posi- tion, and the only thing to do is to keep him going and not let him pass by on either side. The essentials of good interfering are to keep low, go hard, and be fierce. No back can be effective who does not start quickly. An offense which is so slow in reach- ing its objective as to allow a concentration of opponents at that spot before the play hits is worthless. The attack must be quick and hard. For this reason backs should constantly prac- tise getting off quickly. The " sprint start " position with only one hand on the ground — and that only sufficiently to steady the runner — is a very good way to start. In general, backs should exercise extreme care to prevent unevenness in starting. A slow man may spoil the entire backfield. The work of a back is very tiring under the new rules, and therefore he must be in good condition — full of life and vigor and light on his feet. The offensive position of the backs will depend upon the style of game that is adopted. The possibilities of forma- tions are never ending. Whatever the system, the backs should always assume the same rela- tive position to each other, precision being ab- solutely necessary to well-developed team work. THE PLAY OF THE BACKS 115 Furthermore, this position should be assumed as soon as possible after the ball is down. When in position just previous to starting, the backs should take every precaution to prevent giving away the direction of the play by uncon- scious glances, movements, or '' leanings." A back should, however, key himself up internally just before starting and go off with a plunge and keep '' digging," never letting up an in- stant for anything. The Offense In end running, a back should be careful not to run too close to his interference when, in case the interference is upset, he is likely to fall over his protectors. Instead, he should run wdth an interval of not less than two yards between him- self and his interference, thus giving himself a chance to see where they are going, and to take instant advantage of any upset. In plunging, one of the very important points to be kept in mind is that of keeping the eyes open. A back who closes his eyes as he makes his plunge is likely to fall flat on his face when an opening in the line presents itself suddenly where he had expected to find the passage choked. A back should never allow himself to slow up on reaching the line. Strike it at max- imum speed. It is well for a back to crouch in bucking, or, perhaps better to double up, ma- 116 THE BOOK OF ATHLETICS king himself a plough with head and shoulders as the point. Worm yourself along, turning the body from the waist up, but keeping the rest of the body aiming straight ahead or the power of your attack will be lost. Lift the knees well up and try to prevent the tackier from getting his arm into your waist by blocking it with your knees. The minute a back is through the line he should open up a little, if an opponent is not right on him, and look for an open place, in the meantime warding off players with his shoul- der or straight arm. On approaching the line keep the back stiff so that the opponents will be driven back; thus they cannot straighten the back up. Just because a player has his hands on a back, the back should not slow up, but should keep on digging, and if caught should force himself forward when falling. In case a back feels any doubt about the sig- nal for a play he should at once call out '' Sig- nal! " Otherwise, collisions, fumbles, and con- fusion will result. No matter what a back thinks, he should invariably carry out the sig- nal, appearing to have absolute confidence in the quarter-back. Another rule which should invariably be fol- lowed is that of never running back — a back should never lose ground. If a back fumbles he should fall on the ball at once, never attempt- ing to pick it up unless it bounces high. A back is responsible for a ball if it comes to him well, THE PLAY OF THE BACKS 117 and he should always remember that the pos- session of it is of the first importance. It is the halfback's duty to afford proper protection to his kicker. He should always be reliable in getting any particular opponent who may be assigned to him out of the play. In the midst of play, whether on the defense or offense, the backs should seek to encourage each other by a word, a touch or a look. Such simple though effective aids to thorough har- mony between them should never be overlooked. A hearty word of confidence spoken immedi- ately after a bad fumble or other blunder will always cause the unfortunate player to put new life and determination into his work, while a bit of cutting sarcasm will drive him to anger or else dishearten him. Under the new rules the backs on the defense hold an important and difficult position. They have to be in two places at once. They are re- sponsible for men who break through the line and must stop them before they make a sub- stantial gain, and they are responsible for all forward passes. The defensive back must be awake. He should keep his eye on the ball and advance as he sees the opposing back charge into the line. He must be careful not to commit himself too soon. When the opposing back has practically hit the line, the defensive back should immediately advance with more speed, but not so fast that the back with the ball will 118 THE BOOK OF ATHLETICS be able to dodge him if he breaks through the defensive line. The Defense In general, the position of the defensive back should be between his tackle and end, and about seven or eight yards back of the line of scrim- mage. He should vary his position so the op- posing quarter will not know where to find him or where he is going to be. The fullback as a rule plays two yards or so in back of the line of scrimmage, but the formations on the de- fense, like the formations on the offense, vary and are unlimited in number. In the backfield, the main duty of the back is the handling of kicks, and it is one of the most trying functions of all in football. Under the new rules, however, a back can let the ball fall to the ground and then pick it up or call it down as he chooses. In this the new rules take away a big and difficult factor of the game. It means also that only one back need be kept back what- ever the conditions may be. When the ball is picked up or caught the back must pay attention to the opposing ends the moment he has the ball. He should not, how- ever, take his eyes off the ball until he has it in his hands, and in watching the ball as it comes down, the back can tell to some extent how it will bounce, especially if it is a spiral. THE PLAY OF THE BACKS 119 In dodging, a back should dodge as little and as quickly as possible. It is no game to stop and then start again, or to run zigzag down the field. The back must run as straight as possible and make his dodges at as high a speed as pos- sible. It is not wise to run slowly so that a dodge is easier ; always run at top speed what- ever the situation and slow down here and there to side-step or fool the tackier. It is often well to slow down and then sprint away again, but this is only good when one tackier is attempting to tackle the back. Good dodging is not com- plete unless there is added to it the power to use the arms well. A back should never run back. HOW TO PLAY HALFBACK BY JAMES THOEPE In order to fill the position of halfback satis- factorily the player must be heavy-set, and of medium weight. The large player is, of course, in demand, but activity, strength, and speed are prime requisites for success as a halfback. The backfield candidate must be closely knit so that he can stand the knocks, should be quick to think and act, and above all, fearless. The back, more than any other player, must be thoroughly drilled in the rudiments of the game. He must be especially adept at handling and falling on the ball, interfering, tackling, punting, and catching punts. To be a successful ground- gainer requires cleverness in dodging opposing tacklers and skill in the use of the stiff-arm. The halfback's position, when his team is in possession of the ball, will vary according to the formation used. Ordinarily his place is from four to five yards back of the scrimmage line, and a good arm's length from the fullback, who stands behind the center. A back on the offensive should stand with his feet about two feet apart, and with one, or better still with 120 HOW TO PLAY HALFBACK 121 both hands on the ground, with his head up and with no part of his body higher than his head and shoulders. The feet should be about even with each other. While playing halfback the foot nearest the fullback may be a little back of the outside foot, bringing the player into the position of a runner upon his mark, except that his legs are farther apart. The halfback's weight should be borne equally by his feet and hands. If the player places himself upon a two- foot square, his feet planted upon the rear cor- ners and his hands resting upon the forward corners, with his shoulders almost directly over his hands and his knees almost touching his el- bows, he will find himself in the proper position. Thus he may start quickly forward, or to the right or left. This position or style of the of- fensive backs was first introduced by the In- dians when they defeated Columbia University 45 to on Thanksgiving Day, 1899, and has since been adopted by every team of promi- nence in the country. When in position the back should watch the ball, and start the instant it is snapped or the starting signal given. If he is to take it outside of tackle, he should receive it upon the run, and quickly place it under the arm which is farthest away from the greatest number of his oppo- nents, so that he can use the other arm to ward off tacklers. One end of the ball should be placed between the arm and body with the hand 122 THE BOOK OF ATHLETICS grasping the other end. On plays through the line the back should, as a rule, hold the ball against his body or under one arm with both hands, otherwise there is danger of his arm being jerked away from the ball. Thus there is less possibility of the back losing the ball while forcing his way through a mass of play- ers. Now that the rules permit the first man receiving the ball to run with it without cross- ing the line five yards from the center, there is much more direct passing from center to backs, and therefore the backs need much practice in receiving the ball on the run in order to avoid disastrous fumbles. On end runs or plays outside of tackle, the back carrying the ball should follow his inter- ference closely as long as it affords him pro- tection and not depend upon his individual ef- forts. He should turn towards the opponents' goal whenever he sees an opening and not try to circle the end unless he is reasonably sure of being successful. A wide run of this kind usually results in no gain or a big loss, whereas a quick turn straight down the field will usually gain something, and at least not result in a loss. In trying to avoid tacklers I find from my ex- perience that the man carrying the ball should use his free arm to push the would-be tacklers out of his way. Meet them on the head, shoul- ders, or neck with the heel of the open hand and the arm rigidly straight. At the same time HOW TO PLAY HALFBACK 123 swing the legs and body as far from the tackier as possible. When tackled, the runner should, if possible, fall toward the opponents' goal and work his w^ay forward until held or the whistle is blown. A back must remember that his part in nearly every play when another carries the ball is just as important as when he himself carries it. Some backs are inclined to run hard when they carry the ball, and rest up or make a feeble effort when some one else is trying to advance it. Such a player should not be tolerated on any team. Blocking and interfering are fully as much of a back's duties, and as valuable a part, as carrying the ball. The Defensive Halfback On defense the positions and duties of backs vary under different systems of play. In one system of defense quite generally used the half- backs are stationed about three yards back of the scrimmage line, and just outside the tackles. Another style of defense places the halfbacks about five yards outside of the tackles and about two or three yards back from the line. In both systems the backs move to the right or left if the opponents use a side formation. In the first system the halfbacks are supposed to back up the line and guard against all running plays of the opponents, while the fullback 124 THE BOOK OF ATHLETICS watches for forward passes. The halfback in the other style of play looks out for kicks and passes as well as other plays, being in an espe- cially good position to stop end runs or plays outside of tackle. The defensive backs should all stand with their feet about two feet apart and their hands upon their knees so as to be able to start quickly in any direction. They should watch the oppo- sing backs closely, and if they form on one side of the line notify the rest of their team as the linemen are watching the ball and may not notice the formation of the opposing backs. The defensive backs shift with the opposite of- fensive formation so as always to be in the same relative position to the center of the offensive strength of their opponents, no matter where the ball may be. The backs should watch the heads of the opposing backs because their heads mil be the first part to move and indicate the direction of the play. If the play is aimed at the line, it should be met hard and low. If there is a hole opened for the runners, do not wait for the play to come through but dive into the open- ing and nail the runner, or spill the man in front of him before he has reached the line. Every play should be quickly headed off whether go- ing forward, back or around the opposite end. Hard-tackling defensive backs, who get into every play, are a most powerful factor in any team's defense. On the best teams the backs HOW TO PLAY HALFBACK 125 are chosen as much for their defensive ability as for their skill in carrying the ball and inter- fering. Kicking is naturally part of the duties of a finished back. Almost any player can acquire accuracy and fairly good distance in punting by practice and study. Care should be taken not to practise too much early in the season, as the leg is liable to become sore and lame for the rest of the season. This occurs for the same reason that a ball-player 's arm goes wrong, and it is no easy matter to get the leg in shape again when straining or overdoing has once injured it. The spiral punt, which is now universally used because a ball kicked in this way goes farther, can with practice be punted just as accurately, and is much harder to catch. In order to get the necessary distance, and punt the spiral with accuracy, some practice should be devoted to it every day and great attention should be paid to form. It is correct form to hold the ball as far away from the body as pos- sible, directly in front of the kicking foot, with one hand on each side of it and the outer point of the ball slightly lower than the end nearest the body, at the same time taking a short step forward with the kicking foot. Then take a regular step with the other foot, drop the ball so that it falls without turning, and meet it with the instep of the kicking foot about two and one-half feet from the ground. The foot should 126 THE BOOK OF ATHLETICS be extended, and the leg should swing mostly from the hip and but little at the knee. The punt should be followed through with the leg as far as possible with the body bent backward so as to get