ATHLETICS FOR GIRLS

Taranaki Daily News, 4 February 1922, Page 10

ATHLETICS FOR GIRLS

AVOIDING OVERSTRAIN “Not long ago,” writes a London correspondent, “there was a vast pother about the evil of athletics for girls. Much undiluted tosh was given publicity in the Press until, as it was stated, had every physical wrong done to women of the unborn been true Atlanta herself would have had variocose veins. But in the midst of all this clouding of the issues by stupidities such as a discussion like this evokes of outworn Early Victorianism and its opposite, a. freedom which means excess, a sufficient amount of uneasy feeling was observable at the back of it all to make the saner supporters of women’s rights to • physical training nervous. Was there really any foundation for the belief that the sports of the modern girl were bound to unsex her and unfit her from becoming a mother of men?” The whole matter seems to have been gone into fairly exhaustively, and the conclusion of the matter is much what might have been expected. If overstrain is avoided in any and every game, both girls and boys are the better for them; but in certain games it must be left to the individual to be sensible in the matter. It is suggested that girls of a size should take part in organised games, and over-strenuousness should be discouraged. Naturally, both teachers and doctors are most anxious that girls should have the same amount of openair exercise as boys. They need it even more, as their home duties, of which most boys are free, are sedentary. Parents of girls should endeavor to encourage them to be out of doors as much as pqssilrle, and if teachers and organisers of games really discourage over-exertion, no matter “who wins the cup or shield,” the mother will be happily and sensibly settled.