Athletics (British Sports Library)

22 ATHLETICS practice before the body is properly toned up to take the strain is almost bound to be harmful ; pro– fessional football players are fully aware of this fact, and that is why for weeks before the football season opens they undergo a course of physical training. The tendency of the British schoolboy, in fact of all British athletes preparing for athletic competi– tion, is to turn out each and every day and to see just how well they can perform each time they pull on t~eir spiked shoes. It is not, however, by daily, all-out trials that proficiency is obtained; but rather by close adherence to the old maxim that "practice makes perfect." . There is no reason why the athlete should not train for six days out of every seven, provided that a large percentage of such training is devoted to easy work for the acquisition of style, staying power, and that degree of nervous energy which makes for quickness. On one day in the week only may he go all-out to satisfy his very natural curiosity as to the sort of progress towards efficiency his scientific training is producing. In this connection I would quote the case of A. R. Pope, who formerly held the American A.U. and Canadian Discus Throwing records. At the ti!I).e when he was preparing for the 1924 Olympic Games Pope wrote to me: "I am getting in condition now, but do not work very hard, only a few times a week.