[to be continued.]
OFFICERS OF THE NATIONAL INTERSCHOLASTIC AMATEUR ATHLETIC ASSOCIATION.
C. BURTON COTTING, President.
HUGH JACKSON, Vice-President.
J. DEAN TILFORD, Secretary.
GEORGE P. SMITH, Treasurer.
The papers on the science of football written by Mr. W. H. Lewis, of the Harvard Football Team of 1893, which have appeared in the last four issues of this Department, have attracted such general interest among the football-players of the schools that it has seemed advisable, inasmuch as the active football season is not yet in full swing, to add a brief supplementary paper on "Training," from the pen of the same authority. The advice given here is the result of the best experience, and any coach or captain who follows it implicitly may confidently look forward to the best results.
Any correct system of training for a team comprises three separate and distinct elements—the physical, mental, and moral. An eleven should be physically fit to play a hard, fast, and aggressive game from start to finish; and it should be mentally fit in the sense that it thoroughly knows its own game from beginning to end. Every man should know every play, and his place in every play. After being able to play the game both physically and mentally, the next and final thing is to play it. This brings us to the third element—the moral. By that term is meant the spirit of the eleven.
It is not our purpose to deal with the subject of diet. In passing it may, however, be said that the proper diet for a man training is any plain, wholesome, nourishing food. Highly seasoned foods, sweets, and all alcoholic stimulants should be avoided. The value of from eight to ten hours of good, sound, refreshing sleep cannot be overestimated. In general, one broad, comprehensive rule may be laid down with regard to training for athletic contests, and that is this: All training must be adequate to the demands of the particular kind of contest to be entered into. For light athletic contests, light training; for heavy contests, heavy training. The same training requisite for baseball would not be sufficient for rowing; nor can training for track athletics be at all adequate for football. Different sports make different demands upon the physical man. And the training for each must be adapted to meet the demands of each.
Football is the most vigorous and hearty of all our athletic sports. When properly played, it is also the most exhausting. It requires the quickness and speed of the sprinter, the endurance of the cross-country runner, the strength and power of a first-class wrestler; in fact, when critically analyzed, football seems to be a sort of composite of many sports. As to the proper style of training for an eleven, perhaps no two persons have exactly the same ideas. But, in general, there may be said to be two schools, the old and the new, or the old style and the new system. The old school is one of Herculean labors and Spartan discipline. The idea of the old school is physical development and bodily discipline. The idea of the new school seems to be that sport is simply a recreation. Work as little as possible seems to be the new creed. Periods of rest are emphasized rather than periods of work. The aim of the new system is to train the men for the final match, to bring them to the highest physical condition by the end of the season, which sounds rational enough. And if there is only a single important match to be played, the system is without doubt best adapted to that end. But the theory proceeds from the wrong premises altogether. Every one knows that an eleven plays at least two important matches before the end of the season, when the demands are just as great as in the final game. The two systems may lie fairly well illustrated by the accompanying diagram, for the idea of which the writer is indebted to Mr. W. C. Forbes.
CHART OF RELATIVE CONDITIONS IN TRAINING.
Line A E represents the new school, which aims at the highest physical condition at point E. Line A B represents the old school, which aims at good physical condition at the end of the second or third week of training, and to take the team to E in the same condition.
Take two elevens: No. 1 will use the old system, No. 2 the new system. Let the two teams play a match. At the point marked October 1 the physical condition will be decidedly in favor of No. 1, and, besides, No. 1 will know more football, having played more. The difference in physical condition will be the line C G. Let them play November 11: the difference in physical condition will be D F. Suppose that No. 2 wins at point E, November 21, which is extremely unlikely: No. 1 will have two victories to No. 2's one. If the object be to win only the final match, it seems that the old system will be far better, as the No. 1 eleven must know more football, having played more, and will be in just as good condition. It has been urged against the old system that it is impossible to carry eleven men from A to E in good condition; that the team, as a whole, will come to the final game overtrained. The individual may go below the line occasionally, but the team as a whole must be better, because the weaker individuals who are unfitted for the game will be eliminated early, before the team is made up. The team training on line A E, the new system, is just as likely to be undertrained, and lose half of its best men before an important match is finished.
