Why? The Science of Athletics

346 WHY?-THE SCIENCE OF ATHLETICS upon the issue. During the time which elapsed between sitting for the examination and hearing the result that boy went from bad to worse, so far as his athletics were con– cerned. He couldn't hurdle, high jump, put the shot, or pole vault, and yet he showed none of the normal signs of staleness. Itjust was that anxiety and mental depression were robbing him of all his "pep". Then one night when we were out together on the training ground a telegraph messenger came bicycling_in through the gate. The young athlete was pale as death as he ripped open the envelope; then he let out a whoop, "I've passed !" grabbed his vaulting pole and just soared over a height that he_ hadn't been able to look at in what had seemed like a month of Sundays to me. From happenings of that kind one comes inevitably to the conclusion that emotion has its physical reactions in ·tensions and movements throughout the human system and also influences glandular secretion.. It is as though there were-and there probably are-repercussions of happiness which are physiological. Beyond that, nothing is more certain than that body and mind are one and indissoluble. Sometimes the one side is predominant, sometimes the other ; but even <esthetic emotion is a mental and physical reaction ; wherefore it is essential in the training of athletes to correlate mental heaJth with the physiological ideal of bodily development. Mind and body, in fact, must work hand in hand, and to that end mental dieting, exercise, rest and play must ever be the natural complements of the similar preparation of the body for athletic competition. It must not be thought, from what has been said, that the mind alone influences the body, for in this respect it is by giving the athlete interest-driven activities to mono– polize his attention that we often succeed in casting out fear, anger, worry and other kindred emotions likely to prove harmful to health if left to flourish unchecked. Worrying is a very fruitful source of athletic failure, but, apart from the athlete who is naturally of a nervous