Athletics (British Sports Library)

28 ATHLETICS that no department of school life stands alone, and this boy happened to be in the school boat and also in the lst XV. What would his school fellows have thought of him had he followed the unsound advice of the journalist ? One admits readily that rowing is bad for the athlete, since it develops the legs in a way that detracts from speed, but football and cricket are different matters. The former, coming before the sports, forms an excellent basis for training and, with the summer game, makes the juvenile sports- . man quick, accurate, and supple in movement. If a concrete case be needed, Eric Liddell, the Scottish Rugby International and 400 Metres Olympic champion, serves our purpose well. Hewas a football enthusiast, and only dropped rugby for the 1923-24 season · in order to prepare for the 1924 Olympiad, at which he won the World's 400 Metres Championship in World's record time, 47f seconds, having, a year previously, broken the British lOO Yards record, 9l 0 seconds. While deprecating early specialization in athletics at the expense of other normal school games, one is bound, however, to admit that the Victor Ludorum scheme of awarding a challenge cup to the boy w~o scores the largest number of points in the school sports is entirely bad. Quite recently a proud father wrote to a famous athletic critic to inquire