A team trained under the new system will play with considerable life and dash while it lasts, but the team trained under the old system stays, and comes in the winner. Let us notice some fallacies of the new system. As an argument for less work, the case of athletic teams is often cited, where men train very little, and still play very good games. Any reasoning by analogy from such cases is absolutely misleading. Men who play on athletic teams are for the most part matured men, many of whom have played on college teams for years. They would naturally have a strength and endurance and knowledge of the game which the youngsters in the schools must acquire by hard work and faithful, conscientious training. The boys must acquire what the men already have; therefore a different and more rigorous system of training is necessary.
The new system believes that an ignorant undertrained man is better than an experienced overtrained one. Comparisons are often made with the training of crews, prize-fighters, etc. But in such cases the training is for only a single contest, while in football the training must be for several important matches. Not every practice is a trial, as is urged, but only the lesser matches once or twice a week are properly trials; and surely in but few sports can any strong objection exist to such trials.
Another objection to the old style urged by the new style is the likelihood of injuries when men are played so much. That is true and not true. In the long-run there must be fewer injuries. The amount and kind of work a team should do will perhaps be best considered under mental training. The problem in training is really how to do the work necessary to learn the game without impairing the physical condition.
By mental training is simply meant the process of learning this game. One broad rule may be laid down for learning the game, and that is to play it. There may be different methods of teaching men how to play; hardly any two coaches or captains will begin the season in just the same way. But each captain should have some plan, schedule, or method of teaching. The football season covers a period of about eight weeks. The game must be taught within that time. Now football is divided, as has been said in a preceding paper, into the Individual and the Team. The first half of the season, the first four weeks, should be devoted primarily to the individual, teaching him the fundamentals, and how to play his own position. Assuming that the season begins about the middle of September, this work would carry the team until the second week in October; the balance of the season would be devoted primarily to the team, although it is often impossible to pick the team before the end of the third week in October. After this point in the season the individual coaching should be done during the intervals or let-ups in the practice, or before or after practice. During the period that should be given to the team the graduates come around, and the tendency is to neglect the team for the individual. The bulk of individual coaching should be done in that part of the season in which it should naturally come. So much in general. Now a few suggestions to the captain, in settling his work for the season, may not be altogether out of place.
First day out, the squad upon going upon the field should form a circle, and pass the ball around. The captain and coach should notice each man, and see that he can make the simple straight-arm pass correctly, and catch the ball properly. Next, let the men line up in pairs, forwards with forwards and backs with backs, and try a half-dozen mutual scratch starts. The purpose of this exercise is to make the men quick on their feet, and to secure quickness and agility. That done, line the men up, and have them fall upon the ball. Having them in line instead of in a circle, the captain and coach can see that each man is taught how to do it correctly. Take a moving ball first—a ball moving from the player. Next try a ball moving towards the player from the front. The practice on the first day should be short, lasting not more than half an hour, and ending with a good brisk run of a distance of a mile and a half.
The second day's practice should last about three-quarters of an hour, consisting of catching and passing, falling on the ball, scratch starts, two-mile run for the forwards, ten minutes' kicking for the full-back, and catching for the half-backs, with the centre man to snap the ball and quarter to pass to the man kicking.
On the third day practise one hour—falling on the ball, passing and catching, sprinting starts, two-and-a-half-mile run for forwards, kicking and catching for backs, centre men snapping the ball and quarter passing, two-mile run for the backs.
Fourth day. Practise starting with the ball. The centre man to snap the ball back for squads. There should be a good, sharp, hard sprint for fifteen yards. The aim is to train the eye so as to divine where the ball is going, so as to be able to beat it. Catching punted balls by forwards and backs. Arrange these in squads, and have the kicking backs punt to them. Begin with the end of the line, and have each man catch a punt in turn. They should be taught how to do this properly. Falling on the ball, one or two of all the different kinds of balls, and the dead ball from a dive in addition. Forwards should be lined up opposite one another and taught the theory of blocking. The centre man should snap the ball, and one side rush through while the other blocks, and vice versa. While the forwards are doing this, the backs may be kicking and catching. A short run for the whole squad of about two miles.
Work of this general description should be kept up for about ten days. In this time the captain should arrange to get in some work on the fundamentals each day. It will be impossible to take them all up in one day, but some can be taken up one day and some another. They are easily forgotten if not brushed up occasionally.