the full weight into the kick. Kicking Goals The place-kick is used in several different ways: for goal-kicking after touchdowns and fair catches, for kicking goals from the field from scrimmage formation, and in kicking off. The place-kick from scrimmage formation is easier to develop than the drop-kick, can be gotten off quicker and, in my opinion, is more accurate and better suited to kicking field goals. The player who is to receive the ball should kneel on his left knee about seven or eight yards from the center, and facing to the left, that is if the holder is right-handed and the kicker uses his right foot. The holder should mark the spot on the ground where he intends to place the ball to enable the kicker to get his aim and position. Upon receiving the ball he should quickly place it upon the spot he has marked. Receiving and placing the ball is an important part in place- kicking from scrimmage and must be practised fully as much as the kick itself. The kicker should not kick any harder than is necessary to get the ball over the bar. When placed the ball should be in a perpendicular position. HOW TO PLAY HALFBACK 127 In judging punts the catcher should always have in mind the direction and velocity of the wind and the effect it will have upon the ball. He should regulate his position and distance from the kicker with this and the ability of the opposing punter in mind. Any player of good common sense would remember this, but there is another thing to consider which few players remember in judging punts. This is the effect of the air upon the course of the ball, and espe- cially its effect upon spiral punts. There are two kinds of spirals commonly punted: one where the long axis upon which the ball re- volves maintains the same relative position with regard to the ground throughout its course; the other where the axis gradually varies its position and follows the course of the ball, keeping its front end always pointed in the direction in which it is going, like the head of an arrow. The two kinds of punts or spirals travel through the first half of their course practically alike, and it is only in the last half, or after the ball begins to descend, when the difference in their position with reference to their course be- comes apparent, and causes the air resistance to affect them differently. The ball which keeps the front end pointed in the direction of its flight will carry farther, because of less resist- ance to the air. But this is not the only reason. The ball in descending will tend to fall in the 128 THE BOOK OF ATHLETICS direction toward which its lower end points, since that is the direction or line of least re- sistance. Consequently the ball which main- tains the same position with reference to the ground throughout its course will, in descend- ing, not only meet more air resistance but will tend to slide down on the air in the direction pointed to by its rear end. On the other hand, the ball which keeps its end pointed in the di- rection of its course, exposes the smallest pos- sible surface to the air throughout its course and consequently the air resistance is less, and it will travel faster and farther than will a round ball following a normal course. Catching Punts The catcher should, therefore, watch the ball in its course and be governed in getting under it by the direction towards which its lower end is pointing while descending. When the spiral descends with its forward end nearest the ground, the catcher will understand that the ball will carry much farther than it will when it descends with its rear end inclined down- ward. Wlien the punt is judged correctly the catching of it is simply and easily accomplished, providing the player practises faithfully, and has obtained a correct knowledge of how it is done. I have observed a great many coaches teach- HOW TO PLAY HALFBACK 129 ing their backs to catch punts by forming a sort of a pocket with their arms, body, and the thigh of one leg, into which the ball is supposed to fall and be held by the arms. I believe this method is not the best form, and that very few players catch punts that way, even when coached to do so. My observation and experi- ence have convinced me that the best, simplest, and surest method of catching punts, is simply to pin the ball to the body with the hands the instant it lands there. The hands should be extended towards the ball as it is descending, so as to come down to the body with the ball, and no attempt should be made to catch the ball with the hands alone, except in cases where the ball has to be caught very close to the ground, or above the head. An important fact to remember in catching punts is that the eyes should not leave the baU an instant until it is caught. Many punts are fumbled because players take their eyes off the ball an instant to see where the opposing ends are and in what direction to run, and this habit usually proves disastrous. While watching the ball descend the catcher can usually see out of the corner of his eye where his opponents are, and in what direction to run or have a better start. Whether he can or not, the catching of the ball is the all-important matter to attend to first, the running of it back being an after con- sideration. The punt having been caught, un- 130 THE BOOK OF ATHLETICS less it is a fair catch, the ball should be quickly placed under the arm, and the player should start quickly and at top speed towards the op- ponents' goal. Let no time be lost in looking for an opening or in dodging back and forth across the field. Usually the best plan is to shoot straight ahead. Dodging back and forth looks pretty, and eluding several tacklers may create some enthusiasm among the spectators who know little about the game, but the opposing forces are gathering all the time, and such tactics usually result in no gain or a loss. The player is not raised any in the estimation of the coach, or of those who understand and appreciate good football. Tackling No player should hope to be placed upon a team unless he is a good tackier. This is one of the most important rudiments of the game which every player should thoroughly master. It tests a player's nerve more than anything else he has to do, and a sure, fearless tackier is valuable to any team, no matter what his other qualifications may be. Innumerable games have been saved by a well-executed desperate leap at an opponent speeding for the coveted goal. Practice, head-work, and nerve are necessary in acquiring ability in this im- HOW TO PLAY HALFBACK 131 portant feature of football. Different methods of tackling should be used for different situa- tions, and these should be practised and thor- oughly mastered. A man coming straight at a tackier should be met squarely with the shoul- ders just above the knees. The tackier should drive his body forward by straightening his legs, keeping his feet on the ground. His straight body and legs present a solid brace which the momentum of the oncoming player cannot topple over. If correctly met, the mo- mentum of the man tackled, thus meeting a solid brace, will lift him off his feet, and the tackier can carry him back to the ground with his shoulders in the pit of his stomach. While this is the ideal way to meet an on- coming man with the ball, it more often hap- pens that the runner will try to pass to the right or left, and therefore a player should be able to take with equal ease a runner passing either to the right or left of him. The correct method of tackling in such cases is not to depend upon the shoulder, but more upon the body. The player, with all the power and speed possible, should shoot his body across the path of the runner, grasping both legs and pinning them tightly to his breast. It is well to go farther than it seems necessary, because the runner may partly hold the tackier back by his free arm and at the same time try to get his legs farther away from him. If he tackles from the side by 132 THE BOOK OF ATHLETICS the shoulder, unless he knocks the runner over, the tackier will only have his arms to stop him with, and often the runner can free himself and continue his course. Some players have the fault of grasping one leg in each arm, while the correct method is to pin both legs firmly to- gether with the arms locked. A tackier should remember that, as a rule, a hard tackle hurts the opponent more than it does the tackier, and when met fiercely a few times a runner is in- clined to slow up and try to save himself. On the other hand, if the tackier shows signs of fear, or weakens, the runner will come at him more fiercely each time. In practising tackling, it is well to keep the hands closed so as to learn to depend upon the body and arms. It is too often the case that tacklers depend upon securing a grasp upon the runner's clothes or legs with their hands. It is better to reach too far, in intercepting a runner, than not far enough, because some part of the body will then bring the runner down. Nine times out of ten a tackier who runs up to the runner and attempts to grab him without using the low, crouching attack will be warded off by the stiff arm. The low crouch and the hard leg drive are necessary to enable the tackier to get under and break down the runner's guard. Tackling is a knack easily acquired by some players and difficult to learn for others, but when once learned it is never forgotten. No HOW TO PLAY HALFBACK 133 team can make many long runs or run up a large score against a team whose men are all good tacklers, and nervy, no matter how much they may be outclassed. KICKING BY EDWAED W^ MAHAN Every punter will have his own peculiar way of going through the motions of kicking. Some depend upon power to send the ball away on a long flight, while others rely upon skill. Great strength is not a requisite for first-class punt- ing, although when combined with other quali- ties it is a valuable asset. Most of the best punters have been tall men of the rangy type. In the days of medieval football such men as Haughton, Dewitt, and Brooke were all over six feet tall. In late years the best kickers have been tall with long slender legs. Foremost among the men of this class were Burr, Coy, Felton, Flynn, and the younger Dewitt. There are several reasons why a tall, rangy man should make the best sort of punter. In the first place he makes a good target for the center to pass the ball to. Such men usually have long arms and are able to reach passes that smaller men could not touch. Then, their legs are longer and they can get a long sweeping swing at the ball. Again, their feet are larger and 134 K. W. MAHAN (IK H A R \' A K I > rr.\TI>"G. KICKING 135 offer a larger surface on the instep for striking the ball. Finally, the tall man meets the ball with his foot a matter of a few inches higher from the ground than does the short man, and these few inches count immensely when ag- gressive linemen are continually pressing the kicker. The distance which the punter should retreat from the line of scrimmage when he is about to kick should be determined by the circumstances. At the beginning of a game he should stand fully ten yards behind the ball. It is danger- ous to go back farther than ten yards since this gives the opposing ends a straight course towards the punter's foot. After the first few punts the kicker should know if he is being pressed by his opponents and if his kicks are in danger of being blocked. If the opposing linemen are not aggressive and do not threaten to block a kick, the punter need not retreat so far back of the line of scrimmage. Eight or nine yards will suffice in this case, but it is not advisable to approach nearer than eight yards. If he is kicking from behind a balanced line, when there are three men on each side of the center, he should stand directly behind the cen- ter. But if the line is unbalanced he should take up a position behind the man in the center of the line. If there are four men on the right side of the center and two on the left he should stand behind the player on the right-hand side 136 THE BOOK OF ATHLETICS of the center, who under ordinary conditions would be the right guard. Three of the members of the backfield form protection for the kicker, two on the side of his kicking foot and one on the other side. The two backs on the side of the punter's foot stand in line directly behind the guard on that side. When the play is about to start, the first back should be at arm's length from the guard and the second at arm's length from the first. From these positions they may run the ball through any part of the line or around the ends. The formation is especially strong for line plays. When the ball is snapped back for a kick these men immediately break back about three yards each so that one is back about seven yards and the other directly in front of him. It is essen- tial for these men to stand one behind the other and close together, shoulder to shoulder. Their feet should be on a straight line and their bod- ies turned towards the side-line. If the punter kicks with his right foot the line of scrimmage should be on their left. They should be in a crouching position ready to spring. From this position they can get the use of the full length of their bodies in blocking. Usually the tackle and end on the side of the kicker's foot are the dangerous men. It is always well to force them to go on the outside of the kicker. The protect- ors should be careful not to let either of these men get between them. They must keep close KICKING 137 together until they believe that the kicker is on the point of kicking the ball, then they may break, if necessary, and each ward off an oppo- nent. They must use their own judgment as to which are the most dangerous men. The quarter-back alone forms protection on the side away from the kicker's foot. When the ball is snapped he is either behind the snap- per-back or four yards back of the guard. If he is in position behind the center he can receive the ball from that player and feed it to one of the backs or run with it himself. When the ball is snapped for a kick he must wheel and run back to meet any opponent who might sift through the line. He also must not let the tackle or end get inside him. His method of blocking is similar to that used by the other two backs. The kicker should stand with his weight evenly distributed on both feet so as to be ready to jump in front of the ball if he should get a poor pass. He should tell his center just how and where he likes to receive the ball and insist upon getting the ball just as he likes. Never reach for a wide pass, always jump out in front of it. Some kickers stand with their kicking foot forward and other foot back, others take this step back just as the ball is about to reach them. The object of this is to get a good drive when stepping forward to kick. The next thing to be 138 THE BOOK OF ATHLETICS considered is the catching of the ball from the center. It should be caught as near the height from which it is to be kicked as possible. The ball may be caught at arm's length with the arms stiff. This is commonly called " fighting the ball." The surest way is to meet the ball at arm's length and to give with it until it strikes the body. Next the ball is shoved out in front. All this time it is being revolved so that it will be in the proper position to drop to the foot. Most kickers have a habit of placing the ball so that the lacing is on the top or a little to the outside. A good football will go just as well if kicked on the lacing, and twist- ing the ball about in the hands takes time. Little time should be spent in catching the ball on the pass from the center and in placing