TOO MUCH SPORT?

Evening Post, Volume CV, Issue 99, 28 April 1928, Page 10

TOO MUCH SPORT?

VALUE OF GAME THE INTELLECTUAL ASPECT (Written for "The Post.") The All Blacks have departed bearing with them the best wishes and highest hopes of every New Zealander. Of Jate much has been written of the Chosen Twenty-nine, and not the least interesting topic has been a study of their early football history. In almost every case it was in the- secondary; schools of the Dominion that those- in tho forefront of the Rugby world today learned to play tho game. Nearly every school from VVhangarci "High'"' to Southland "High" has scut its representative whoso doings will be watched with keen interest by the old. school.' This year's issue of tho school magazine- will record with piade tli at "X. Y. So-and-So, who captamed tho school XV. in 1920 is at present touring South Africa with tho All Blacks." In the eyes of some of our citizens this too marked interest in football iv particular and games in general is a. decided failing. Wo hear the criticism, "Too much sport—not enough work," and there is 110 doubt that tho average boy would rather kick a ball about than do Latin or French translation. What, then, is the modern educationalist's view on the place of sport in the school life? Why do masters all over tho country give hours every week to coaching boys, in many cases foregoing their own Saturday afternoon sport to go out with their teams to matches. The physical value of games is almost self-evident. Proper play exercises and expands every part of the ' body. Watch a boy at play if you would, sea the variety of his motions, the full taxing of his powers, the unflagging effort ' to gain physical control. See how awkwardly he begins a new game, the lack of co-ordination in his efforts, and watch how he improves. As his skill increases, his clumsy, unsuccessful movements and waste of energy give place to accuracy and grace. Watch a boy learning to,bowl a cricket ball, to swim, to f'take' a ball, .to "side-step" and "cut-in," if you would realise how slowly and painfully the ordinary activities of life are acquired. If Waterloo was won on the playing fields of Etoa it can be said with more truth that professional skill in adult life is the outcome of muscular control gained on the playground. The intellectual value of games is even more striking and important. Quick perception, rapid judgment, and prompt decision are' tho elements of almost every game. The stealing of a short run on the cricket field, and the "pot" at goal on tho football field both require this instantaneous decision fol- | lowing on rapid perception. Tho circumventing of an opponent, the invention of new methods of attack and defence, new tactics —all these stimulate tho reasoning powers. Indeed, they call into play every type of intellectual activity. A HUMANISING VALUE. Games have also a socialising and humanising value. Tho boy learns to meet competition, to surmount obstacles, to face opposition. He learns'to tako hard knocks, to "accept defeat, to control his temper, to respect his opponents. Nowhere else in life is there such varied, intense, and continuous cultivation of will-power and self-con-trol as in games. Compare tho attitude of the boy at work and at play. In tho one ho generally plods along, dawdles, docs the necessary minimum; in the other' ho puts forth every ounce of strength time and tinio again, endures pain if need be —indeed must, under penalty of tho jeers of his fellows if he lacks will-power and self-control. Not only do games cultivate this subjugation of self, but they develop tho spirit of fairness. No game can be played without observance of the rules, and should these rules be self-made and self-enforced, tho valuo of the game from an educational standpoint is greatly enhanced. Boy justice is savage in its directness. Ho who will not play fair may not play at. all. The boy who persistently refuses to await his turn on the spring-board, gets a ducking Jiot soon to be forgotten. I nover.see a person ignore a queue at a theatre box-office without thinking, "He never played games." The boy who goes through this playground discipline and will still cheat at a game will in later years rob a customer or defraud a client. Why docs tho secondary school encourage such games as cricket and football rather than tennis? The school has its tennis courts and equipment, yet cricket and football recoivo the benefit of the coaching given. The answer lies in the fact that the latter are team games, and that these imbue the boy with the team spirit—that admirable quality that transforms apparent selfsacrifice into self-fulfillment. No one need ever despair of tho boy who throws away his own chance of scoring a try to a comrade who is in a better position to score. ' HABIT OF CO-OPERATION. To this habit of co-operation in team games at a plastic period of life may be largely attributed the facility of the English speaking race in co-operative enterprises. Decade by decade, as our 0 society becomes more complex, and cooperativo enterprises become more universal, team play becomes more necessary, and should bo made a more dominant feature of training during youth. When games are of such paramount importance, it is scarcely to bo wonderI cd that no master counts tho hours of couching in the sports field ill-spent.