The first three weeks in October should be largely devoted to position-playing—picking the team. The captain should do all the experimenting within that period. Much straight football may be learned in the mean time. In that period, and that alone, should the coach be allowed to stop the play to coach the individual. "Wait a minute," can be allowed then, but not later. The team should have two practice matches a week. These should make no difference in the ordinary practice, except perhaps when a pretty strong team is to be played there should be a slight let-up in the practice the day before, or no actual play at all. On those days there should be plenty of practice at signals. All practice matches after the third week in October should be of the usual length, two half-hours. The practice game with the second eleven should not vary much as to the time of play from the matches. Two twenty-five or one thirty and one twenty minute half are not bad.
Toward the end of October the team should begin preparations for the final matches, which generally come off the last of that month, and little beyond mid-November. Team-play then has the field. The team should begin to learn its repertoire of plays, signals, etc. It should be taught the theory and practice of offensive and defensive team-work. In the odd moments the individual should have all the expert coaching possible. The fundamentals must be recurred to occasionally, but team-work now holds the boards. It is the most difficult to obtain, and requires constant and untiring practice.
The captain should be just as careful not to underwork his men as not to overwork them. If an individual is overtrained or off his feet, give him rest, but for the team hard work and plenty of it should be the rule. There is nothing that helps a man or a team more in the hour of supreme test or conflict than the consciousness of having done his or its work faithfully and well.
From what has been said of physical training it can be immediately seen that football is not a lazy man's game. It is needless to say that it is not a coward's game. If a man is afraid of over-exertion or of getting hurt, he had better play marbles. A player may have strength in abundance, but without sand it profiteth him nothing. High moral courage and unconquerable spirit are the prime requisites of a good football-player. By moral training, as has been said, is meant the mental state, the spirit of the eleven. The spirit of the eleven has to do with the execution, and the execution is everything. Formation counts for little. It is not the play, but the stuff that is put into it that makes it succeed. Without this spirit a team may know all that it is possible to know of the game, and may be in perfect physical condition, but cannot hope to win. It is one thing to know how to fight; it is another to be able to fight; but greater than either or both is the fighting spirit.
The whole team, each and every man on it, should enter a contest or match imbued with a just sense of the responsibility resting upon him as the chosen representative of his school or college. He owes to her the very best and all that there is in him. Her honor, her athletic prestige, are at stake, and she demands nothing more nor less of her sons than that they be retrieved or maintained. Hence the team should go upon the field with a do or die spirit, with a determination to win at all hazards.
The portraits which appear at the head of these columns are those of the officers of the National Interscholastic Athletic Association, who were elected after the first annual field-meeting last June. C. B. Cotting, the president, is a member of the Newton High-School, and an officer of the New England Association. Hugh Jackson, the vice-president, comes from the Iowa Association, and is a student of the Cedar Rapids High-School. J. D. Tilford, the secretary, has for several years been identified with the New York I.S.A.A. as a competent official, and attends the De La Salle Institute. G. P. Smith, the treasurer, represents the new association in New Jersey, of which he is president; he attends the Plainfield High-School.
At a recent meeting of the Connecticut Football Association several changes were made in the constitution. Is was decided that nobody should be allowed to take part in any games under the management of the League who had not been registered at his school before October 1. Furthermore, it was decided that no student taking a post-graduate course should be allowed to play on any team. There was some discussion about establishing an age limit, but so much opposition developed that the plan had to be abandoned.
The schedule of games for this fall's championship season was arranged, and the first contests will be held October 31. In the Northern Division, Hartford Public High-School will play New Britain High-School at Hartford, and Norwich Free Academy will play the Connecticut Literary Institute at Norwich. On the same day, in the Southern Division, Meriden High-School will play Hillhouse High at Meriden, and Bridgeport High will play Waterbury High at Bridgeport.
The Bridgeport team will no doubt be very strong again this fall—Smith, centre, Wheeler, guard, Goddart, quarter-back, Deforest, half-back, and Delaney, tackle, being in school again. The Hartford team is expected to develop into a strong eleven as the season grows older, but it was defeated, 22-0, by Williston in its opening game a week ago. The Meriden High-School has the strongest eleven the school has ever seen. New Britain will be very strong, having the full eleven men of last year back in school again this fall. Hillhouse, Norwich, Waterbury, and the Connecticut Literary Institute are all weak.
