EMPIRE GAMES

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXII, Issue 22047, 1 March 1935, Page 11

EMPIRE GAMES

DISCIPLINE IN TEAMS! STRICT MANAGER NECESSARY The necessity for discipline in tennis competing at the British Empire and Olympic Games was emphasised by Mr. J. C. Fishenden, cf London, vice-pre-sident of the Royal Life-saving Society, in an address to life-saving and swimming enthusiasts last evening. Mr. Fishenden has attended several of these Games. He said he was afraid that young people were losing their grip of things in sport, and considered it a waste of time and money in sending teams to the Games unless they had a strict manager or coach. Competitors were not doing justice to themselves, because of endless invitations to teas and garden parties. Discipline was wanted, and he thought this was the value of surf lifesaving work. A psychological fact was that a nat ion beating another in one thing was inclined to think that it would bo successful in others. "Many of our boys and girls are beaten before the start of a race," said Mr. Fishenden, "simply because another competitor has done the distance a second faster." \; Two instances of the discipline demanded in sport by other nations were given by Mr. Fishenden. He said that at the Olympic Games in Los Angeles in 1932 a" member of the American team, absent from training one morning without good reason, was immediately expelled and ordered to return home. The teams of another foreign nation, when visiting England, were usually quartered near the golf club to which he belonged, and were permitted to train on its course. The impressive point was that every week the ambassador of that nation requested a report from the club on the team's conduct.