Athletic Training

xxi1 AUTHOR'S INTRODUCTION themselves. After a boy is sixteen years old he will know what he is capable of doing, though even here one must be always on guard against the tendency to train too hard. Not only will such a policy insure better health, but it will insure a greater measure of success in competitive athletics. It has been my experience that of the men I have trained the great majority of those who became inter– collegiate, Olympic, and world's champions were those who began their serious train– ing for athletic competition at about the eighteenth year. Practically all the men who suffer breakdowns have only their early ath– letic excesses to blame. Therefore, while I strongly favor all kinds of athletic sports for boys from ten to sixteen years of age, I want to caution them that this is the most impor– tant period in their attainment of physical strength and that health and a good physique are essential to their later athletic successes. The exercise of care and common sense during this period of their life will bring its own re– ward in after life. M. c. MURPHY. May, 1913.