it in position to be kicked, as every fraction of a second counts. The ideal way to punt is to kick the ball out of the hands, but very few are able to do this. At least the ball should be al- lowed to drop the shortest distance possible from the hands to the foot, since this is where most of the kicks go wrong. The slightest twist of the ball in its passage from the hands to the foot may be just enough to spoil the kick. Some kickers like to meet the ball high up on the instep, while others prefer to meet it on the instep nearer to the toes. The ball should be struck with the instep just a trifle on the out- side of the foot. There are two ways of drop- KICKING 139 ping the ball on the instep. One is to drop it so it falls diagonally across the foot, and the other is to drop it so that its long axis points straight ahead. When the ball is dropped diag- onally across the foot the kicker must kick straight ahead. Meeting the ball in this way gives it a peculiar spiral twist. When the ball is held so that its axis points straight ahead the kicker must swing his foot across the ball to give it the spiral twist. The foot hits the ball on the bottom and cuts it, causing it to revolve. After the kicker has learned to place the ball on the foot properly and to kick it accurately there is a snap of the leg which he should learn. This snap permits the kicker to kick without much exertion and send the ball a good dis- tance. ^Ylien the kicking leg is started forward to kick the ball it should not be held stiff, but just a trifle bent. Just as the ball meets the foot the leg should be snapped so as to straighten it out. This snap sends the ball farther than the power of the leg would be able to do. High kicks are harder to catch than low ones and the punter should bear this in mind. He should learn just how far his ends can run down the field to cover kicks and he should kick ac- cordingly. If they are slow he should kick high. If they are fast he should still kick high, but he may get more distance into it. He should learn to place the ball down the field 140 THE BOOK OF ATHLETICS accurately. This can be accomplished by trying to place the ball out of bounds at a certain point. Keep the spot at which you are aiming in mind, but keep the eye on the ball. The passing and catching of the ball as ex- plained above also apply in drop-kicking. The first difference comes in placing the ball in the hands. It is best to get a low pass from the center so that no time is lost in pulling the ball down. The center should aim at a spot just above the right knee, provided the kicker is to kick with his right foot. The long axis of the ball must be held so that it is perpendicular to the ground. The right hand should be held on the back of the ball and the left hand on the side so as to guide it. Better results can prob- ably be obtained by tilting the ball slightly back in dropping it. The kick may be described as a quick shove. The toe is slightly pointed up and held rigid. Such a shove will send the ball over the bar from the thirty-five-yard mark. The kicker should practise kicking inside the twenty-five- yard line and should practise from all angles. He should above all things keep the goal-posts in mind and his eye on the ball. The place-kick also is more or less of a shove. The foot is held much the same as in drop-kick- ing. Here again the main rule to be remem- bered is to keep the goal-posts in mind and the eye on the ball. FOLLOWING THE BALL BY SANFORD B, WHITE Each year, early in September, the candi- dates for the various elevens report, the coaches gather from various parts of the country, and everything is put in readiness for the coming season's work. The first few '' work-outs " are of a very light order, for the summer's rest and vacation have left the men in poor condi- tion, but during these first practices the men are taught the rudiments of the game, prepara- tory to their harder work later in the season. The rules are carefully gone over and dis- cussed, a few simple plays are rehearsed, and some of the fundamental principles hammered into the minds of the men. Of these elements none is more important, to my mind, than the one I have chosen for my subject, ' ' Following the Ball." Suppose we happen down some day early in October to see the men in one of their regular afternoon work-outs. We will choose any of the larger colleges, for it matters little which one we pick, as the practices are nearly all the same. The men report rather late in the day 141 142 THE BOOK OF ATHLETICS in order to escape the noon heat, so about four o'clock we see players come straggling on the field. Usually there has been a preliminary meeting held in the club-house, where the rules and various plays have been discussed, but we need not bother any more about that side of the work, but go, instead, right out on the field with the men themselves where we can hear and see everything. In one part of the field the can- didates are practising falling on the ball, per- haps at the other end the men are tackling the dummy, while the linemen can be seen working on the pushing-machine. All sorts of kicking will be tried, the punters are perfecting their long, high spirals, seeking to gain speed and direction in each kick; the place-kickers and drop-kickers, upon whose ability so much rests in the modern game of football, are peppering the goal-posts, stri\dng in their work to gain the finish and perfection which late in the season may mean so much towards a victory or per- haps even a championship. In all this elementary work the coaches have been giving advice and supervision, but now, after an hour's practice of this sort of work, the men are called together and various teams picked out for signal drill. In this later prac- tice the individual playing is developed with the one aim of welding all eleven parts into a machine, and as we follow the men up and down the field oftentimes we'll hear some coach call FOLLOWING THE BALL 143 out, " Follow the ball." Can any better ad- vice be given to any man who is trying to make good on a college team, or on any football team in fact ? I surely know of none. Just think for a minute what those three words mean. If you follow the ball you follow the man who is carry- ing the ball, that is, when you are on the de- fensive. So you are always " Johnny on the Spot," so to speak, and in a position where you can do the most good. Let us look into the thing a little closer and see the possibilities a man may have who plays with that one idea of keeping his eye glued on the ball. As we all know, there are two kinds of football, the offensive and the defensive game, and while this advice applies to both games it is more applicable to the defensive game. The linemen in the attacking game are not in the position to follow the ball as well as some of the other men, for they are usually making holes for the play to be run through, pushing aside the opposing men, or boxing them in. But in every play they should know where the play is going and, when their work is done, " cut through " and get around the ball, forming in- terference for the runner. The backfield men, however, can, and should follow the ball unless they are sent in some direction different from that of the attacking point in hopes of deceiving their opponents. In this modern game where 144 THE BOOK OF ATHLETICS pushing and pulling is forbidden they should constantly be on the watch for fumbles. There are bound to be fumbles in football, that is one small part of the sport which makes it the in- teresting game it is, and sometimes with these fumbles goes a victory. If every man is on the watch for just such an occurrence, is following it, and ready to fall on that ball, how much better chance there is for a recovery by one of the players on whose side the fumble was made ! Then there are kicks, kicks of all sorts, from which any circumstance may arise offering a chance to the man who is following the ball. A kick may be blocked and an alert man may re- cover it or tackle his opponent who has picked it up and is on his way to a touchdown. This very sort of play occurred in one of .the big games in 1911 when Huntington of Harvard had broken through, blocked a kick, and was on his way to a score when tackled by Pendleton, captain of the Princeton team the next year. This one player's vigilance and watchfulness saved the game, for had Pendleton not followed the ball Huntington would in all probability have scored. On punts is a place where a man can prove his worth in following the ball. Perhaps the ball is dropped or fumbled by the man playing back, and it's anybody's ball. If the ends and the tackles are down the field and under that ball, why haven't they an even chance to fall on FOLLOWING THE BALL 145 it and gain that much ground for their team? A play of this sort may change the whole game, it forces the fighting so much nearer the ene- mies' goal line, sometimes puts the team in a position to score a drop-kick or placement kick, and then again in some cases there is the pos- sibility that the ball may be picked up and the man make the score himself. In any of these cases one thing is necessary, the man must be on hand and he must follow the ball. We are not so apt to think of this recovered fumble as a gain of forty yards, assuming that the punt has gone that distance, but how does it differ so much from the gain of the dashing half- back who has skirted an end for a run of that length? It is not as spectacular from a spectator's point of view but it really makes no difference how the gain is made so long as it is made. They both amount to the same thing, both are an advance of forty yards towards the touchdown and the score, and that's precisely what those eleven men are striving and working for. In turning to the defensive play we see even greater chances offered to the team, all of whose eleven men follow the ball. In this style of play every man on the defense is in a posi- tion to watch the ball and to follow it. It is where the ball goes that the play goes; of course there are forward passes which must be guarded against, but by following the ball a 146 THE BOOK OF ATHLETICS team will win out in the end. There are all sorts of attack, and one very common is to shoot the first man in the tandem in a« cross- buck, fake the pass to him to draw the defense towards him, but in reality run the second or third man straight through the line. Now if each man is awake and follows that ball, how can he be '' sucked in," as they call it in foot- ball terms ? Plays of this nature are constantly met and it's the man who keeps his eyes open, and tracks after that ball, who nine times out of ten stops the play, and prevents the gain. Then there are fumbles to be gotten, as in the offensive game, only in this case a fumbled ball gained means more than the recovered ball. It puts a team on the offense at once and some- times may result in a score. Big games have been won indirectly by the watchfulness of one man, whose getting a fumbled ball, insignificant in itself, was the real cause of the victory. It all resulted from his following the ball. Then there are * ' series plays, ' ' where a man may be caught sound asleep by watching his opponent, but had he been alert and watching the ball in- stead of the man he would have been ready for the play in place of being caught off his guard. There are all the chances in the kicking game which I have mentioned in the outline of offen- sive playing, only in this case the chances are even greater to those who are playing with the idea of following the ball. There are wrong FOLLOWING THE BALL 147 signals, crossed signals, bad passes, and many other plays constantly offering chances to the wide-awake man so that by his own work and by his ever readiness to grab that ball he may not only stave off a score and defeat but score a victory by his own watchfulness. It matters very little whether your team is playing on the offense or the defense. You should know every second just exactly where the ball is, and at the same time should be try- ing to figure out where it will go. It is the team that plans or the player who plans that achieves success in playing the game. If your own team has the ball, of course the signal will tell you where it is going. But the signal does not tell you whether the ball is to be fumbled. Be ready for that. Let us suppose the ball is not in play. It lies on the ground between the two opposing teams; your center's hands are on its cover. From the moment the signal is called, do not let your eyes wander from that ball if you can help it. See it when the center passes it to the quarter; see it till the play starts ; see it as long as you can, and if it hap- pens the play is going around the end of the line opposite to that you are playing on, you can keep it in view until it is downed. If you are watching, if you are ready, and the quarter fumbles the ball, you have the best chance of anybody to recover it, because you have been thinking about that very thing and 148 THE BOOK OF ATHLETICS are prepared to dive for it the minute it escapes your team-mate's grasp. It is this readiness that counts. But do not let your eyes do all the work. There is some left for your hands and legs and for all your body. Follow the ball with your eyes, but follow it with the rest of you as well. If a ball is fumbled a hundred feet from you, the fact that you see it roll on the grass will do little good. But if you are right there, watch- ful, ready to dive for it, that fact may mean just the difference between defeat and victory in an important game. If you are on the defensive, it is equally im- portant to follow the ball with eye and body. The end or half or tackle who knows every play is more valuable to his team than the best tackier in the world who loses track of the play, if only for an instant. Do not let that ball elude you for the tenth part of a second, for that in- finitesimal bit of time may give your opponents ' play just the start it needs to make a big gain. If you know just who has the ball and which way he is running, no trick play can deceive you. Of course, every player and every team is eager for victory. It would be a very poor player and a very poor sportsman who went into a game not caring whether his team lost or won. If you really want to win, you must be willing to work and develop your skill, and the FOLLOWING THE BALL 149 collective skill of your team. There is physical hard work about football, and there is mental hard work; not the least of which is watching the ball and trying to figure out what your op- ponents are going to do with it. It demands close attention ; it demands that your thoughts do not wander to the crowds, or to the man you are playing against, or to anything but just that pigskin ball and where it is going to go. As soon as it starts get near it. Stay near it until it is downed. Maybe you cannot make the tackle, maybe you cannot seize the ball if it is dropped, but you may be able to make it possi- ble for a team-mate to tackle by breaking the interference, or you may be the means of al- lowing one of your own men to seize the ball by tumbling over an opponent who is headed for it. A great many games are won and lost on so- called ** flukes." But there are a great many of these startling, unexpected plays that are not accidents at all. One team wins because of them, and the other team loses, and for no other reason than that the lucky team had its men trained to follow the ball. I have very lightly touched upon a few of the possibilities offered by following the ball. I purposely have neglected the forward pass, but