RUGBY’S TALLY-HO

Sun (Auckland), Volume 1, Issue 15, 8 April 1927, Page 12

RUGBY’S TALLY-HO

Preparing For The Season SOUND ADVICE TO PLAYERS The tally-ho of the Rugby season is about to be sounded, and players are preparing to answer its clarion call. Already the thud of boot against ball is abroad in the land, and at night the lighted windows of training sheds indicate that there is activity within.

TAKE IT EASY COMMON-SENSE GUIDE. Training should at this period occupy the attention of every keen player, and therefore the advice of prominent performers of to-day and yesterday is of value. “It is all a matter of common sense, (letting tit should not cost any man a penny.”—Thus Mr. IT. E. Frost, veteran Rugby man, and prominent in the executive branches of the Auckland code, summed up his views on training. a subject which he advanced for serious consideration at the recent annual meeting of Auckland Rugby men. • Harry” Frost, for 11 years a Canterbury representative and an All Black front-ranker, is qualified to speak with authority on training and fitness. As a youth he was slight of frame and poorly fitted to stand the rigorous treatment served with feet and fists on the football fields 40 years ago, but diligent application to training, and devotion to what others regarded as m«ire fads, allowed him to develop a constitution sound enough for a top-notch hooker’s exacting job. Cigarettes, and those potent liquids which gleam amber-coloured in deep glasses, he considers the bane of the footballers. The sheltered case of modern life, with its motor-cars and dancing, does not conform to H. E. Frosts idea of the Spartan environment necessary for the creation of Rugby footballers. “Walk a couple of miles or more, plod across country, swing clubs, or dumb-bells in your bedroom, or a skipping rope in your backyard” in these words he would guide footballers along the only paths which lead to fitness and success at the opening of the season. ALL BLACK LOCK MAN'S VIEWS W. Cunningham, the famous lock of the 1905 All Black team, is a sage counsel for young footballers to follow. His warning to players at the start of the season is that they should not try to reach the top of their form for the first few matches. Instead, they should train steadily, and reach the top about the middle of the season. Their hardest job then is to retain their form.’* “Most young players,” he said, “get into their heads the idea that by running round the training shed a dozen times on two nights a week, they can retain their form. That is a great

mistake, for such a process will onlymake them stale. 4, 1 advise slow work at the start of the season, before play commences. Plenty of walking, with a lot of short splinting in the training shed, say two nights a week, will be found helpful. A shower and rub down should follow each outing. Skipping is splendid for the legs and wind. One gets the maximum result with the minimum of exertion. Wrestling and boxing are both excellent forms of training.” “Cut out cigarettes as much as possible, and also late hours,” is Mr. Cunningham’s further advice. “Don’t go dancing all Friday night, and expect to play football on Saturday. If you run round the shed, and then sit down and get cold, do not have a shower, as it will do more harm than good. When you find, on getting up in the morning, that you are stiff at the back of the legs, and have a tired feeling, you have overdone it, and should ease up in your training. After the first few weeks, one night a week of training, and a game every Saturday, will keep you in tip-top form, and you will not go stale.” “Take plenty of exercise, and keep the body healthy,” is the advice of Mr. V. R. Meredith, sole selector and coach of the Auckland representative team this season. He believes that footballers, having prepared their wind and muscles for the fray, should next study the science of actual play, and the possibilities of different formations and tactical manoeuvres. “Take it gradually,” is the advice of Ces. Badeley, ex-All Black, and Auckland representative, who is returning to local Rugby this season. He advises walking and sprinting before the season opens, but adds that a pound or two overweight is worse than a pound the other way at the start. Staleness he regards as the footballer’s worst enemy, and his painful recollection of personal acquaintance with that distressing condition lends point to his argument. “An excellent preliminary,” he said, “is a bit of juggling with the ball. If three or four toss the ball to and fro they will find that the exercise loosens the muscles of the back, as well as giving them the ‘feel’ of the leather.” Mr. Badeley believes that cigarettes may be consumed moderately, though some should not have them at all. In this, and ale-drinking, the individual constitution is the only guide. But he bars spirits altogether.