Athletics (British Sports Library)

FOR PARENTS AND SCHOOLMASTERS 29 what he thought of the man's son having won half a dozen athletic events in one afternoon. He was doubtless surprised to receive the reply, " I think you ought to be hanged, or put in an asylum, for letting him do it." It is this sort of foolishly extravagant competition that impairs a boy's health and spoils his future prospects, for no boy can stand either the mental or physical strain of half a dozen hard competitions within the space. of a couple of hours, without paying the price of impaired nervous energy and overstrained muscles. I would rather see a boy of mine carry off a couple of events with really good performances than inscribe his name upon a Victor Ludorum cup, to be · handed down to posterity as a memento of his folly, or mine in letting him do it, in wishing to risk his health and future athletic prospects to pander to a custom which should long ago have been reposing peacefully upon the scrap-heap of useless shibboleths. In any case, it is a system which the sane coaches, both in America and Scandinavia, would not tolerate for one moment in the case of boys, although many a great athlete, of exceptional physical strength, has, after reaching maturity, made good at the Olympic Games in both the Decathlon and Pentathlon.