in this as in every other phase of the game a man must know where that ball is, and I think we will all agree that if you are with the ball you are '* in it," and that's where a man does 150 THE BOOK OF ATHLETICS the most good in this game of football — right *' in it," and in the middle of it. If I were asked to give briefly the best advice I could give for playing football, I would quickly answer: Keep your wits about you, your eyes wide open, and follow that ball. TRACK ATHLETICS TRACK ATHLETICS With the resumption of the Olympic games and their establishment as the meeting-place of the athletes of all nations in competitive games, track and field athletics increased tremendously in popular favor, assuming a place unique in the world of sport. The rapid development in this country of such games as tennis, golf, and basket-ball had at one time threatened the popularity of track athletics. The Olympic games, afforded the stimulus needed to bring into track athletics the mass of latent mate- rial which the country possessed. As a result America stands to-day supreme in this branch of sport. Her athletes are admired the world over and her coaches sought as teachers in foreign lands. At home the ever increasing number of boys and men entering meets has had a splendid effect upon the youth of the country. Our big track meets, attended as they are by thousands of spectators and run off in an orderly, sportsmanlike way, are a tremen- dous factor in disseminating a healthy spirit of rivalry, fairness, and square play. No sport is more democratic or more easily freed from objectionable features. They offer opportunity 153 154 THE BOOK OF ATHLETICS to thousands of boys in running, jumping, vaulting, and deeds of strength with weights, all of which are so much a part of the life of the average boy. Their interest is but natural. Track athletics organized as they are in this country, with important meets held in every section, afford boys the opportunity of seeing good athletes in action and good coaches at work to an extent which is equalled in no other branch of sport, with the possible exception of baseball. There is, however, in this very width of opportunity the danger of overdoing compe- tition, and it becomes the duty of all interested in the welfare of the boys to see that they are j carefully watched if they attempt strenuous competition during their developmental stage. HOW TO BECOME A SPRINTER BY MICHAEL C. MUKPHY One often hears it said nowadays that " sprinters, like poets, are born, not made." In a measure this is a true statement, because it is just as natural for some men to outstrip their fellows in a foot-race, as it is for others to pass their mates in any mental or physical task. It would be a hopeless undertaking to try to develop a cart-horse into a trotter, for they are built for totally different purposes. So it is almost as hard to make sprinters out of some athletes. At the same time any man, no matter how slow he is, can improve his speed wonder- fully by constant practice and without any harm to himself. It requires a peculiar combination of strength, agility, and nervous energy to make a successful sprinter. But sprinting is some- thing that every man ought to learn, because in learning how to run one acquires the faculty of quick thinking and physical control. Before taking up the technical requirements of the sprinter, I want to correct a popular fal- lacy that, to be a successful sprinter, some par- ticular build is necessary. This is a big mis- take, for in the twenty-five years that I have 155 156 THE BOOK OF ATHLETICS been training athletes I have seen and trained champions of nearly every conceivable build. Some were short of stature and inclined to be too heavy ; some very tall and thin, while others had what is generally considered an ideal phys- ical build. Consequently a man's shortness of stature is not proof that he cannot sprint, nor should he be dismayed if his physical dimen- sions run to the other extreme. If there is any advantage to either type of man, I should say that it lies with the one who is tall and strong. But what he should consider above all other things is whether he has the nervous energy that will enable him to leave his mark and get under way without the loss of a fraction of a second, and the strength to carry him through to the tape without a falter. In sprinting, as in no other athletic event, suc- cess depends upon the ability to get the maxi- mum return from every ounce of energy with- out the loss of any of it. To do this is an art that requires intelligent, determined and con- scientious training. There are three points of which the sprinter must make a scientific study if he expects to be a champion. These are: 1, The Start. 2, Get- ting into your stride. 3, Learning to finish. /. The Start Every successful sprinter nowadays uses the ** crouching *' start. The standing start used HOW TO BECOME A SPRINTER 157 ■ for long-distance races is impracticable for the sprinter who needs to get away from the mark at top speed. The importance of a good start cannot be overestimated, for conditions being equal, a poor or slow start means certain de- feat. The athlete who has mastered the start can usually gain from a yard to two yards at the very beginning of his race on the man who has not mastered it. The crouching start was first used by me in professional work in 1880, and introduced in 1887 when C. H. Sherrill, of Yale, the intercollegiate champion, demon- strated it. Needless to say, he was laughed at when he got down on all fours, but to-day no good sprinter ever thinks of trying any other start. The object of a good start is to get off the mark and into your natural stride without the waste of strength or time. The first thing the runner should do is to dig the holes for start- ing. As no portion of the body can touch the ground in front of the starting line, the holes should be so dug that the runner can get as close to the starting-line as possible and yet be in a position to get away as naturally and as quickly as possible. To determine where to dig the holes the runner should first assume the cor- rect crouching position. First, get down on one knee. The knee of the back leg should be about even with the inner ankle of the forward foot. This is the position you should have, the back >^ 158 THE BOOK OF ATHLETICS knee only being on the ground when the starter gives the first of his three signals, '' Get on your marks." With the next signal, which is " Get set," you rise on the hands and feet, lean- ing forward as far as possible. In this position you wait for the report of the pistol with which you spring forward. The runner should be most careful to keep his mind concentrated on the gun. If he thinks of anything else he is sure to lose an instant before he realizes that the race is on. As soon as you have found an easy, natural position for your crouch, you should dig small holes, which you can easily do with your spiked shoes, one hole for each foot. Be sure that these holes are deep enough and strong enough to give you a firm grip as you get your position. In preparing the holes they should be so located that the hands, which are on the starting-line, are not more than six inches in front of the for- ward foot. As the hands cannot be ahead of the starting-line, you will give away distance by having your feet farther back than I have indi- cated. Some runners with very long legs and arms give away more distance than this, but the positions I have indicated are best for the nor- mal man. Above all, see that you are well bal- anced and can get off your mark without a tend- ency to wabble. The most important part of the start is that of holding your body in perfect control after HOW TO BECOME A SPRINTER 159 you have been told to get set, and while waiting for the pistol. Let the weight of the body rest on the front leg, a little forward, so that the first drive of the legs will send you forward and up- ward. It will be found that the fingers will be of great aid in keeping the body properly bal- anced and directing the first forward spring when the pistol is fired. At the same time be sure that you have enough weight on the back foot to keep it firmly in the hole, and remember that the spring should be off both feet. It will take some time to acquire the perfect control of the body that will enable you to wait for the pistol. Do not get into the habit of swinging back and forth. This will either make you go off the mark too soon and subject you to a pen- alty, or you will find yourself left at the mark. Also avoid the trick of some runners who aim gradually to move the body forward after get- ting set, on the assumption that they can time themselves to reach the farthest point forward just as the pistol sounds. This practice loses more races than it wins. 11. Getting Into Your Stride The same careful attention to details must be observed after the start, for getting into your stride without loss of energy and without wab- bling is just as important as the correct start. As you rise from the mark you should spring 160 THE BOOK OF ATHLETICS forward with the impetus which your crouch gives you. Make it a point to run straight and true, always remembering that the straightest course is also the shortest. Many runners make the mistake of taking too long or too short strides at the first spring. Make it a point to take these first strides naturally and easily. You will be rising gradually and will have cov- ered twenty or twenty-five yards before you are running erect. Be careful not to try to get erect too quickly, or you will lose speed in conse- quence. In order to take your strides and pre- serve your equilibrium as you are rising, you should take these first few strides as easily and quickly as possible. Careful observation of these points will enable you to be running eas- ily when you get erect and you will be able to put every ounce of strength into your work. For the first few weeks of your training you will find that you will have plenty to do in mas- tering the start and getting into your stride. The third portion of your training, the final burst over the last quarter of your course, must be delayed until you have gotten sufficient strength and mastered the two essentials al- ready mentioned. No sprinter, whether his distance be one hundred yards or two hundred and twenty yards, should attempt to run through the full distance at anything like his best speed during the first three weeks of his training. This time should be devoted to prac- HOW TO BECOME A SPRINTER 161 tising starts, learning to get into your stride quickly and naturally, with one or two jogs a day through your full distance, but not at your best speed nor a speed that will tire you too much. Sprinters should be careful to get as much out of their arms as possible. Make them help the legs by ripping them forward and upward or by a good, hard cross motion. Never let your hands get behind your hips. It will require a great deal of careful prac- tice to master the start. You should try it half a dozen or more times a day, working at good speed for about twenty yards, then slowing down gradually. After a rest, conclude your day's work with a jog of one hundred and twenty or one hundred and fifty yards, though at about four-fifths speed. With a few weeks of this kind of training you will find that you are gradually mastering the start and that you are having no trouble to maintain your speed and equilibrium as you run into an erect posi- tion from twenty to twenty-five yards from the start. 7/7. The Final Burst The candidate is now ready for some real speed work, which brings me to the third por- tion of his training. First of all, young sprint- ers, I would caution you not to overstride, even 162 THE BOOK OF ATHLETICS after you have gotten into your running. To do so will certainly cause you to overbalance and lose some of your speed. After you have learned the art of being natural in your stride, its length will adjust itself. Let your aim be to run naturally and use every ounce of your strength. Above all, keep your mind strictly on your own work, and do not allow yourself to be pulled out of your stride by your opponents. It is assumed that by this time the sprinter has been training for at least three weeks, and is ready for some speed work. During the third week the sprinter who is training for the one hundred yards dash should try himself out for one hundred yards against the watch. This will give him an idea of what he is doing, and at the same time show him whether or not he has enough strength to go the full distance. Probably he will experience a tightening of the muscles, or what athletes term a " tie-up " in the last twenty-five or more yards of the run. Under such conditions the runner wabbles over the last quarter of his course and has difficulty in finishing. To correct this and enable him to go through the entire distance without slacken- ing his speed, and, above all, to have a final burst as he approaches the tape is the climax of his training. Nothing but conscientious work will enable him to overcome this weaken- ing. But practice will bring about the desired result, and soon his legs will be strong enough HOW TO BECOME A SPRINTER 163 to carry him through the full distance without a let-up in his speed. After you have been training for three weeks and started to run trials at the end of three or four weeks, care should be exercised in keeping them down to no more than two a week. If it is possible to run them in a set of games, so much the better. I usually advise sprinters to limit their trials to about four-fifths the dis- tance of the race they expect to run. Thus if a man is training for one hundred yards he should confine most of his trials to eighty yards, going the full distance about once a week. By working out at his best speed for eighty yards he will depend upon the excitement of the con- test to carry him the remaining distance with- out a let-up in his speed, a theory that seldom fails. Sprinters should not underestimate the amount of training and hard work it requires to enable one to run one hundred yards in ten or even ten and one-fifth seconds. It takes long and faithful practice to enable one to get every ounce of strength into his running. The Two Hundred and Twenty Yards Dash The technical part of training for the two hundred and twenty yards dash is much the same as for the one hundred yards, but the longer race requires far greater endurance and more judgment. The start for the two hundred 164 THE BOOK OF ATHLETICS and twenty is much the same as for the one hundred yards, the same crouching start being necessary. The runner should jump into his stride as quickly as he can, and then let his legs do all the work without too much urging, and then if he has anything left for the finish he can put in his whole strength for the last twenty- five or thirty yards. Good judgment counts for everything in this race. No man can " try " all the way without tying up at the finish. Therefore the runner must learn by experience just how much power he can put on at the start. At the same time he must remember that he cannot loaf at any part of this distance. Most of the champions at this distance have been able to go a little further than the full two hun- dred and twenty yards. Sherrill, Wefers, Owen, Jewett, Schick, Lee, Tewkesbury, and Cartmell were all able to go three hundred yards. Therefore, after the runner has gotten into pretty fair shape, he should run a little over the distance, possibly twice a week. This will insure him with more strength for the finish. Without going too much into