Athletic Training

vi PREFACE produced a cleaner, sturdier, and more intel– ligent manhood wherever amateur athletics have been fostered. Mr. Murphy began the preparation of this text shortly after his return from the London Olympiad in 1908. He wanted this to be the most comprehensive book for the guid– ance of athletes, and to include all the information he had obtained in the course of his career as an athlete, coach, and ob– server. He wanted it to be of lasting benefit to the boys and young men of his native land, and to that end he worked as indus– triously on the manuscript as his failing health would permit, rewriting and revising it from time to time. The manuscript was finally completed in the early spring of 1913, during his last illness. Fearing that he might never live to see the book published, he fin– ished the dictation from his sick-bed, and the editor has completed the revision of the text in accordance with his suggestions made from time to time during the last four years. Mr. Murphy drifted into athletics before he was twenty years of age. He was a sprinter, and a good one, but in athletic