Why? The Science of Athletics

CONSIDERATIONS IN RELATION TO COMPETITION 127 thing of all is to give an athlete who looks like going stale a complete change of air, scene, interest and diet for a few days. Let him relax and let him find a different type of amusement, but do not treat him as .an invalid. He must have exercise and amusement ; although, if his staleness is due to digestive diserganization, it may not be a bad thing to give him a light purgative, such as a small dose of calomel at night, followed by a glass of saline in the morning, and to follow that up by feeding him on invalid food for a few days. Two final points . Do not create too complete an athletic atmosphere, where athletes in training are concerned ; and if you do have to lay a man off, either temporarily in training, or normally for a few days prior to competition, do not let him get it into his head that he is likely to lose his form through such brief periods of relaxation. Practical experience tells the athlete, with two or three successful seasons behind him, that it pays to ease off for about three days before an important event. A good deal was said in the last chapter Limbering up about methods for increasing the athletic efficiency of the human organism by the process of long, steady training. It is also possible to bring about a temporary increase in efficiency by the process known as "limbering-up" . This process falls naturally into three categories : informal movements, stretching exercises, and formal exercises. It will be well to state, first, what these three types of limbering-up are and then to discuss each separately and in detail. Thus we find that the informal movements are the general free movements which a man might make naturally when he wants to get warm, such as swinging the arms, practising stationary running and any number of P.T. warming exercises·. The custom of the distance runner of trotting a lap, of the sprinter practising a few starts and the hurdler running over a couple of hurdles, fall partly, but not altogether, in the category of informal movements.