detail for this event, the runner can utilize the instructions given for the one hundred yards dash, altering the distance proportionately for the longer event. In conclusion, let me say that I know of no better exercise for boys and young men than HOW TO BECOME A SPRINTER 165 sprinting. If indulged in moderately, it can't injure any one. On the contrary, it will strengthen the heart and build up the whole body. And there is nothing finer for teaching a youngster to think quickly and to give him the physical poise which every boy ought to seek. HOW TO EUN THE HUNDRED AND TWO HUNDRED TWENTY YARD DASHES BY EALPH C. CRAIG Training for the *' hundred " and " two- twenty " dashes is one of the most interesting forms of work that a boy can do on the track team. There is a snap and a dash about it which appeals to every boy, and whether he is proficient in the dashes or not, he is instinc- tively interested. The dashes, and I use the plural because of the fact that an athlete usually runs both the " hundred " and " two-twenty," in any meet, are among the most strenuous events of the day, and as such the work in preparation for these races is most important. Of course, any one '' hundred " or '' two- twenty " cannot be compared to the quarter, half, or mile runs, but when he considers the fact that a sprinter has to run from two to four or five races in one afternoon, and that in each race he is straining every muscle and every nerve to their utmost throughout the entire race, and the fact that in less than a fifth of a second his physical and nervous machinery — 166 RALPH CRAIG WI>'NIXG Till': lOO-YARDS IX RECORD TIME OF 9 4-5 SECOXD.S. INTERCOLLEGIATE GAMES, 1911. I>l:i:W \M>(KAIGAI' 'lAI'E A I' FINISH ol" Tlli: K 1(1 -^1 K I' 1 : K> IN iiiE (iLVJiric Tii\-(>rTs KN Till: ii\i;\Ai:i> STADIUM, 1912. DREW WON I'.V INl MIS. :^V>„ ^>*^ ':t 'jj^^m^ ^^^ • PATTER.SON OF PESN. WINNING THE IIKI-VVKHS IN '.I 4-.". si . .. IN THE INTERCOLL'EGIATES IN 1913. LH'IMNCOTT, WINNKl; OF THE 220-YARDS, SECOND MAN FROM LEFT. HELLER OF CORNELL WAS SECOND IN THIS RACE. thp: sprints I HOW TO RUN THE DASHES 167 if I may use the word — lias passed from a state of being normal to the state of maximum strain, I think that every boy will see my point, and will agree that the sprints are one of the hard- est events of the day. Hence the sprinter must be like a finely tem- pered steel spring, so that allowing a short period for rest after each race or heat, he will still be able to do his best. In order to do this, a boy who wishes to be proficient in sprinting must not pay his atten- tion wholly to running, but must pay careful attention to the general condition of his health. He must take exercises which have no direct bearing on running, but which will build him up and keep him in the best possible general condition. Another point that most boys do not realize the importance of, is that the legs are not the all-important part of a good runner. They are the most important part to be sure, but the muscles of the hips, the back, the shoulders, and the arms all play their part, and it is an impor- tant part. A sprinter need not have the heav- ily developed arms of a weight man, but he must have arms which will, by their swing and drive, help him through the end of a hard race. His hips must have highly developed muscles, and the muscles of the back and shoulders are all very important. Those muscles need not be heavily developed, and in fact that should not 168 THE BOOK OF ATHLETICS be the aim ; but they should be of fine quality and capable of quick movements and of with- standing sudden great strains. One of the chief troubles with the boy athlete is that he does not realize these things and their importance to him. He may hear of them, and practise exercises for a couple of weeks, which develop these other muscles and tone up his system generally, but then he cannot see that it makes any difference to him and he gradually neglects them for the more interesting work on the track itself. This general development is of great impor- tance to a sprinter, and in order that his whole system may be in the best of health, thereby giving him the reserve force which is so neces- sary to him, and in order that his arms, shoul- ders, back and hips be developed, as well as his legs, the boy athlete should take regular daily exercise, with the chest weights, dumb-bells or Indian clubs. He should not overdo it one day and neglect it the next, but take a regular amount, as will be prescribed to him by his coach, or if he is not fortunate enough to have a good coach, by his own common sense and feeling. And right here is the core of the whole mat- ter: a certain regularity about the daily work is essential to success in any kind of athletics, and by that I do not mean the same work day after day — but I do mean that the boy should HOW TO RUN THE DASHES 169 not go out and overdo one day and because of that, underdo for three or four days. The best judge of this is the boy himself. He can tell by the way he feels, the amount of work which is best for him, and now I want to give an impor- tant warning ! Always stop when you feel that you can do more, and never go on with the exer- cise, either on the track or with the apparatus, until you become exhausted. The object of all training is to build up the system. This object is necessarily defeated if the boy athlete, in his o^vn enthusiasm and high feelings does more than he should, and so drains the supply of re- serve force which is so necessary in all compe- tition. This is especially true in the case of boys between the ages of twelve and eighteen or twenty. A great deal of their strength is used in maturing their growth, and consequently they do not have the reserve force which a man of twenty-two years or older has. This is very important, and I want to warn every boy of the evils of too violent exertions and of overdoing his training. A great many promising boys have spoiled their chances by trying to do too much in high school. But in connection with this warning I want to give another warning which seems to exactly con- tradict the first, and that is, that success in sprinting — and by success I mean becoming as good as is possible for the indi^idual athlete — can be attained only by hard, consistent work. 170 THE BOOK OF ATHLETICS Those two statements do not seem to jibe at all, do they? But if you mil substitute stick- to-itiveness for hard, consistent work you will see what I mean: I mean that a boy should work hard every day, doing as much as he can without overdoing; that his work should be regular and persistent and that he should keep at it every day, even though he does not seem to be improving; but that, on the other hand, in his daily work he should be very careful not to overdo, for any one day. When a boy decides to get out for any form of athletics he should first of all be examined by a physician or a man who has made physical culture his profession. For if he has a weak heart or lungs or his physical machinery is weak in any way, he cannot go into hard work with any hope of success, and what is worse, he works a positive injury to himself. The aver- age boy, however, is sound in body and mind; and any who are not may console themselves by the sure knowledge that they can build up their bodies by gradual work. After the boy has been examined and knows that his physical machinery has no flaws, he should begin in the gymnasium and work out three times a week during the cold weather. The exercise that he takes should be with the idea of developing the lighter faster muscles and no heavy lifting or heavy work should be done. In this way the whole system is built up, HOW TO RUN THE DASHES 171 and when the outdoor season opens the boy has a good beginning for his sprinting. The first week of outdoor work should be long, slow work. Never try any speed, and above all never break off your marks. Right here I might give an important warning good for any time in the season, — never break off your marks until you are thoroughly ' ' warmed up," and if it is a cold, raw day, do not attempt it at all. But returning to the first week : dur- ing the first few days the boy will feel so good over getting out of doors that there will be a strong tendency to do too much. This must be guarded against, for if you do too much one day, an almost inevitable result will be that you will do too little for a day or so after that. After the first week of outdoor work, the starts should be practised every day — remem- bering, of course, to never ' ' take your marks ' ' without being well warmed up. The start of the sprints is very important, and especially is this true in the " hundred." The boy who can get away with the gun and into his running in fifteen yards has a great advantage over his competitors. Personally, this has been the weakest point in my own sprinting and it has been something which I have tried for seven years to improve, and while I am still a very poor starter there has been improvement and I am still working away on it. In general, the holes should be dug deep — a 172 THE BOOK OF ATHLETICS few notches in the track are not sufficient — and they should be placed so that the knee resting on the ground is on a line with the instep of the front foot. The holes should be far enough apart so that the back foot drives straight ahead on the first step. That is, do not dig the rear hole directly behind the front one, nor, on the other hand, dig it too far to one side of the front hole, but choose a happy medium and dig the holes so that when walking off your marks the rear foot moves directly ahead. The front hole should be dug, as a rule, about ten inches behind the starting line, although the individual cases vary. In coming to the position *' on your marks," the athlete's eyes should be straight ahead and every faculty and every nerve intent upon the fact that the instant the pistol is fired he must make every effort to reach the goal as soon as possible. At the com- mand '* get set " the athlete raises the knee which has been on the ground and leans for- ward, his eyes still fixed straight ahead on the goal and every muscle tense and ready to drive. A proper balance is essential in good start- ing, for on the amount of drive depends largely the merit of the start. If a boy is not well bal- anced when he is '' set," he is not going to get a good drive — and the legs alone do not give all the drive, but the arms and entire body enter in. With the report of the pistol, make every ef- HOW TO RUN THE DASHES 173 fort to get into your running. This is most important. Do not jump up in the air, and do not try to see how long you can make your first stride, but make every effort to get into your running. By that I mean that you should as soon as possible get into the position you as- sume after you are running at full speed. Many boys get a good drive and for the first stride seem to have an advantage, but in the next four or five they lose it all and their com- petitors who have gotten into their running sooner are leading them at the thirty-yard mark. The start ha\dng been made and the speed attained, attention should be paid to the posi- tion of the body, arms, head, etc. This is, of course, only in practice. In a race the one idea is intense concentration upon the thought of *' getting there." But in practice you must keep your mind upon how you are running, until your faults are eliminated, and until your form is second nature to you. Every boy can attain the best results by run- ning naturally and eliminating his faults. No general rules can be made which will suit every case and every boy will run differently. But there are certain general principles which can be modified for every case. In general, the arms should be held rather high, the elbows bent and the hands clenched. It is advisable to use a pair of grips of cork or any other light 174 THE BOOK OF ATHLETICS material, that will fit the hand and give the runner something to clench down upon. The arms are a great aid in sprinting and their movement should be sharp and forceful, and the greatest force should be used in the forward stroke. That is, strike forward with your arms harder than you draw them back. A large number of athletes do not do this, and, of course, the idea of swinging the arms is to bal- ance the body and to utilize the force of inertia in aiding its forward movement. Another common fault is in running too straight up in the air. The best results gen- erally are obtained from holding the body in- clined slightly forward. The reason for this is simple. Stand with your feet together and lean forward. As you lean forward you find that one foot instinctively comes forward to keep your balance. If the leaning is continued, your other foot comes forward and soon you are running in spite of yourself. In this way the force of gravity is used to help your running. When the body is held straight it is muscular effort alone which moves it, and surely muscu- lar effort plus gravity is better than muscular effort alone. Another common fault in boys who are work- ing out for the sprints, is that they do not keep their minds upon the goal. They are thinking of the '' other fellow " and are looking over their shoulders to see where he is. More dashes HOW TO RUN THE DASHES 175 have been lost in this way than any other way that I know of. It is absolutely essential, in order to do your best, to keep your eyes on the tape or string throughout the entire race. Now, as to a weekly program: as I have said before, no one rule can be set down for every boy who is working out for the sprints as every one has to do a little different sort of work in order to get the best results. But a good general program would read something like this, except that the first week or two should be devoted to long, slower work : Monday — Practise starts, about fifteen yards from four to six starts; fifty yards at full speed. Swing through one hundred and fifty yards faster than a jog, but not at top speed. Tuesday — Starts, four to six ; two forty- yard dashes; swing through two hundred and twenty. Wednesday — Starts, four to six ; one hun- dred yards. Then after a good rest jog slowly around for three hundred yards. Thursday — Starts, four to six ; a fairly fast one hundred and ten yards, but not at top speed. Then, after a rest, swing through one hundred and fifty yards. Friday — If there is a meet on Saturday jog through one hundred and fifty yards; if not work same as Tuesday. Saturday — If there is a meet, keep off the 176 THE BOOK OF ATHLETICS feet as much as possible and rest; if not, do whatever work you feel like doing. That is, of course, a very general pro- gram, and every boy will have to vary it to meet his own individual requirements. If his starting is slow the greater part of his work will have to be on the starts. If he cannot finish well, he must work up the stamina and endur- ance necessary for a hard finish. Now, as to dieting. This is not necessary in the case of a high school boy, and the ordinarj^ table diet is satisfactory except that the boy should avoid pastries, candy, etc., and, of course, every boy knows the evil effects of to- bacco and liquors of any sort, and so a warning against them is not necessary. Another thing to remember is that a sprinter is not made in a day, or a year, or two years. It is only by steady, consistent plugging away that you will be able to accomplish anything, and remember that the object of athletic con- tests is to find out which is the best man or the best team, as the case may be, and that if you cannot beat the other man fairly you do not want to beat him; that if you are beaten it is simply an incentive to you to work harder so that in the next race you can win. HOW TO TRAIN FOR THE DISTANCE RUN BY KEENE FITZPATRTCK We can lay down rules for the training of football players; we can make out a general plan of training for a baseball squad; jump- ers, vaulters, and weight men can be developed along the same general lines. But when it comes to developing men for the distance runs, no one can lay down rules. Everything de- pends on the man himself. True, he can be told what to eat and what not to eat; he can be given some general orders that will apply to all men. But his case must be studied and studied carefully before actual development of the runner begins. A trainer might have a squad of a dozen milers. Should he give them but one set of rules, it is likely that not more than one of the twelve would derive any great benefit from following them. The distances given out for the daily run might be too long for some and not long enough for others ; one man might need work in the sprints, while another might need long walks across country to develop his endurance. 