SCHOOL ATHLETICS

Hawera Star, Volume LIII, 26 August 1933, Page 8

SCHOOL ATHLETICS

EVILS OF COMMON SYSTEM STRONG CASE PRESENTED VIEWS OF OLYMPIC COACH. Most of the secondary schools in Great Britain and New Zealand, and in some other parts of the Empire, have “Victor Ludorum” trophies for competition at their annual sports—trophies for the most points gained by individual competitors in a number of events. This system has often been assailed by coaches of athletes and by writers on athletics, including many former champions. In the latest number of the “British 'Olympic Journal, of which he is honorary editor, F. A M. Webster, one of the leading authorities on the sport, returns to the charge. Webster, a fine athlete himself, has been honorary coach to British Olympic teams, and he coached the Bedford team which recently won the British Public Schools Challenge Cup, and of which his son is captain. Bedford has won the cup six times since the war—four times in the past five seasons—and Webster has had a great deal to do with its recent successes. “We must not let our budding Olympic talent burn itself out by too much and too early training and competition,” writes Webster. “Therein lies the real danger. Last year 1 saw an 18-year-old lad run a perfect halfmile in 2.2 2-0, taking 0.61 2-5 for his initial quarter-mile and 0.61 for the j second half of the. race. If that boy had not taken part in another contest for the rest of the year, it would have been all to the good, but later I saw him racing two or three times in an afternoon at one handicap meeting after another, during which process he was slowly acquiring the habit of losing, simply because a first-class man is seldom given a chance of winning a handicap event. “More recently I have been studying the returns of sports results from the various schools. I should plump solidly every time, in choosing a school for a son of mine, for those institutions at which they have a rule that a boy may not compete in more than three events at the annual school sports. “1 notice that at the Imperial Service College a boy named Lodeboer won the 100 yards in 0.104-5, 220 yards in 0.241-5, 120 yards hurdles in 0.16 4-5, High jump at sft 9sin, and long jump at 20ft Oiin At St. George’s, Harpendeii, W. J. Tyson took the 100 yards in 0.10 2-5, 400 vards in 0.53 2-5, 880 vards in 2.12, ancl the long jump at 19ft 14-in. At the Leys School, W. N. Sykes took the 100 yards in O. 3-o, 220 yards in 0.231-5, 120 yards hurdles in 0.16 4-5, the high jump at sft 3jin, and the shot put at 31ft lOin.

“By their performances the boys 1 have ’ mentioned have proved conclusivelv that they are exceptionally fine voting athletes, Olympic champions in embryo, in fact; hut are their parents and the schoolmasters in whose hands rest their athletic destinies wise m allowing such promising youngsters to undertake such an excessive amount of competition within the space of a few short days, and, in one case at least, within the period of a single afternoon? . “By attempting, and doing, so much a boy is apt to induce a sort of dilatation of the heart, which may not be adjusted for half a year. That is a possibility. What is. a definite' certainty is that the psychological effect upon the unfortunate boy will be veiy bad indeed, for he will suffer a sort of mental exhaustion which is even worse than any form of physical strain. . . “I have before me statistics giving sports results at the majority of our British public schools for the whole of the post-war period, and I cannot pick out a single case in which, the winner of that wicked struggle for the Victor Ludorum honours—l mean the sort of boy who comes through the school sports with half a dozen victories to his credit—has achieved real distinction in the greater world of open athletic competition after his schooldays were over. “1 may possibly be called -upon to prove my point in face of the performances of R. M. N. Tisdall. As a boy in Shrewsbury in 1925 Tisdall won the 120 yards hurdles in the very moderate time of 0.18 1-5, the long jump at 18ft. lin., the high jump at 4ft. 94im, and the shot put at 30ft. 9m. In 1931. representing Cambridge against Oxford, he took the 440 yards jiT 0.51. the 120 yards hurdles in 0.154, the long jump at 23ft. OJ-in., and the shot put at 40ft. Bin., and could probably have won the low hurdles as well. In ' 1932 lie became Olympic 400 metres hurdles champion in 0.51 8-10 sec., but was not allowed the world s record, as lie knocked down the last, hurdle. .... , „ , “The case of Robert lisdall, 1 think, completely. proves my contention. At school bis performances were moderate and lie contented himself with winning one race and three field events. Two years then elapsed between bis leaving Shrewsbury and going up to Cambridge, but, even when he made his record of winning four events at the inter-’varsity sports, his performances were not up to international standard. In fact, he did not touch the peak of his perfection until he made the Olympic 400 metres hurdles his main objective in training. “What happens to these schoolboy Decathlon wonders is that in winning a multiplicity of events they make their muscles: heavily unresponsive by overstrain, they reach the optimum of their athletic prowess immaturely, and do not reproduce the best that is in them when they really need it later. In short, the big thrill lias come to them too soon and they are mentally disinclined for that strict training and modified specialisation whereby the great, natural, all-round athlete ultimately attains liis Olympic laurels. “I am prepared to prove that point also. H M. Osborn, who holds the world’s outdoor high jump record of 6ft BJin. started his athletic career as a schoolboy miler, with an ambition toward Marathon honours, but after be bad made bis high jump record lie, in tin' same year, won the Olympic high jump and Decathlon, setting a new world’s record mark in the latter event, but being content with a more moderate performance in the high jump. Conversely, ’lisdall, in the yeai of running the fastest 460 metres hurdles race ever seen, was. placed seventh in the Olympic Decathlon. In other words, the all-round ability was there in both cases, but specialisation was necessary for the production of the world’s record.”