Harper's Round Table, September 3, 1895

by Various

But this method is for sloop measurement. To get the area of a cat-boat sail there is a simpler way, although it is not so absolutely exact. Draw a line from the throat to the leach parallel to the foot of the sail, and let fall from the point of intersection of this line with the leach another line parallel to the luff. The sail is then divided into a rectangle formed by these two lines, the luff, and part of the foot, and two triangles, one of which is bounded by the head of the sail, a part of the leach, and your first line; the second, by a part of the leach, a part of the foot, and your second line. To compute the areas of these two triangles and the rectangle, and to add them, is a matter of simple mathematics. And then you have the area of your sail.

Between now and the time of the opening of the football season I want to say something each week about the game, more especially about the early training for it, and the elementary principles of play which so many enthusiasts overlook at first, and consequently go in and fail. Nobody was ever born a football player. To become proficient in the game you must devote many months to practice, and several years to actual study of the game. Football is a science, just as chess is a science—and there are very few great chess-players. There are very few great football players. My advice to the young man who wants to excel on the gridiron is first to find out, if he can, what position he is best suited for (not what position he likes best), and then to study and play that position steadily and for all he is worth. Go to as many big games as possible, and watch the men who play your chosen position. See wherein they excel, and note your own short-comings. In addition, read everything you can get hold of about the science and strategy of the game. There are a number of books on the subject. And after you have read pretty thoroughly, think. No man can be a good football player unless he can think out football problems for himself.

But more of that later. The important question now is that of preliminary training, and by far the most important thing about preliminary training is to do not too much at first. It is not only unwise to work hard at first, but it is dangerous. Most of the men have been away on long vacations, and very few, if any, of them have been taking any regular or systematic exercise. Consequently their muscles are not prepared to endure the sudden strains and wrenches to which they are being subjected. It is a matter of record that more sprains and bruises occur during the first few weeks of practice than at any other time of the season.

For the first week or so the careful Captain will see that his men perform only very light work. He will put them through easy exercises, he will have them pass and kick the ball and practise falling on it. Then he will have his men take short runs across country, and do such general light work for wind and muscle as will enable them to take up hard practice without danger. Every man should have a heavy sweater or an overcoat at hand to put on as soon as play is stopped, for every precaution should be taken to avoid catching cold. Every football team should, if possible, have hot and cold water shower-baths convenient to their dressing-rooms—for cleanliness is as important a matter to the welfare of the players as fresh air. Long hot baths are weakening and should be avoided, except when a cold has settled in the muscles, and then hot water is of value.

Football players should be regular in their daily habits. They should rise, take their meals, and retire to bed at the same hours every day; and it is likewise a good thing to have the practice at the same hour each afternoon, and, if possible, at that hour of the day when matches will most probably be played later in the season. The men should have plenty of sleep, say from ten at night until seven in the morning, and on rising they should, if possible, take a short walk before breakfast. And now that the word breakfast has fallen into the discussion let us look at the commissariat side of the football question.

There was a time when a football player was supposed to make a martyr of himself, as far as the good things of the kitchen were concerned. His bill of fare was made up chiefly of raw beef, and he was permitted to drink only so many glasses of water a day. This barbarous custom, however, has now been done away with, and from personal experience I can vouch for the delicious fare of the training-table of the present day. A football player's diet must be restricted, of course, but there is an ample list left that he may choose from. Roast beef, beefsteak, lamb chops, roast lamb, broiled chicken, oatmeal, rice, mush, and all kinds of cereal food, potatoes cooked in any style except fried, vegetables, eggs, apple sauce, baked apples (never any raw apples), prunes, oranges, grapes, figs, dates, and all fruit in season; rice and bread pudding, stale bread, and dry toast—all these can go on the bill of fare. The forbidden dishes are pie, cake, salad, pork, veal, rich dressings, anything fried, ice-cream, candy, soda-water, and any kinds of drinks, alcoholic, malt, or soft. No tea, no coffee, no chocolate, and—but this should go without saying—no tobacco.

Another important thing for the Captain of a football team to give his closest attention to is the condition of his men. He should watch them continually, and note the slightest tendency toward overtraining, for overtraining is much easier to prevent than to remedy. As soon as a player gets into this condition he should take absolute rest for several days, and thereafter he should only play for a short time each day. A change of diet is a good thing, too. Remove all restrictions from the diet of the overtrained man, and let him eat what he chooses for a few days. Overtraining shows itself in various ways, but the most common is for a player to feel worn and tired and disinclined to work hard on the field. This is simply an evidence that his muscles have been worked too hard, and have become so fatigued that they cannot recuperate their full vitality between one day's practice and the next.

While speaking of diet I omitted saying that ice-water should be shunned almost as if it were an alcoholic beverage. Never have ice water on the training-table. Drink cold water, but do not have it iced. It is a bad thing, too, to allow players to drink anything during practice or until an hour after practice has been stopped. This will prove a hardship at first, as the mouth gets dry and parched. Have a pail of water near the field and a tin cup, and let the men rinse their mouths, but do not permit them to drink. After a week or so they will become accustomed to the abstinence, and their saliva glands will act more freely. Gum-chewing is a bad practice, too. Constant mastication stimulates the glands; but it is injurious in the end, just as all artificial methods are in whatever sphere they may be practised.

The football team should work on the field every day, rain or shine. Practice on a wet and muddy ground is necessary, because it frequently happens that the most important game of the year (usually played at the end of the season) has to be contested on a rainy day. Thus practising in the rain will accustom the players to running and dodging in the mud, and to holding a wet and slippery ball. If the storm is such, however, that work in the open air is out of the question, the team should practise in-doors. Rehearsing signals is good occupation for such occasions, and practice in passing the ball and in tackling can also be had. But unless in-door work is unavoidable it should never be indulged in during the active season. The work on the field demands all the energy of the players.

The Graduate.