177 178 THE BOOK OF ATHLETICS And so, the first thing to do in training for the longer runs is to study the candidate. This should not rest entirely with the trainer. The runner himself should try to locate his weak points. He should know what work he needs. Then, after this knowledge is accumulated, earnest training may follow. It is difficult to say when a man should begin running. Some boys develop with surprising rapidity, while others are men in years before they are physically able to undergo the re- quired training. However, I should say that no boy should begin running distances until he is sixteen years old. The normal boy at that age can stand a reasonable amount of exertion without injuring his heart or lungs. Of course there are many exceptions to the rule. Some boys may be able to stand hard work before they are sixteen years old, but to say that it is safe for them to begin training is a mistake. Many high school boys ruin any chance they might have had by beginning track work before they are developed to the necessary degree. I have had numbers of cases of men at Michigan who came up for examination, to be told that their heart had developed a " murmur." This, in many instances, was undoubtedly due to overwork in athletics before they were suffi- ciently mature. When a man's heart is af- fected, his chances of ever becoming an athlete are gone. A good heart is the very foundation HOW TO TRAIN FOR DISTANCE 179 of prowess on the track or field. No trainer will allow a man who has a weak heart to do even the lightest work. When the young athlete is considered suffi- ciently strong to commence running, he should not start work on his own assurance or that of his trainer. He should be carefully examined by a physician. There may be a defect that will wear off in a year or so, and there may be a defect that would endanger the boy's life should he exert himself to the degree required in run- ning. And then the first step in training is to stop smoking. The boys who use tobacco in any form before their athletic careers end are heav- ily handicapped. " Oh, pshaw," they will "say, * ' I only smoke a pipe, and I cut that out when I begin work." Perhaps they do. Perhaps they let tobacco entirely alone for weeks before their training season opens and never touch it again until the last meet has been fought out. But nicotine will leave its mark. This mark may be ever so slight and the smoker may never realize that he has been injured by the habit. But his efficiency has been impaired to a greater or less degree. Boys, as a rule, do not realize this. Their parents and teachers warn them against the use of tobacco. Still they give no heed. If they could only know great athletes and know their habits it would be a lesson to them. Many are the men who have been ren- 180 THE BOOK OF ATHLETICS dered unfit for track, baseball and football, all on account of tobacco. And they need not be- come inveterate smokers to ruin themselves, either. The men who have been the strongest assets to the big university teams have let to- bacco entirely alone until their college days were things of the past. Dieting is an important part of preparation for track work. Here again, it is difficult to lay down rules. Some food stuffs that may be nutritious when cooked in one form, may be injurious when prepared in another way. Pas- try should be let alone entirely ; so should fried dishes. Well-cooked meats, eggs, fresh vege- tables and milk make a substantial diet. Don't gorge. It is just as bad to overeat even prop- erly cooked food as it is to fill up on pies and cake. After the candidate for long distance run- ning honors has been thoroughly examined and his habits of living fixed, he should begin active work as soon as possible. Training for track work generally begins in the spring, when the weather is still unsettled. Weather plays an important part in the train- ing of a distance man, because his work neces- sarily takes more time than that required to fit men to enter other events. He must be out In the open many hours a week. There is, of course, no danger as long as the days are warm, but when a cold spell sets in it is likely to have HOW TO TRAIN FOR DISTANCE 181 a bad effect unless the runner takes due pre- cautions. Never work out on a cold day with your legs and arms exposed. Many high school boys insist on running across country on cold days in nothing but an ordinary track suit. This is likely to cause lameness, stiffness, and bring on colds. Don't begin things with a rush. It will not pay in the long run and most certainly will do you no immediate good. Cross-country walks and runs are the best things to fit a man for hard competition on the track. Here again, everything depends on the individual. Some men can travel several miles without tiring, while others will be worn out with only a short jaunt. Do not begin running at once. Start out and walk. Walk long distances and run a little now and then. Do not allow yourself to tire. For the first week confine yourself to work every other day and walk most of the time. Breathe deeply and walk briskly, taking every bit as much care of yourself as if you were working to the limit of your endurance. After this preliminary preparation, begin run- ning a little more, always keeping well within the limits of your strength. Leave your train- ing quarters slowly. When you begin to breathe heavily or your legs tire — be it even a trifle — drop back to a walk and rest your- self. Then run again. Keep this up day after day and you will find that your endurance is 182 THE BOOK OF ATHLETICS rapidly increasing. Now and then a man will have an " off " day. Don't think because you tire in a quarter of a mile where you could run a full half the day before that you must do that half-mile. Always remember that to tire yourself is only to hamper your progress. The distance you should cover in these walks and runs depends, once more, on the individual. For the average boy of sixteen years from one to three miles should be sufficient. After a few weeks you will find that you can run almost the entire distance where it tired you to walk it before. Don't, above all things, increase your work before you feel that you can do it without tiring out. When you finish your work-out it is well to bathe. Take a good warm shower and rub yourself down well. Many high school boys as well as college students seem to believe that they cannot properly train without a rubber to go over their bodies after they have taken their daily exercise. Of course, a rub-down is advan- tageous, but it is not at all necessary. It will loosen stiff muscles and take out the soreness, but, as I have said before, it is not essential. However, a man can rub himself down when necessary. It may be a trifle irksome after taking a hard work-out, but will prove to be a benefit in the long run. And then, after you have rested, eat. Do not exercise immediately after a meal, or eat at HOW TO TRAIN FOR DISTANCE 183 once after exercising. One is equally as bad as the other. It hurts your digestive organs, and without a stomach in good working order no man can become strong in athletics. Get plenty of sleep. Remember that you are working hard every day. You are eating care- fully selected food to keep up your body. But sleep is an essential. Sleep eight hours at least out of every twenty-four. Sleep in a well-ven- tilated room. The air need not be cold, but it must be fresh. To sleep in a tightly closed room is harmful. You are using up much muscle tissue and the waste is being largely carried away through your lungs. This re- quires plenty of fresh air, and to inhale stale air for hours at a time is just like taking so much poison. Have your room well ventilated and you will awaken in the morning with a clear head and a desire for more work. Gradually, as you follow this course of prep- aration, you will be able to go the full distance. And this brings up the question of how far a boy should run. No growing boy should at- tempt to run more than a mile. He can do the sprints and the four hundred and forty-yard dash and the half-mile and the full mile. But there he should stop. The longer races are a tremendous drain on a man's strength and are meant to be run only by those who have a full development. You should have commenced training early 184 THE BOOK OF ATHLETICS enough so that you will feel able to run your distance, or over, at least four weeks before your first serious competition. If you are try- ing out for the half-mile, run three-quarters of a mile for a time. If you desire to run the mile, go a little over that distance. Do not run at your best speed. Accustom yourself to the dis- tance and learn to know your pace. Know how fast you are going and how long you can hold the pace without tiring. If you are exceeding your limit, slow up. When you can finish your distance or a little over at a reasonably good rate of speed without feeling tired and weak, begin to increase your speed. The time for do- ing this all depends on the man. He knows best. While you are getting your pace and going the distances that you are to go in competition, vary the running with short sprints. Start from the mark and run thirty or forty yards at top speed. Do this half a dozen times every day. Then move about to avoid taking cold, but rest yourself before starting out to run the daily distance. When you can run more than the distance which is to be raced at good speed and finish in good condition, cut off the extra yards and begin working faster. Don't run at top speed every day. If you feel listless and are without energy it is a sign that you are doing too much or not living properly. Cut down on the work for a few days and take things easier. Even HOW TO TRAIN FOR DISTANCE 185 when you are feeling in the best of condition do not exert yourself day after day. Run your distance two or three times each week, then take things easier for a day or two. At least two weeks before the first race, the runner should know what he can do. It is well to have timers take your time by quarters. In this way, a^nd only in this way, will you learn your pace. You will know that if you go the first quarter too fast you are bound to be too tired for the final burst of speed, and if you are lagging you will be forced to overdo in the final stages of the run. Every truly great runner can judge his speed. He knows when the pace is too fast and he knows when he should be moving faster to avoid the danger of a hard race in the final few yards. Of course, it is almost useless to give instruc- tions for a race. You know — or should know — how much you can do, and there are count- less things that may arise during the running of a half or a mile that will upset the most care- fully laid plans. But if a man can judge his time and knows his limit, he can rely upon this knowledge, and it is the greatest asset he has when he steps on a track to compete with strangers. If a runner is strong and knows the men against whom he is running, it may be well to set the pace. But this again depends entirely on conditions. If some one else sets the pace 186 THE BOOK OF ATHLETICS and you feel it is more than you can do, don't worry. You are out there to run the distance in the fastest possible time and, if you have trained properly, you know of how much speed you are capable. Go the fastest you can in the early stages and still retain strength for the finish. If the others draw away from you when you are doing your best, don't worry. To fol- low them would only be to wear yourself out, and they may tire and give you your opportun- ity at the finish. Keep going at the best speed you can maintain. Should the others lag, don't congratulate yourself. They may be reserving much strength for the last fraction of the dis- tance. Eun your own race, regardless of what the others may do. Many distance races are won in the last few yards. Be ready for the final burst of speed. If you feel that you have the race safe and are strong enough to beat any one who might sprint to the finish, be satisfied. Hold yourself for this possible struggle. At the same time do not take chances. Should some of the others begin to sprint in the last few yards, follow them. Run your best. Pay attention to your stride. Keep it up as well as possible. Glue your eyes on the tape and determine that you will reach it first. Think of nothing but keeping yourself well together and bringing every ounce of energy to bear. During the track season you will probably be HOW TO TRAIN FOR DISTANCE 187 called on to run in several races. Take the best possible care of yourself during this pe- riod. Watch your food and watch your body. After a race and before another, rest for an entire day. This does not mean stay in bed or remain in the house. Get plenty of fresh air, but do not exert yourself in the slightest. Run your distance once or twice during the days that come between competitions. And then, after the season is over, let down gradually on your training. Remember that you have been under a severe strain, and do not let go at once. Get plenty of exercise and plenty of sleep. Cut down your daily work gradually. Remember that there are other races before you in the years to come and the sudden breaking off of training may do you a great harm. I have dealt with food, sleep, and tobacco. I have taken it for granted that none of the boys who are in high school athletics use intoxicating liquors. If they do drink beer or any other al- coholic drink it is a question whether they will ever amount to much on the running track. Always keep in mind that it is the high school boy of to-day who is to be the great athlete of the future. You cannot grow into a Jones, a Meredith, a Taylor, or a Rose in a year. You must keep steadily at it. Do not overdo. Keep your habits regular. Year by year you will become stronger, and when the time comes for 188 THE BOOK OF ATHLETICS you to enter college, you will be ready to take up the more severe work that is there required, and possess a splendid foundation upon which to build. JOHN PAUL .TO>-ES OF CORNELL MAKHfG A >'EW WuKLI)'-. .i\i:-:MrLE KECOKD OF 4 -MIXITES, 14 2-5 SECONDS. IXTEKCOLLEO 1 A T IS, 1:11.1. THE FIELD IN THE .Mil. ERIN. INTERC OLLEOIATES, 191^ THE DISTANCE RUNS THE ART OF HURDLING BY A. L. JACKSON Hurdling is an artistic science. There is probably no prettier or more thrilling spectacle for the average spectator at the modem field and track games than a hurdle race. Every one likes to see the runners jump the barriers, but few people