Why? The Science of Athletics

CONSIDERATIONS IN CONDITIONING ATHLETES 21 this is not so accurate-an electric shock can be applied at two different parts of a living body and the time taken for the appropriate reaction to ensue can be noted. In the case of man, nerve impulses pass at a speed of 400ft. per second, at our temperature of 37% Centigrade, whereas light passes at a speed of r86,ooo miles per second, all of which shows the importance of the corre– lation of brain and body, because if training, or any other form of development, can be utilized to accelerate the speed at which human nerve impulses travel it is obvious that the athletic records of to-day will soon be flung into the limbo of the past. In these circumstances, it seems that further improve– ment in athletic records is likely to eventuate, not from any muscular development, but rather from methods which scientists may evolve for the training of the human nervous system. Meanwhile, even club coaches can do a lot by training those committed to their care to be more mentally alert, by getting them to realize with their brains the fundamental principles of technique and the nature of the demands they are making upon their bodies. There is yet one other point in this connection, and it will be referred to again, which I think all athletes should be made to understand, and that is the relation– ship between body temperature and the speed of nerve– impulses. For example, the South African schoolboy record-breaker, W. Betts, produced wonderful times in Johannesburg, but at the Olympic Games of 1924, held in the colder European climate, he quite failed to reproduce his home form. Or again, it is known that, in the case of frogs, with the temperature at 18 degrees Centigrade the nerve impulses pass at 95 ft. per second, but if that tem– perature is lowered by ro degrees the speed of transmission falls to 53 ft. per second. It is) of course, this circumstance that supplies one of the main reasons for limbering-up before a contest of any kind. Apart from the fact that preliminary action