What Becomes of an Athlete?

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XLI, Issue 8, 19 August 1908, Page 10

What Becomes of an Athlete?

DOES HE DIE YOUNGER THAN OTHER MEN? In the public schools thousands of boys are competing in athletic games, and art systematically trained for these contests. Their teachers are sure that the effect of this physical exercise and training, conducted under their supervision, is good. They like it, also, because it makes the boys more interested in their schools, thus making of play a feature of school work. And during the succeeding years of their school life thousands of these young competitors in athletic sports—those. at least, who have won some distinction in the contests—will work with eager striving to develop their strength and skill to surpass their fellows in such feats as the multitude applaud in the trained athlete. These boys, their parents, and their teachers are interested in wlrat becomes of the athletes. Few of the boys will devote their lives to winning fame and money as professional sprinters or football players or weight throwers. The small lad who sees the gymnast at the circus dreams of himself doing the same daring feats to the plaudits of tho multitude —but his career is different. The professional gymnast, the great weight-lifter, the professional “strong man” exhibiting his muscular marvels daily, are notoriously short lived. At the other extreme is the man who has grown up without physical training, whose lungs are weak, and whose whole body is frail from lack of muscular development. He illustrates what an educationist and athlete said recently in an address to schoolboys: “You cannot expect to be successful in life, however well you may be educated, unless you have a sound body. You will also need those mental qualities of quickness, determination, ami nerve which athletics develop.' You can only acquire these by practice in your youth.” “ Midway between the extreme of the professional gymnast or athlete who continuously strains heart and muscle to their utmost limit of endurance, aaul the man who has neglected his muscular development, lies the class that has lived in, the way to gain bodily health and efficiency. In this class, according to the best authorities', are many great athletes, Who are living useful lives and enjoying the test of health. DANGER TO THE HEART. But there is a reverse side to this picture. It is that of the athlete whose muscles have grown powerful at the expense of his heart, and many instances! are cited by physicians to prove the dangers of careless and excessive athletic training. The athlete who finds too late bis heart has been irreparably injured by t'he strain he has put upon it, has had) many warnings of the 1 injury he has done himself. He has not' heeded them, and pays the penalty with 1 "his life at an age when he should be at hi's test in physical power. A ’well known doctor, who has had much to do with athletes, says: “Sometimes the aortie valve gives way. or the heart becomes enlarged;, but you musb rememter that alt athletes have enlarged result of the exceptional work they are called upon, to do. That is not unusual.- Do not all the other muscles increase in .size as a result of exercise, and are we not glad to see them do so?” “The life of a racehorse is longer than that of the ordinary horse. This 1 know 1 to be a fact, for 1 have made a study of the subject. Consider the strain which that animal undergoes. After its racing days it is sent to 1> P the 'head of a largo breeding stable. “Once in a while an athlete drops off, and then we tear ..tile, warning ‘Beware of the enlargement of the heart.’” Another medical man who was a great runnpr in his, day si)id a,few days ago:! “Hypertrophy of the heart is the result of the continued over-indul-gence' in athletics, to me. that a warning woul4. b? timely., Boys, afc college men. club mein-, «ni{. race to th» lunit " of tjieir ci)df|rii!)cc. from g fewmonths, then lay off and dissipate,in all,, manner of ways for the greater portion of the year. The effect eventually is enr<

largeinent of the heart or a general weakening of the system. ... ~. ....... “Very often, a latent weakness is developed by the excessive strain of, training or competing. When an athlete becomes exceptionally well known, a place on tlie list of competitors is reserved for him at each meet, and the result is too much racing. “At .first the walls of the heart, espeqially of the left ventricle, become enlarged, and, finally, if the work is not stopped in time, the organ fails completely to do its work, and collapses.” MUST AVOID TOO MUCH TRAINING. "Understand me,” says this physician, "there are men who know that moderation is the secret of health. The most beautifully developed man of. whom I know does comparatively little training. Many others loaig ago realised that moderation is the secret, and have been for years and still are in prime condition." Almost all principals and to. /hers in public schools are convinced that the athletic training makes better students of the boys, besides improving their health. No school that has tried the experiment of competitive athletic games for its boys has failed to continue the work, Few .schools are now without an athletic organisation for the training of the young athletes. They recognise that the . athletic ‘.'play” is not without its dangers, and seek to direct it wisely. They know that it is splendidly beneficial, and that if their small charges are well instructed, they need never suffer injury, however far they go in winning athletic honours. They curb the boy who would foolishly ‘overtrain”— who races before school, to school, after school, and in the evening.. Wh n . this is done in spite of his instructions., the erring lad should be held up as an example of ‘‘one who does, not know how.” His pallor, his blue lips, his inability to. study or to do good work any longer on the cinder track prove, to his school mates that there is a right way and a wrong way to train. And ,no boy who smpkps cigarettes can become a winning atiiietc. All forms of dissipation are cut out., the schoolboy learns, in, the regime of athletics. The boy under such training gains strength and iier.ve fyjye. ai)d steadiness, u and there can be no ooubt, apout if, to all who see him in. the weeks ,o.f Jiis athletic work. If Ire. foolishly... sacrifices this strength and poise later, it his . own fault, and no.t, tdie,,,fault, of “athiet.ics,” say bis teachers.—“ Weekly. Scotsman.”