ARE GIRLS TOO ATHLETIC?

Dominion, Volume 1, Issue 191, 7 May 1908, Page 3

ARE GIRLS TOO ATHLETIC?

This question, which is discussed periodically and always with. great diversity of j .opinion,"'has.'.bsen brought' forward. again by " M.A.P." It points out that' while the young -lady .of fifty- years ago probably rode .niore than "her:;sister 0f:.,t0-day,, while she hunted',skated, and ' danced," and' played various open-air .games, there: were at that time' no organised games or athletics for schoolgirls. To-day at the'average girls'; schools game's are'., as carefully organised '. and v as keenly, pursued as at any boys' public school., Is this; carried' too'far; l are athletics'for girls pushed' to . excess ?" asks . : ""M.A:P.," and' for an answer' to' this quesgone to doctors, artists arid sculptors, and';to the great Sandow • himself. ':•■ . . ' 1 • " The two .headmistresses' of- girls'-, schools . who were appealed to ithought that ;, the . . danger ofpver-pressu're-'on'the athletic, 'side existed iii' past years when the games 'were not' ; carefully'controlled,; but now that athare taking their rightful place, and arousing' i" proper' amount' of' interest : with-, oufmonopolising it; that' the games are of'the greatest value socially, in. school-life. Frofi the point of view of fostering public , spirit, and: a- spirit; of give-and-take. nothing can, equal theui, and they are most valuable - in training the girls in, organisation. ' On' tho aesthetic side opinions differed. ■Mr. A. C. Luchesi said,' in general terms: "I am sure are, being .carried to excess with; in my'.strong opinion, disastrous results'to the-female form., I have known' --many good models spoiled by bicycle riding, though; this 'applies to the. male as well as the female'''-'model." Mr. Frank Dadd, the : artist, on the other hand, ■ says that . , athletics, are not. overdone. sees many, more physically fine-girls now tlian .twenty , years' ago. Reasonable and' varied athletics' add to such beauty of line and proportion as Nature may have given the individual, : and also give, natural ' ease and - grace of movement and pose." Mr. "Walter Crane, whoso' graceful pictures of women are so well known, thinks that both'boys and, girls may- carry athletics' to excess,'but that outdoor games are: just, as good for young- gills as for boys, and improve 'the. physique of both. "As an artist," he.says, "I. admire the heroic Greek, type of form.both in men aivJ as we ;seo it in the Phidian . cculptors,' and we know, they were both: great at, games." .Mr.- Ellis Roberts, the. brilliant •, portrait painter of, fair: women; says : "Of course , all out-of-door games are good for girls,' either from an artistic or any-other point of v view. What really, does - spoil a . girl's figure'is haying, to work in factories an:l other unhealthy situations.?' .. . • .. The .most detailed answer is-sent .by' Mr. Eugcn. Sandpw, who points .out that the cry of athletics having 'been carried to excess ... by girls has arisen from'the fact that many have gone in for them too .violently and without, any previously physical preparation.. Scientific .must':; always precede athletic '-InVjfact, - scientific exercise was, . from .a. health point- of view, always necessary preliminary to the athletic pur- ~ Buits of road,;; and/, field- and river., , The delicate body of a young woman was exceedingly liable to become strained and injured by such'exercises as hockey, cycling, - and ' sculling, unless it. had first been made "fit" by the practice-of those gentle, scien-tifically-directed movements which come under the'general tide of physical therapeu- - ' tics. . , •These movements, unlike the haphazard - and often", violent- - physical movements of athletics, we're drawn'up to'suit individual needs and characteristics, and each was performed in a definite way to obtain a definite object-. • ■-' " .-,■' Exercises such as these should be practised by everyone, especially by those niemv bcrs of the'gentler, sex who'wished'to participate in; athletics without fear of incurring serious injury.. ;■■ '