ATHLETES AND THEIR TRAINING.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume 5, Issue 1288, 27 January 1883, Page 2

ATHLETES AND THEIR TRAINING.

Some very aennble advice hai reoently been offered to athletics in prize essays by members of the London Athletic Olub. They are published by Messrs Simpkin and Marshall.. The first esear iu by a famous runner,>hoie style-way'we bs permitted to say ? ia better on & running* path than'in Eugliah prose; In tlia ' itruotion ot the sentences it ii best not to Jake the aquatic advice and "keep it lons.". " He who runs may. read," but he,whorant is not always distinguished when it comes to writing, However, if the stylo of our athletio author leaves a little to be . desired, his ideas'are excellently sensiblo " " and that is tbe main thin* after all.. Tho days of severs Unwholesome training-are ■> ; probably over. . The , ancient ideas oftraining Bftem to have come down from Groek times, when he who could eat most beef was regarded as probably the best,' 1 man. Our athletio essayist has learhed 1 the truth, negleoted of old, that different' ■ constitutions need different sorts oJ diet," : " and different training in every nay. The old rule wai to drink as little as would ' lustain life; when *' Tom Brown" was at Oxford he used to look with longing at hit water-iug, but was 100 conscientious to taste tht forbidden liquid. The esssyest is above thaie venerable prejudices. A man should drink' chiefly at meals, lie'" /' should not begin, like Doornjj in the "Idylls of the King," with.a big drink, and should altogether be eareful aud temperate, Raw beefsteaks are no longer essential to athletic salvation, and the essayest wisely says that a msn should not force himself for conscientious reasons to eat what is distasteful to him. By being thus temperate it ii pointed out ty ' a man escapes the temptation "ti> eo out of training" 'yyjth a vjolent rqsh. Wild and incredible stories are told of tbe excesses of rowiig men when they went, not out of training, but out o( all regard to the moral law with impetti. ous vigor, Men- 1 should not rush intq training any more than out of it on 9 sudden. A prudent athlete will firit atk his doctor whether he it fit to attempt the task he wishes to undertake. It if an error, though an honorable and patriotic one, for a man to run the three miles when he is quite out of health 1 , merely because his University can provide no one else who - hat much chance of winning. The athletic crown is not worth the sacrifice of health, and perhaps of twenty yean of life. But boya do not look'bo cloiely at things, and perhaps may not take, the . the advice even oLa swift-footed eauviit. This authority tells them that" even thj mythical oatrioh"—the foolish bird—" is, really mcapablt" of neglecting the warning of his medical man. The ostrich ia; a great turn of speed, but we donotlifow whether it is admired for its over a long distance. jjo iridulgspt is -f onr essayist that if a man cannot sleep for want of it, he will eyen permit!' g moderate pipe"for"thattobaoo'orieiiU virtues, no reflecting person will d^y.'' Alas I so many persons are unrefleetingi since King James wrote his " Counterblast" to tobacco.. As to practice iq run: oing our essayist recflnqmendt the athlete to begin with pleptj of walking, sgy fifteen or twenty miles on » h&rd high road at a brisk pioe.. «• Three weeki or * a month so BRBnt ( will promote ; a tone ot the body and lay of musell." Fortunate are those who can afford thui to ipend a month in securing health and, muscles; Many "trials" of a man's utmost speed agaiußt tinie should of course be'avoided/as'no one can stand them. ;We end with a piece of practical lore well known to Cambridge runners in the quarter of a mile race. 11 The alpha and omega of a short raee i« to get a good start"-that is nottoba first firit running attopipced-aud'" to run beit pace from enij to end." • Whjij pflthunting and over exertion arp avowed athletio spoita are really very useful of modern physical eduoation.-Daily News.