Why? The Science of Athletics

CHAPTER XX HEAT, LIGHT AND ENERGY Physiological Effect-Psychological Aspect-Performance Affected by Climate-Climatic Change and Acclimatization _:_An Unusual use of Heat. THE unfortunate circumstance of Oxford and Cambridge setting the fashion of making the Univ~rsity athletic season from October to March, when the Oxford and Cambridge Sports were instituted in 1864, and the blind following of this ~custom for the briefer period of February and March by our Public Schools, has had two very bad effects upon British athletics. In the old days it meant that the 'Varsity ath~ete went out of training. after .March and so had nothing whatever to do with the larger summer world of club and champion– ship sport. It means, nowadays, that the unfortunate University man, if he is k@en about his sport, has to stay in training, and practically in competition, almost all the year round. Where the public schools are concerned the case is as bad, because the inclement time of the year at which boys both train and compete prevents them from producing those performances of which they would be fully capable on a hot summer's day, and, moreover, they run serious risks of pneumonia and strained muscles which remain viscid through the rigour of the weather. In support of this contention I would instance certain occurrences in March 1929, which happened to be a peculiarly warm spring, with an abnormally hot after– noon on the 30th of the month ; the turf too was in perfect condition, and that day G. M. Moll, then a boy 335