Why? The Science of Athletics

310 WHY?-THE SCIENCE OF ATHLETICS must "go into training" if he wishes to succeed in his par– ticular branch of sport ; but one often wonders, so far as diet is concerned, how much need there would be for specialized feeding if the man led a life of moderate train– ing, such as would allow him to accelerate the revival, or building up, of his specialized efficiency when it was required. Going back to the war period, it can be stated without fear of contradiction that the average man, passed AI upon enlistment, took three months to get into the sort of mental and physical training which was required for active service. A large proportion volunteered from sedentary occupations. Their habit of life, one believes, had involved a hasty breakfast, a journey in a stuffy rail– way carriage, in many cases an over-light or an all too heavy luncheon, work in the afternoon, and back home by train in the evening. Some of these men had played games, some had not, and but very few thought of exercise or dietary purely from the health point of view ; and yet, so marvellously strong is the human organism, those men were made fighting-fit within the space of three months. We may well ask how it was done, since the case of many an athlete is not dissimilar. Well, in the first place, the Army P.T. instructors and the drill sergeants sweated off the fat and sweated on the muscle, and lungs that had hardly ever before been used to full capacity began breathing really deeply. All said and _done, however, it was the food, suited to the work, that went a long way to creating physical fitness. It was rough, and a great many men at first considered it insufficient, but these things are worked out scientifically in the Services, and the results proved the rightness of the system. Perhaps the real secret was that the Army diet, while restricted in variety, was sufficient in quantity. The same state of things obtains among primitive peoples. Your African native leads a healthy life and . needs no long training to bring him to the highest peak of physical efficiency. He lives in Jhe .fresh ·air and the