The Englewood High-School, of the Cook County League, played a game against the Chicago University eleven on September 23, and held the 'varsity men down to twelve points. The school team played an excellent game, and showed some fine defensive work. The University made a goal in the first half after twelve minutes of hard play, and they got another by a fluke just before time was called. In the second half the University men were unable to make any headway against the Englewood lads, and time was called with the ball in the middle of the field and in Englewood's possession.
Other games of interest that have recently been played in the Cook County League were Hyde Park H.-S. against West Aurora H.-S., in which the former won, 4-0. The teams were pretty evenly matched, and Pingree of Hyde Park made the winning touch-down by a run of thirty yards, having secured the ball on a muff by the other side. The North Division team played an eleven of graduates, and defeated them, 12-0, but a few days later, on the return game, the graduates came out ahead by the same score.
John Freter, Yonkers, New York.—If the ball, being kicked, passes the line of scrimmage and is not stopped by an opponent, any one of the kicking side can pick it up and run with it, providing he is on side. Of course, to be on side he must either have been behind the ball when it was kicked, or he must have kicked it himself, or he must have been put on side by the kicker.
J. D. Williams.—You will find just the information you want in the chapter on "The Middle Distances," in Track Athletics in Detail.
"TRACK ATHLETICS IN DETAIL."—Illustrated.—8vo, Cloth, Ornamental, $1.25.
The Graduate.
This Department is conducted in the interest of stamp and coin collectors, and the Editor will be pleased to answer any question on these subjects so far as possible. Correspondents should address Editor Stamp Department.
The first instalment of the advance sheets of the 1897 catalogue has been forwarded to those persons who pay $5 for the same. Used U.S. stamps have remained stationary in many instances, with small advances in others; but unused U.S. have been greatly advanced. I quote a few instances, giving the 1896 prices first, the 1897 prices after. These prices refer, however, to unused stamps in mint condition, evenly centred, original gum, no perforations missing, etc. A slight falling off in any of these conditions reduces the value from twenty-five per cent. to fifty per cent.
1847 issue—5c., $5 to $7.50. 1851 issue—1c., ordinary type, 35c. to 50c.; 5c., ordinary type, $3.50 to $5; 10c., $1.25 to $3; 12c., $1.75 to $3; 24c., $6 to $7.50; 30c., $7.50 to $12; 90c., $22.50 to $27.50. 1862 issue—15c., $2.50 to $7.50. 1868 issue (grilled, 11 by 13)—1c., $5 to $6.50; 2c., $1.50 to $2.50; 3c., 40c. to $1; 10c., $3.50 to $6; 12c., $3 to $5; 15c., $20 to $25; grilled, 9 by 13, 2c., 75c. to $1.25; 3c., 25c. to 75c.; 5c., $10 to $12; 10c. and 12c., $3 to $5; 15c., $4 to $7.50; 24c., $12.50 to $15; 30c., $10 to $15; 90c., $35 to $50. 1869 issue—1c., $1 to $1.50; 2c., 60c. to $1.25; 3c., 25c. to $1; 6c., $3 to $4; 10c., $4 to $7; 12c., $2 to $5; 15c., $6 to $7.50; 24c., $16.50 to $20; 30c., $15 to $20; 90c., $35 to $40. 1870 issue, grilled, have advanced an average of one hundred per cent. The same issue, not grilled, printed by the American Bank-Note Company, 1c., 40c. to 50c.; 3c., 25c. to 40c.; 5c., 75c. to $1.50; 6c., 75c. to $2; 10c., 60c. to $1; 15c., reduced from 75c. to 50c.; 30c. remains $2; 90c., increased from $4 to $7.50. 1882 issue—5c., Garfield, 20c. to 50c.; 3c., re-engraved, 10c. to 15c.; 6c., re-engraved, 75c. to $1.50; 10c., re-engraved, 40c. to 50c. 1893 Columbian issue has been reduced an average of twenty per cent.
A. T. Adams.—There is no U.S. or Colonial cent of 1739. Your coin is probably an English penny worth 2c.
Philatus.