GAMES THAT HELP WORK

Greymouth Evening Star, 16 June 1936, Page 12

GAMES THAT HELP WORK

GIRLS IN A FACTORY. Few people seem to realise that bj their choice of sports they can make their games a very definite help in their particular profession. Recently a test was made with a group of packers in a chocolate factory (states the “Sydney Morning Herald”). The girls, who were enthusiastic members of a rowing club, were persuaded to take up lawn tennis As the result of this change, it was found that at the end of three months their rate of working had increased by 10 per cent., which meant that each’ was earning 4/- a week more without any increase in her working hours, and with actually less fatigue than at her old rate. Extraordinary as this result may seem, it is. quite simply explained. The work of these girls, as of many other grades of factory worker, demands a high degree of precision and quickness of hand; and all the faster ballgames—tennis, cricket, badminton, and table tennis—are excellent for developing quick and sure co-ordination of hand and eye, while also developing that quickness of decision which is increasingly called for in the more responsible positions in modern industry. Every waitress knows the heavy strain of long hours of standing. Tired feet and aching calves and back are generally considered as “all in the day’s work,” but this need not be so. All running games, but particularly hockey, lacrosse, and athletics, develop the leg muscles, strengthen the insteps and “limber up” the muscles of the back. A recent comparison of the fatigue ratio among the assistants of a large store showed a 25 per cent, advantage in favour of members of a hockey club over almost all others. IMPORTANCE OF RHYTHM. Modern investigators of the psychology of work have stressed the impoitance of rhythm, and have proved .the value of a steady, sweeping cycle of movements in increasing output, and at the same time reducing the effort required’ to produce it. In this direction, both dancing and swimming are helpful in developing a habit of rhythmic movement, but best of all is cross-country running. The value of games to the office worker is no less great. Physiological tests have shown the efficiency of the brain to be directly dependent upon the quantity and quality of the blood circulating through it. i Strenuous exercise, preferably ini the open air, is, of course, the best of • all remedies for the sluggishness of. circulation and general slowing down of the system necessarily attendant on long hours spent at an office desk. But here again there is everything to be gained by a judicious choice of games. For the worker who can take exercise only at week-ends, those sports which throw an exceptionally heavy strain on the lungs and heart may easily do more harm than good; and for this reason such sports as rowing and cross-country running are best avoided. For giving the maximum of exercise with the minimum of strain, lawn tennis, cricket, swimming, skating and dancing can hardly be surpassed as sports for the office worker. ,