The Gentle Art of “Collapsing”

Sun (Auckland), Volume I, Issue 181, 21 October 1927, Page 10

The Gentle Art of “Collapsing”

ARE ATHLETES TOO SOFT? AN UNDESIRABLE TREND Speaking at the annual meeting of the Tasmanian Rowing Association the president and Chief Justice of Tasmania, Sir Herbert Nicholls, referred to the “fashion of collapsing.” He said, “At races in regattas during the season I saw unmistakable signs of insufficient training. That is a serious thing. “In races that were little longer than a mile I saw man after man throw up his hands at the end of the race and. collapse in his boat. In the old days there were few races less than three miles, but a man who fell down at the end of a .race stood very little chance of eveir being picked again. % “A man who could not hold up his head to give three cheers for the crew that won, or to receive them if he had won, was considered not fit to row. “A young fellow who slacks in his training, particularly if he smokes a lot and then rows in stiff races, might wonder what is wrong when he reaches the age of 40 or so, to find he has serious heart trouble. MAN, NOT SPORT, TO BLAME “He cannot then blame the sport. He can only blame himself. If he gave it the preparation necessary and was prepared to train properly, rowing would have made him such a man that he could have come out and rowed at 80 as well as at 18. “But if he slacks now he looks for trouble. We cannot afford to slack at anything in this world. It will always come home to .roost. I submit that a man who cannot keep up his head at the end of a race is either not fit to row, or he is cutting on side. “If he is not fit to row he ought not to be there. If he is putting on side he ought to have some considerable pressure applied with sudden force to the softest side of him.” (Laughter.) IN OTHER SPORTS, TOO

To the remarks of the learned judge, it may be added that the gentle art of “collapsing” is not confined to rowing. The practice has crept into amateur athletics and other sports. One of these fine days, some of the bright boys who fling their arms in the air and flop earthwards will find that the collapse is real, apart from the everpresent risk of seriously injuring oneself by the fall on to hard turf. There are, of course, occasions in a particularly strenuous race where a collapse is genuine, but in many cases, it is simply “playing to the gallery,” or else caused by lack of training.