Why? The Science of Athletics

r6o WHY?-THE SCIENCE OF ATHLETICS order being given he shoots his feet out behind and immediately comes back in the reverse order to the stand. His movements are stop-watch timed and he gets m as many repetitions as he can in 1 o secs. Agility and Large Muscle Co-ordination as ·93· The Burpee test of agility and large muscle co-ordination when used by itself correlates about ·4 with athletic ability, but when combined with the three other tests already described the correlation is as high In discussing and studying systems of measuring athletic ability it must always be borne in mind that the mere fact of a subject showing a high correlation does not mean that he will become a good athlete at once, or, indeed, that he will ever be a great athlete, simply-to instance but two factors of success-because he may lack the patience and perseverance required for training, or he may not have the competition temperament. What the correlation does show quite definitely is his potentiality in relation to his motor ability. Motor and Track-and– Field Ability Tests In the next stage the Americans have a test for motor ability, which is known as the Roger's test, and they have the ordinary chinning test. Those are the strength tests. Then they have a track-and-field athletics ability test, which is variable in different schools, but a fair example of such a combination would be a sprint, a potato race indoors, a long· or high jump and a shot put or discus throw. This test is scored in combination with the horsepower developed, and the strength and track-and-field tests combined correlate about .8, or better, with general motor ability. There is also a method of scoring the athlete according to the amount of the actual capacity which he develops. The use of the battery of four tests, which have been described, when applied to Freshmen, enables the Ameri– can coach to pick the men who are likely to produce the best results from coaching, and, although the others are