Outdoor Sports and Games

by Claude Harris Miller

Girls’ schools have done much to spread this idea. A rational outdoor costume and a desire to be physically well also has helped “the outdoor girl” to be regarded as the highest type of womanhood. Only her grandmother sighs over tanned cheeks and muscular arms.

The girl who is not a good sport is the exception rather than the rule. Besides, our grandmothers worked at their gardening, which is out-of-door exercise, and a preventive, as Kipling tells, of the “hump” we get from having too little to do. He says:

“The cure for this ill is not to sit still,
Or frowst with a book by the fire,
But to take a large hoe and a shovel also,
And dig till you gently perspire.”

From a feminine standpoint the first question must be, “What shall I wear?” There is no need to be handicapped by skirts, at least when one’s exercise is taken in company with a crowd of girls. The bicycle introduced the bloomer girl and this costume is now generally regarded as proper for outdoor girls. In camp one should in addition wear a sailor blouse, and a pair of sneakers, which though rather heating for the feet are very comfortable and very satisfactory for long tramps through the woods. The rubber soles give a firm footing on slippery moss and dead leaves, while high heels might cause a wrenched ankle or a bad fall. It is perfectly allowable for a girl to wear a broad-brimmed hat to avoid sunburn, which might be so serious as to spoil a vacation. A gradually acquired coat of tan is much more desirable. The hat prevents headaches or sunstroke, neither of which may be dared with impunity by a delicate girl, unless she wears her hair on top of her head.

In regard to hair, which is of great importance to its owner, though very much of a nuisance after the age when it may be worn boyishly short, the one word is that it must be fixed to stay without re-pinning or tucking back at frequent intervals. For bathing, a girl must either be willing to have her hair well soaked or else to put a cap on so tightly that it cannot be loosened. To hesitate to try a dive for fear of getting wet hair spoils much of the sport of swimming. Each moment of hesitation makes her more convinced that perhaps, after all, she had better not try that dive, because she probably would not be able to do it anyway. The lack of confidence is disastrous. I have known girls who could swim perfectly well in the shallows but could not keep up at all in water out of their depth. And yet they have not been touching the bottom in the shallow water, but they could if they wished. Learning to swim in water that is over your head is really better, though it is more “scary” at first. If you do learn in that way you can thereafter look upon the deepest water with confident scorn.

Confidence is a necessary possession for the beginner in almost any sport. It is so much easier to do anything if we are quite positive that we can. Probably, because you are a girl and are modest, you will have to assume this attitude, but in horseback riding, for example, an instant of fear while on the horse’s back will “give you away” to the beast. Since he is as keen as a dog to know when you fear and dislike him, he will undoubtedly take advantage of it. If you are quite positive that you can learn to ride and that the horse under you is harmless, you will keep a firm hold on the reins instead of clinging to the saddle horn in a panic.

The trying part of learning to ride is that the first day’s experience is painfully stiffening. This applies to almost any unusual exercise. But to withdraw on account of that you may as well resign yourself to taking exercise no more severe than that afforded by a rocking chair. It does not pay to stop when you are stiff. Sticking to it is the only way that will train those hitherto unused muscles to perform their duties with no creaking of the hinges. A good night’s rest is the utmost limit of time that should intervene between each trial.

A girl has the physical disadvantage of less endurance than a boy, and she does have to care for herself in that respect, and leave untried some forms of exercise that would be overexertion for her. A girl may “paddle her own canoe,” of course, without risk of overstraining herself, but when it comes to moving it from place to place out of the water, the feather-light canoe of poetry becomes heavy reality. Two girls can carry a canoe between them for a short distance without much difficulty, but if one is alone it is far better to drag the canoe over the ground, which is not particularly hard on it, unless the ground is rough. The boy’s way of carrying it balanced upside down on his shoulders requires considerable strength.

Devotees of tennis will claim first place for that among girls’ sports. The amount of practice and quickness of thought and motion that maybe acquired in a game of tennis is remarkable; the fascination of the game itself rather than the benefits to be derived from it will hold the attention. The main trouble is in the learning, which requires unflagging energy and constant practice. An overmodest beginner will make the mistake of playing only against her likewise beginning friends; the result is that she takes a discouragingly long time finding out how to use her racket properly and never gets a chance to return a really good serve.

It is really just as well at some point in your practising to see some well-trained athlete do the thing you are trying to learn.