know or realize the amount of time and effort that is spent in grooming and train- ing the modern hurdler. There is a story told of the late Bill Quinn, the well-known Harvard track coach, who was noted for developing green men into point win- ners and even into intercollegiate champions. One day a senior, who had tried his hand at every other major sport in a vain effort to earn the coveted letter, reported to Quinn for the hurdles. Quinn asked him his name, class, and experience. When he learned that he was a green man and a senior, he sent him away with the remark, ** Why, man, this hurdling game is a four-year course; you came around too late." And that is true. A champion hurdler is not made in a few months or in a year. It takes time and patience and work, lots 189 190 THE BOOK OF ATHLETICS of work. Still this work has its reward. In the ordinary runs on the track program, a man can be groomed for a race in a few weeks. Often- times a man is swung over from the sprints to the distance runs or from the distance runs to the middle distances, and very often displaces the former champion at that distance. Not so with a hurdler. The man of two years' expe- rience in hurdling is two years better than the man just starting in and within a given radius will remain two years better than that man, no matter how long or hard the green man strug- gles. One has only to look over the records of present day and former champions to prove this. Take Simpson, Shaw, Garrells, Kraenz- lein, and the recent intercollegiate champion, J. I. Wendell. In the year 1910 Wendell took a bad fourth place in a semi-final heat in the intercollegiate championship, because Chis- holm of Yale, Long and Lewis of Harvard, were experienced hurdlers, with potentially no more speed than Wendell had, but having the '' form." That heat was won in sixteen and one-fifth seconds. The following year, the same Wendell, with a year's experience and practice, won the Intercollegiate high hurdle race in fif- teen and three-fifths seconds, and took third in the low hurdle race, which was won in twenty- four and one-fifth seconds. The year after that, he outclassed the field in both events, winning THE ART OF HURDLING 191 the high hurdles in the same time after doing a fifth of a second better in the semi-finals. Then he went out and tied Kraenzlein 's world 's record of twenty-three and three-fifths seconds in the low hurdles, ending a glorious athletic career with two championships. Now a hurdler must have a long, easy stride and plenty of snap and spring in his legs and body. Obviously he must be a good sprinter to begin with, especially to run the low obsta- cles. The high hurdles are placed ten yards apart and there are ten of them to be safely cleared, and there lies one of the most exciting elements in the race, for there are ten chances for a man to strike a hurdle and lose his stride or tumble, either one of which mil put him hopelessly out of the race. For one's stride is an all-important thing. It must be so regu- lated as to bring the same foot forward each time a hurdle is to be cleared, and mind you, the high hurdles are three feet, six inches high and the low just a foot shorter. In order to do this, the ten yards must be covered com- fortably in three strides. In the low hurdles, which are twenty yards apart, the distance ought to be covered in seven strides. Some short-legged men use nine strides, but they are obviously at a disadvantage. Now these hurdles must not be jumped. They must be stepped over as one would step over a curbstone. It has got to be done auto- 192 THE BOOK OF ATHLETICS matically in one's stride. One, two, three — step ; one, two, three — step, and so on. It is obvious that one cannot make time in the air. Therefore the hurdle must be stepped as closely as possible, for it is the man who gets to the ground quickest who will win his race. Three inches saved in going over each hurdle will make almost a fifth of a second's difference at the end of the race, which is good for nearly two yards, so you see the importance of getting ^' form," that is, the ability to take a hurdle close and fast and land running with no per- ceptible pause in clearing the hurdle. There are as many different forms or styles of hurdling as there are coaches, but they all aim, or should aim, at taking a hurdle close with as little effort as possible. The main fault of beginners is that they jump their hurdles, shooting straight up in the air with both feet almost directly under them, or they drag the back knee and leg too much, so that they float over the hurdle and have to wait till they come to earth again before they can start to run. In order to cure these two faults one must learn to control one's legs just as a ballet dan- cer does or as a boxer controls his arms. Most of us know how hard it is to learn to use our left hand in boxing; but practice will bring it around. So it is with hurdling. Exercise to become supple and springy. If you are stiff in your legs and crotch, exercise them more ; con- JAMES WENDELL OF "WESLEYAX, WINXEK OF BOTH HUKDLi: RATES, mTERCOLLEGIATES, 1913, WINXIXG THE HIGH HtTEDLES. JACKSOX OF HARVARD, SECOND. CL -Mil IN US OF HARVARD AND (Hl>UijL.U (ll' VAl.i; m\i;i; a III ll'l. TOtiKTHER. HARVARD-VALE GAME, I'Jl-'. JAIKSONiil- 1IAI;\A1!D LKADIN'. r.KMX (T D A I; I \I ■ i F" I li FLSAI.S ol HIGH HlKDl.ES, I NTKRi ' H, I.K.i . I \ I 1 > , IIU- BRAUN WON THIS EVENT, INTERCOLLEGIATES, 1914. THE HURDLES THE ART OF HURDLING 193 centrate on that. Learn to do the split on your bedroom floor after the fashion of our tumblers and gymnasts. Try walking up to a low chair till you are almost on top of it and putting your foot up and over it with one motion until you can do it without halting your step. When you have mastered that, try a low hurdle, just one, then a three-foot hurdle and so on up to the regulation hurdle. Then try two or three hur- dles ten yards apart and try to make them in the required number of strides. Keep at it when you bang your knees and shins. Most champions can show you scars years old which they have gotten doing just this sort of thing. Then try a race or two. It will be awkward at first and you may get a fall or two, but you will learn to control your body and some day you will feel it come. The height of the hurdle won't worry you, and when a man presses you in a race you will automatically take your obstacles lower and lower until you gradually draw away from him. And remember, three yards gained in ten hur- dles cannot be easily regained by mere speed in the ten yards from the last hurdle to the tape. Invariably the man over the last hurdle, first, wins the race if he runs through and does not loaf on the job. Remember, too, that a third place this year is good for a second place next year if you keep at it, for the hurdle game is a thing you can always learn more about, no 194 THE BOOK OF ATHLETICS matter how long you have hurdled. It will always keep you thinking, and it is the man who thinks out his faults and the faults of the other fellow and improves his style to counter- act other faults who eventually becomes the top- notcher, and everybody wants to try for the top notch if only for the fun of trying. You have got to have brains and learn to use your head, to hurdle properly, and you have got to learn to stick, which are qualities that will always be useful in any walk of life, where there are always obstacles of one kind or an- other to be overcome. FIELD ATHLETICS HOW TO THROW THE WEIGHTS BY JOSEPH HORNER, JR. A BOY who rises to fame and glory in the ath- letic events of our schools and colleges is gen- erally recognized as one whose skill in the performance of athletic feats has enabled him to distinguish himself above his schoolmates. To be an athlete is one thing — this requires skill. To achieve fame is another thing, and this has for its foundation the ability to shoiv athletic skill. Whether the boy athlete is a sprinter, high-jumper, pole-vaulter, distance- runner or weight-thrower, he is credited with having perfected himself to a certain degree in the art of athletics. The ability he has to show his skill in competition with others, and the reputation which comes to him as a result of his competitive performances go hand in hand. In other words, a boy may be able to jump high and sprint with great speed, but there is a big difference between jumping and sprinting, and jumping and sprinting in competition. Skill is therefore the first essential in the successful performance of an athletic feat. To show skill 197 198 THE BOOK OF ATHLETICS in competition with others is almost another phase of athletics. If any one should tell you that there is more skill in weight-throwing than in any other track or field event it would sound unreasonable, but this is the truth. Putting the shot, throwing the hammer, and throwing the discus have al- ways been grouped together in a set of three as though they were '' three of a kind.'* To say that a boy is a weight-thrower seems to imply that he must be built like Hercules, and that if he throws one of the three weights he must be able to throw them all. It is true that weight-throwers as a rule are big men, but many times men with comparatively small frames have defeated others whose massive bulk towered above them. It is also true that a boy athlete often becomes quite proficient in throwing all three weights, but by practising and performing all three on all occasions he is actually working against great odds and hin- dering himself in an effort to make his per- formance represent the best that is in him. People make a great mistake in thinking that a twelve or sixteen pound shot or hammer is so heavy that it requires a two hundred and twenty-five pound man to lift it and toss it into the air. The average man carries ten pounds of clothing with him all the time. He could lug a twenty-pound suit-case for a block and never notice it, to say nothing of throwing it into the HOW TO THROW THE WEIGHTS 199 air if he wanted to. Just because the weight of a shot or hammer is confined to a small sphere a few inches in diameter he thinks it is so heavy that it would be absurd for him to attempt to perform any athletic feat with it, — or if it happened that he was not possessed of colossal strength he might even shirk from touching it. But it is a common saying among athletic authorities that " any kind of a build is suited for any kind of an event." This is as true of the weights as it is of any other of the track or field events. Brute strength is not essential in weight-throwing. Skill is abso- lutely necessary. Thus any boy who understands the impor- tance of skill in weight-throwing can feel sure that he does not need to be the least bit stronger than any of his companions in order to excel in putting the shot, throwing the hammer, or throwing the discus. If he tries to perform all three weight events he must know what odds he is working against. If he wants to reach the point of highest efficiency in any one of them, he must know what constitutes skill in the per- formance of that event. He must know where to look for it and how to attain it. The three weight events differ from each other far more than what may be classed as the three jumps, — the high-jump, broad-jump, and pole-vault. The ' ' spring ' ' in the muscles of the calf is essential in all of these events, 200 THE BOOK OF ATHLETICS whereas different muscles are used and exer- cised in each of the three weight events. The shot-put is a one-arm push with all the body behind it. The discus-throw is a one-arm side pull, and the hammer-throw is a straight, back pull mth both arms. A push and a pull are two absolutely different things from the point of view of muscular exertion and development, and although the side pull of the discus ap- proaches the straight, back pull of the hammer, the exertion of the body as a whole depends upon an entirely different set of muscles. The muscles developed in putting the shot and those developed in throwing the hammer or discus absolutely conflict. That is the reason why the three weight events are not " three of a kind," and why a boy who tries to become highly pro- ficient in one of them can do so much more easily by leaving the other two alone. Putting the Shot In all of the weight events, skill is exemplified by the quick action, or " snap." In putting the shot, quick action is the most important factor. There is no time for reflection after the put has once been started. The right foot should be placed just inside the ring of the seven-foot circle directly opposite the toe- board, or the front of the ring. The whole weight of the body should be balanced upon the HOW TO THROW THE WEIGHTS 201 right leg momentarily, and the knee bent slightly just before the spring forward is be- gun. The left leg should be extended with the toe of the left foot touching the ground so that a perfect balance can be maintained. The shot should be poised in the right hand in front of the shoulder so that the weight of the sphere rests upon the cushions of flesh covering the knuckle joints of the first and second fingers. The thumb and the fingers should clasp the shot with just enough pressure to hold the weight in position. Unless the fingers are very strong the weight should not be placed too high up on the cushions of the hand. The left arm should be extended straight out from the shoulder to further aid the balance. As soon as this position is assumed the weight of the body should be brought into a nice even up and down swing by a slight movement of the left leg. Instantly the body should be lurched forward without a single change by springing from the right foot. The right foot should then strike the ground somewhere near the center of the circle, and the left foot should come doTvm, too, a few inches from the front of the ring on the left of the center. Both knees should be bent when the feet strike the ground, but the right slightly more than the left. From this crouching position the body should spring upward with just enough of a spiral to throw the whole weight of the body behind the right 202 THE BOOK OF ATHLETICS shoulder, moving in an upward and outward direction. During this spiral spring the right arm should be thrust up and out and the left arm should be brought down with force to aid the spiral. When the feet strike the ground again the right foot will be flat up against the toe-board, and the left foot back. Important above all else is the way in which the shot leaves the right hand. The weight has been borne by the cushions over the knuckle joints of the first and second fingers from the start, but toward the end of the upward and outward thrust of the right arm the ball should roll up on the fingers and leave them at the tip. Virtually, there are four speeds in the entire act of putting the shot, — each one piled on top of the other so that the result of them all is the final velocity which gives the shot its momen- tum. The spring across the circle is speed number one. The spiral spring shoving the right shoulder upward and outward is speed number two. The thrust of the right arm is speed number three, and the '' slap " of the fingers as the ball rolls up and leaves the hand at the finger-tips is speed number four. Each one of these four speeds is of vital importance. To make use of them all and in perfect har- mony, getting the greatest value out of each one without depreciating the value of any other, constitutes the elements of skill in put- ting the shot. HOW TO THROW THE WEIGHTS 203 The problem of developing these speeds and of getting them to work together is a difficult one. They ought to be