Why? The Science of Athletics

CHAPTER X ATHLETIC TESTS AND MEASUREMENTS OF ABILITY Variation in Ability-Percentages-Ability Measurements– Classification Index-Athletic Horsepower-Determination of Muscular Viscosity-Correlating Tests and Athletic Abilities-Motor Educability-Agility and Co-ordination -Motor and Track-and-Field Ability Tests-r--Athletic Achievemenfs-Statistics Essential-Decathlon Scoring- Finnish System. THE modern generation is living in an era of examina– tions and tests of all kinds, which serve, or should serve, the purpose of assessing, in the first place, general ability as an indication of potentiality, and secondly, specialized suitability. In how far the examination system is better than the methods of our forefathers, one is not prepared to say. In former times a man relied upon hisjudgment of charac– ter when dealing with other men, and could pick an athlete or a horse upon their points. The fact, more– over, still holds good that many a boy who never could pass a paper examination has yet turned out to be a brilliant success in life and a great organizer, or leader of men. When we turn to the physical side of life a rather different state of things obtains, and it is all to the good that the fact is being recognized at last that body and mind are one and inseparable, and, ergo, realization is slowly but surely coming that the body is as important in the scheme of education as the brain. The modern passion for measuring things is perhaps more marked in general education than in any other sphere of life, and this measuring of the child's mental capacity is well graded, running as it does from the I 52