Why? The Science of Athletics

WHY?-THE SCIENCE OF ATHLETICS a few standing long jumps will serve to test his spring for the drive across the circle. But you have no guarantee that he will go on growing. He may have shot up suddenly and he may stop growing abnormally early. This is where a knowledge of his family history will prove helpful. If he has tall parents and tall brothers and sisters, the balance of probability is that he will go on growing. I say the balance of probability advisedly, -– for, in Nature, there is no certainty that there will not be a throw-back to sorrie early and even unknown ancestor. Physical Education Physical education plays no small part in the proper conditioning of athletes for competition nowadays, and modern P.E. is something very different to the old-time P.T. In America, for example, they speak now of "total body activity", using that term to cover the whole range of both mental and physical activities which previously were spoken of separately. Working upon the theory that all life rests upon the power in p~ysical organism, which is not entirely synonymous wth the word "health" alone, the modern physical educationalists hold that organic power has a triple foundation, in that it is a fundamental bio– logical law that well-balanced and properly cont:r:olled exercise develops and strengthens the human organs, so that the body gains power through exercise. The building up of this power begins in the human organisms during childhood and continues on into late adolescence. The cells of the human body contain this power and burn food material as fuel, but oxygen is required for the elimination of certain elements, such as carbon dioxide, nitric and lactic acids. In this connection, the blood stream conveys nourishment to the cells and carries away the waste products which must be eliminated. The human body has its own mechanisms for "Ciigestion, circulation, respiration and elimination; it is able to adjust, repair and maintain those mechanisms and should be capable of adjusting itself to most conditions, and