learned just as they are to be performed, but matters can be simplified somewhat by cutting out the first spring for- ward into the circle and by practising the last three speeds from the position near the front of the circle. In other words, by standing in the starting position with the left foot a few inches from the front of the ring, the body can be brought into a slight up and down swing by a slight movement of the left leg, and immedi- ately lurched into the spiral spring without the jump across the circle. This is properly called '' putting the shot from a stand," and it may be practised over and over again with ease until the spiral spring itself, the thrust of the arm, and the *' slap " of the hand is perfected. Throwing the Hammer In throwing the hammer the question of quick action, or " snap," is again foremost, but unlike the act of putting the shot, quick action is not called for until the motion of the weight is well under way. The position for starting should be taken by placing the feet an easy dis- tance apart with the toes just inside the ring at the rear of the circle. The body should face the direction opposite that in which the ham- mer is to be thrown. The ball of the hammer 204 THE BOOK OF ATHLETICS should be allowed to rest on the ground at the right and behind the person holding it, and it should be placed just far enough away so that it is necessary to bend the body around to the right. The handle should be gripped firmly by crooking the fingers over the straight wire bars. When this position is assumed the weight should be lifted from its resting-place with just enough speed to carry it in front and away from the body, a few inches from the ground. At the instant it reaches a point di- rectly in front of the body both arms should be straight, and the ball should then be s\\Ting upward on the left so that the handle can pass over the head. As the ball completes the first circle by passing in front of the body at the low point, both arms should again be straight. On the second swing the speed of the weight should be accelerated a trifle, and on the third swing, a trifle more. The knees will bend but the shoulders must be held back as the speed in- creases. Then comes the quick action. As the ball comes to the low point directly in front of the body, at the end of the third swing, the feet should leave their position and the whole body should whirl about with enough force to in- crease the speed of the hammer tremendously. The force of this quick movement must come from the body and not from the arms, for the arms must be held straight in line with the hammer handle all the time. When the ball HOW TO THROW THE ^VEIGHTS 205 approaches the low point for the last time the feet should strike a position and hold it. Then one hard pull with the legs and back will give the weight its final momentum as it rises to the point over the left shoulder where it must be released. Applying Centrifugal Force It is easy to see that centrifugal force plays a great part in throwing the hammer, but it is quite as easy to make a grave mistake in think- ing that lifting, pure and simple, has something to do with it. Centrifugal force, or the tend- ency of a revolving body to fly in a straight line from central point, is the whole thing. If a lift is resorted to when the centrifugal force cannot be controlled the throw will be a failure. The position of the body on the first three swings, as the ball passes the low point directly in front of the person holding it, will serve to show how the centrifugal force in the weight of the hammer acts, and how the body reacts against it. The ball is low to the ground, the knees bent, the arms straight, and the shoulders back. The weight of the hammer is pulling straight against the weight of the body and, if it were not for the feet pushing against the earth, a line drawn through the wire handle of the hammer would pass directly through the center of the mass of the body. Because the 206 THE BOOK OF ATHLETICS feet do push against the earth this line passes a little above that point. But to size up the situation, here are two weights, — one whirling, and the other turning on a pivot. When the body leaves its pivot it must whirl also. The only difference between the two whirling weights lies in the fact that the lighter body describes the greater circle. Now if it were possible for the ball of the ham- mer to suddenly be held at one point in space the momentum of this little sphere would be immediately transmitted to the person on the other end of the wire, who, in turn, would either have to hang on and whirl around or fly off at a tangent. This is often the case when the heavy ball strikes into the soft earth. Exactly the same thing takes place when the body of the thrower suddenly comes to a stop by the feet taking a position at the end of the last whirl. It is obvious that at that time all the momentum of the body being transmitted to the ball would increase the speed of the ball to something terrific. A final pull is absolutely necessary in an effort to keep the body from being dragged from the point where it is anchored. The action in throwing the hammer has been described as consisting of three swings and two whirls, but this is not the only action or ** form " used. A double whirl is most com- mon among hammer-throwers although a sin- HOW TO THROW THE WEIGHTS 207 gle whirl is sometimes used by beginners and a triple whirl by experts. The part that the feet play in the whirl has not been mentioned for the simple reason that the action of the feet depends entirely upon the weight and height of the man. Some ex- pert hammer-throwers barely touch their feet to the ground except when the ball passes the low point. In this case there seems to be a sort of double action of the body like that of a cat when it is held by the feet and dropped, — the fore feet come down first, and the hind feet afterwards. With the hammer-thrower the trunk of the body seems to turn first. The feet follow quickly, but are clear around and on the ground again before the swing of the hammer has completed a circle. There is still another type of hammer-thrower who pivots his weight on the toe of the left foot all through the whirl, the right foot striking the ground only at the low point. Such methods, however, are un- common and are made of practical value only by years of experience. Skill in throwing the hammer is the outcome of careful study in practice with regard to the relation between the weight of the sphere and the weight of the body during the time that both are whirling at a high speed. The first three swings of the hammer may be practised by releasing the handle over the left shoulder at the end of the third swing. A throw of any 208 THE BOOK OF ATHLETICS distance cannot be hoped for without at least one whirl, for high speed is impossible unless the whole body is brought into action. Throwing the Discus The discus-throw is the most graceful and the most difficult to master of the three weight events. The discus only weighs about four and one-half pounds, — so here is an event success in the performance of which is surely based upon a preponderance of skill — hence the dif- ficulty. The average man of strength could put the twelve-pound shot from thirty to thirty-five feet without practice while an expert could hurl it only half again as far. It is well to say that the average man of strength could throw the discus about sixty feet, while an expert could sail it out one hundred and twenty-five feet, or more. The ' ' form ' ' of throwing the discus is much simpler than that of either the shot or the ham- mer — that is, an idea of how the act should be performed can be grasped very readily — but to perform the act is another thing. The right foot should be placed just inside the ring at the rear of the circle and the left foot an easy stride toward the center. The discus should be placed against the palm of the right hand, just allowing the tips of the first three fingers to turn on the rim. The fingers should be quite HOW TO THROW THE WEIGHTS 209 close together. The edge of the discus should never be gripped, for it is held in place by fric- tion against the palm with the finger ends act- ing as a stop. The position of the discus can be made more secure by pressure against the left hand held near the left shoulder, or by a semicircular saving of the arm at the right. The body should twist with the motion of the right arm, and the left arm should be extended to preserve the balance. Such a swing is the very first movement to be made when the throw is commenced. When the right arm is in the rearmost position on the back half of the swing, the feet should leave their position and one quick snappy whirl should be made. All through this whirl and at the finish the back of the hand should be up. The discus will be held in place largely by centrifugal force, and when released should spin on its flat surface, sliding forward from the tips of the fingers and rising always with its plane parallel to the face of the earth. This is the trick, to get it to sail out without wabbling, and to give it great velocity by performing the feat with lots of " snap." When the sail is perfected, the velocity may be increased by a quick movement of the wrist, causing an increased pressure of the finger-tips against the rim of the discus after it has slipped from the palm of the hand. Skill in throTvdng the discus lies in getting the greatest value out of each of three com- 210 THE BOOK OF ATHLETICS bined speeds, namely : the whirl of the body, the swing of the arm, and the snap of the wrist at the finish. The last two may be practised from a standing position, and even in throwing the whirl may be omitted by jumping forward in the circle when the arm swings back on the start. Centrifugal force is important through- out the act of throwing the discus although it is more of an incident to the act than a main factor in it. It serves to keep the discus from falling out of the hand, and it allows for the accumulation of greater resultant speed than is possible in a straight throw by jumping across the circle and omitting the whirl. When a boy has learned how to throw the weights and has developed a certain amount of skill in executing the act, he ought to be made to realize that what he has thus far attained is means to an end, and not an end in itself. The underlying motive that we all have when we work diligently at any one thing is the desire to excel. Matching the results of our efforts against the efforts of others and seeing and recognizing the progress that we have made is the compensation which we derive from our labor. There is no athlete alive who does not know what it is to be defeated. There is not an athlete in the world who does not know what it means to win. To fight one's way through the hazards of competition in any kind of an athletic event is difficult enough, but a competi- HOW TO THROW THE WEIGHTS 211 tive performance in the weight events, strange to say, is peculiar to itself in this respect. The rules of competition allow only three throws with a weight. An athlete watches his progress from day to day by comparing his best marks in practice, and he is sure to have taken from twenty-five to fifty tries before he concludes that he has reached his limit for that day. When he finds himself limited to three throws in competition he wants to equal the best mark that he has made in practice and, what is more, he fully expects to. The question is, how is he going to do it? In higher circles of athletics an athlete watches the progress of his competitors by the reports given out in the newspapers. It often happens that a mere misprint in regard to the distance of a certain throw will lead to the de- feat of a formerly victorious athlete. He knows his own limit even though he continually hopes for a record throw to be credited to him as the result of some superhuman effort. If the newspaper states the distance '' 48 feet " when it should have been " 43 feet," that little fact is quite likely to unnerve him and cause his downfall. This serves to show that weight- throwing is not entirely a game of skill against skill, but a game of man against man. Bitter experience is the only teacher when it comes to be a game of human nature, but a few ' ' point- ers ' ' will help any boy who wants to do his best 212 THE BOOK OF ATHLETICS when he matches his efforts against others of his class. An effort to exert the greatest amount of strength when the weights are being thrown accomplishes the least. All of the strength that one can sum up is necessary, but the machinery of the human body is so constructed that all acquired skill will vanish when an extreme ef- fort is made to exert strength. Skill being the first essential, the mind must forever nourish the thought of skill, and must forever be con- scious of the part which skill plays in the act. Too much practice and too little serious study will turn the mind from the right direction quicker than anything else. When such a cir- cumstance exists there is just one simple rule to follow — lay the weights on the shelf and leave them alone. A week of abstinence from practice will not hurt any weight-thrower. THE RUNNING BROAD - JUMP, THE HIGH -JUMP, AND THE POLE- VAULT BY JAY B. CAMP George Connors, who has developed so many athletes at Phillips-Exeter Academy, among them J. P. Jones, always insisted that anybody with two good legs could make good at track. In jumping and vaulting there is no sustained effort to tax the heart or other internal organ, and two normal legs remain the only require- ment. Probably many track-men have become acquainted with their specialty when very young, perhaps as early as at ten years of age. There is an advantage in starting at such an age when the proper muscles may be stimu- lated and natural and corre^it movements ac- quired unconsciously. But before college age there are few, I believe, who profit by pro- longed concentration, in successive years, on any one of the field-events. As a steady diet, real games like football, baseball, tennis, or golf are preferable preparation for college track. In fact it is only rarely that any boy who has trained seriously in high school reaches more 213 214 THE BOOK OF ATHLETICS than mediocrity in college. On the other hand, men with an all-round muscular development often start green in college and make a phe- nomenal success. The lack of natural ability may be offset by a few years of training, since any type of physique is adaptable to the three field events considered here. Let every one, then, who is not already occupied in some spring training, consider the possibilities of track athletics with the view of giving them a trial. Broad-jumping, high-jumping, and pole- vaulting are based on the same rhythms and movements, and for that reason are best stud- ied and practised together. The two elements of the broad-jump are spring and speed, i. e. height and carry. Forward momentum at the take-off is to be suddenly transformed into up- ward motion, and what is not so used up carries the body on out into the pit. The more speed one has at the take-off the harder it is to spring against it high enough to take advantage ; and if with less speed it is easier to spring high there may not be enough momentum left to get the benefit of the height. It is the speed that must be subordinated to the spring, however, as in both the other events. In working at the broad-jump it is well to insure a uniform run by having three marks, which one starts from or touches with the jumping foot. The first one must be ninety M\' i m Ml aff W^Hi IW WI 1,1,1 \M