THE ATHLETIC WORLD

Hawke's Bay Herald-Tribune, Volume 81, Issue 26, 23 October 1937, Page 17

THE ATHLETIC WORLD

0LD TlMERS NOT SLOW ADVANTAGES OF M0DERN TMES BETIER TRAINING METH0DS There is nothing qulte so futile in sports writing, as an endeaVour to compare in an imaginary contest sports champions of other days with modern cracks. Futile because the athletic world has moved so rapidly in the last thirty or forty yeai-s that It is virtually impossible to assess with certainty what allowances can be made for such intangible things as more expert coaching, more intense competition, and a different mental approach. The modern athlete does run faster and jumps further than the oldtimer. No one can deny this. The record hook is irrefutable evidence. But Why does he? His legs are no longer, his muscles* ate no stronger, and his heart aird lungs no better than those of the man of fifty years ago. He trains no harder, lives no cleaner. But he does have advantages of which the old-timer never dreamed. Take those things which cannot be adequately measured — scientific trainihg, irttense competition, and the changed mental outlook. Champions of the eighties, most of them, trained themseives. Some didn't even have spiked shOes. They rdn in tennis shoes. They went down to the track, usually grass and very rough, did tlleir work, and then pUlled on their strcet clothes generally oVer svveat and grime, for few were the showers in those days. When they eoUldh't get down to the track they might run on the road for wind and develop their muscles in the gym. swinging Indian clubs and dumbbellS. "Scientific" Biet And their diet. Well, here is the "scientific" diet of one American champion in the middle eighties : Little or no water, oiie glass a day if possible. Very rare beef and mutton, a minimum of vegetables and fruit. No sugar. Tea instead of coffee. Stale bread or toast without butter. There was fto one to check their Weights before and after training. No, one to tell them how to reach peak condition. No one to take care of the anhoying details of buying tickets and arranging hotel accommodatioii for important meetings. No one to keep them posted of the progress of the gathering, and to see to it that they were Warmed up in time for their event. They had to fend for themseives. And they paid their own expenses. There was no intense competition. NO Oiympic Games, The sport Was a leisurely one. There were few competitors, PresSure of numbers, Which of itself to-day imist force athletes to bigger and better things, was uftkfidwn. Indeed, the number of competitors at a major meeting ift America to-day exceeds the total number of athletes in the world round aboUt 1880. Different Approach * And there was no such thing as going for world's records aS the sport knows now, There was no large public Worshipping at the shrine of Ihe champion. Athletes thought ifi terms of 10-second hundreds, 50-sec-ond quarters, two-minute halves and 4mm. 30sed. miles, To-day the champion aims at a 9 2-5sec. hundred, a lmin. 50sec. half. He has a certain mark burned into his brain. If others have run a 43 2-5§6g. qUarter-miie, and pole-vaulted foUrteen and a half feet, then, he asks himseif, "Why cah't I do it?" And now for the more tangibld things. There is the little ihatter of timing. Fifty years ago watches did not record. tenths of a second. The seconds were split into quarters, as the sloWest time was always the offlcial one. If a man ran a 100yds. in 9 4-5seC. he wouid be credited with 10 seconds. Ten seconds indeed, acted as a batrier. It was generally agreed that it was humanly impossible for a man to run a hundred in better than 10 Seconds. Time-keepers, in fact, tefused to announce a time lower than 10 seconds, whatever their watches might have shown. They were afraid of losing their manna. It Was no small thihg to be laughed to scorn as an incompetent wateh-holder. And laughed to scorn they wouid have been by a then incredulous public. Then there is that very important eonsideration, the tracks. The oldtimer generally ran on a grass patch, With the track marked out by stakes and a r'ope, the rope to keep the spectators from impeding his progress. For spectators in the early days had the delightful habit of wandering across the track in the face of approaching runners. When Wendell Barker, famous Amctican athlete, returned 4t2sec. for a straight quarter-mile in 1886, he rau 011 a trotting track, and he covered the last 150 yards with one shoe. The grass was not so severe on the bare ekia as a cinder track, but there was fine travei on tlie surface, and when he flnished portiens of his shdeless foot were raw and bleeding,