SPORTS TOPICS

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 56, Issue 80, 16 January 1936, Page 7

SPORTS TOPICS

THE EFFECT OF SMOKING. CALENDAR OF COMING EVENTS. (By "Sportsman.")

Friday, Saturday and Monday, M.O.C. v. New Zealand, second Test, at Wellington. Next Saturday. Ashburton County Cricket Association's third round commences. Smoking and its relation to sporting achievement, whether in Rugby, athletics, tennis, swimming, boxing, or any other phase of endeavour, is a subject upon which there will never be any great unanimity of opinion. Some authorities claim that it has an adverse effect on performance to a degree that would make it worth while for the would-be champion to abstain; others believe it has no deleterious result., Theie is no evidence, they state, to support the theory that it lowers physical output. The problem depends entirely upon the degree smoking is indulged in. Excess is to be condemned. It can have no defence. It affects appetite and has an unquestionable effect upon the nervous system. This in one who has an eye to success is fatal. It may seem paradoxical to say, therefore, that some people claim and perhaps with a measure of truth that smoking has a soothing effect upon the nerves. But such a conditi6n, where it is found and felt that only a cigarette is soothing, must have been induced primarily by smoking. It is soothing only because it has become a physiological craving. A sportsman attempting to reach the top flight would indeed be a sorry spectacle if he were reduced to such a state. Lowering of Efficiency Heavy smoking, it has been experimentally proved, lowers one's efficiency, mentally and physically. It blunts the powers of perception, and in such sports as cricket and tennis where keenness of vision is of paramount importance it must affect performance. There may be great cricketers and tennis players who are heavy smokeis, but they must be few. In the fields of athletes and swimming there is considerable loss of .form over short distances where rapidity of physical and mental action is very necessary, while in events calling for prolonged exertion (here heavy smoking affects the diaphragm, which is of vital importance in extended contests) there is no little falling-away in vitality. Non-Smoker's Advantage. All other things being equal the nonsmoker has an undeniable advantage over the heavy smoker. And to ask the latter to forgo tobacco during his participation in sport is to expect a new world for an old. There are probably a few strong-willed individuals who could do it, but the effort for most would be hardly worth the hardship involved. There would be too complete a derangement of the whole system. So much for heavy smoking. With regard to moderate' smokers—those who have an occasional cigarette, and derive some real pleasure from it without ever becoming a slave to the habit—one has yet to be convinced, after having had experience of many famous athletes who have visited this country, that any really measurable harm can come of it. One very notable visitor to New Zealand, Jackson Scholtz, an Olympic champion no less, had a penchant for strong black cigars and it is idle to suppose that he would have been any more remarkable a. fellow had he deprived himself of the pleasure. No Marked Diminution. Over short distances on the track and in the water no great diminution in form will result if one has contracted the habit of three or lour cigarettes a day. If the individual believed it did there would, in such a case, be no hardship in ceasing. Perhaps over distances and in games like Rugby, where stamina is necessary, light smoking dogs have some small effect, though in what way it is difficult to say. We hear a lot about smoking affecting the wind, and perhaps it docs. But immoderate eating and drinking are far more devastating. One is inclined to believe that those who regard smoking in any degree at all as.a bogey do so because they have always been taught that it is, rather than because of any sound basis jn fact. It must not be assumed that this article favours smoking. It does not. If one docs not smoke, so much the better. Smoking merely for smoking's sake is a foolish and expensive habit for any sportsman. If one were content with a few cigarettes a day, well and good, but unfortunately it is a habit that grows. Athletes who are heavy smokers should make sfbnie attempt to reduce their consumption. If they do they will notice a general improvement in their condition over seasons when no reduction has been made. Should light smokers find they are really better without it, then it can be easily cut out. But if they do get some genuine pleasure, then no harm is done.