Sports for women are essential, not only to better fit the individual for her place in life, but as an offset to the deadly monotony of her work. The predominating note of sports should be joy, exhilaration, and the social features of games.
Women’s sports, like women’s clubs, are and should be run along different lines from men’s. The object of women’s games are for their development and individual good, and should, therefore, never be played before indiscriminate audiences who pay an admission fee.
Women have the same necessity as children and men for a wholesome physical outlet for the exuberance of animal spirits and energy.
The esthetic value of games has been found to be expressed in the improvement of the personal habits and appearance, which indicates a higher standard of living.
And the psychologic value has been found to be a development of the mental and the moral qualities, and so the individual is the better enabled to direct her efforts wisely and so more successfully in life’s activities.
All of this is not a matter of theory, but it is the universal testimony of the directors of the various athletic associations for women all over the country.
Among other developments along the physical line are endurance, skill, precision, and coördination. To be able to do physical things well has an ethical value in the individual’s attitude toward life in all its phases.
The esthetic value lays stress upon the beauty and good form of games. It is essential in playing games that women should stand well, walk well, run well, throw well, and have a neat appearance. The manners and habits of the players on the field are also part of the esthetic training.
It has also been noted that for reasons largely beyond her control the primitive occupations of women have been taken out of her hands, and have forced her, in order to secure a maintenance for herself, or those depending on her for support, out of the home into the industries and occupations of the world, together with a fierce competition which this necessitates. In other words, success is based upon competition, and competition is the keynote of organized games. So that one of the values of games is to maintain fair, economic, and coöperative rules of competition. Other things being equal, the athletic man or woman who has played according to the rules of the games is likely to be fairer than he who knows nothing of clean sport.
Some of the mental qualities developed are observation, attention, concentration, memory, imagination, initiative, reason, and will power. These qualities are most highly developed in the various ball games, from its simplest forms to team work, as baseball and basket-ball.