Agility

“ With hands and face protected from the sun as best might be, we stretched ourselves on the earth, and perhaps all indulged in the luxury of “forty winks.” As time wore on, some sought entertainment in trials of strength, agility, and skill—this last by shooting balls at a stone set up a hundred yards away. ”

“ There is no animal whose greatest pleasures are derived from anything else than the exercise of its faculties. Our dog, whether he jumps and tears about in glee as we take him for a walk, or sits happily by our side, his head on our knees, his wistful eyes scrutinising our face, sympathetic with every emotion, illustrates this fact. In the one case he is exercising the natural faculties of speed and vigorous agility; in the latter, the acquired and inherited faculties of mental comprehension. ”

“ If I were to attempt an explanation of this agility, which gives small animals so great facility in escaping their enemies, I should look for it in the small momentum of their mass when in flight, by reason of which only a slight effort is required to enable them to change their direction. Incontestably, we can run much faster than mice ”

“ Extraordinary and ape-like agility has frequently been noted among criminals. Every one is familiar with the daring feats of agility by which prisoners frequently escape scatheless from the hands of their guardians. This characteristic appears to be sometimes favoured by unusual length of arm. ”

“ The body and limbs indicated agility rather than strength, in which, however, he was by no means deficient. Never did man possess a temper more happy, or if otherwise, more subdued or better disciplined. ”

“ When the chest is well developed and the lungs and heart strong, endurance is more natural than agility; the opposite holds good of the other type, in which, by reason of the length of the legs and the slightness of the chest, agility prevails. ”

“ If any fell wounded from their horses, by these they were covered. If it were necessary to advance or retreat to any considerable distance, such agility had they acquired by exercise, that, supporting themselves by the horses' manes, they kept pace with them."—Bell. ”

“ And it is certain that those who have survived the risks of [Pg 9] these sports—the fittest—had developed bodies far superior in agility, and attained far greater command over the muscular system, as a whole, than would have been possible from practicing sports that do not involve risk. ”

“ It is remarkable for the flexible agility of its movements, which enable it to adapt itself to every movement of the rider, whose intentions it seems to divine by a sort of instinct, and who guides it not so much by the bridle as by the pressure of the knees and the voice. ”

“ Agility may be acquired, also, by throwing one's self face down, resting on hands and toes, without allowing the trunk or the legs to touch the floor. While in this position, look rapidly over the left shoulder, and then over the right—always in swift alternation. This does much to teach the student on which side he should try to rise when there is an opponent over him or waiting for him. ”

“ With a similar constitution to begin with, those who devote themselves to practice with weights, with carrying burdens, become more massive than those who practice movements of agility, like fencing and racing. ”

“ In this rough sport only the greatest agility and suppleness of limbs, combined with extraordinary physical strength, can secure the palm, while the less dexterous combatants may not escape without the disgrace of broken heads. ”

“ Their strength may be judged of by their agility, comparatively to the bulk of their bodies; they walk as fast as a horse goes on an easy trot; and they run as fast as a horse can gallop; which seldom happens in their wild state, except when they are provoked or frightened. ”

“ Thus, too, gymnastic agility is the best safeguard against numberless perils. A mother who hopes to protect her boy by keeping him at home and guarding him from the rough sports of his playmates, forgets that her apron-strings cannot guide him through the perils of after years ”

“ Feats of strength and agility, running, lifting, archery, pitching the quoit, and practising contortions, athletics, and difficult poises of the body give him a wide range for exercise with one or more companions. ”

“ A good deal of time is, as a rule, lost in taking hold and clappings of hands, and then generally the bout commences with one hand grasping the adversary’s, while the other clutches the body. The object is not a clean throw, but to make the knees of the opponent touch the ground, and consequently agility tells more than strength and size. ”

“ On the contrary, by far the greater number of victors at games of agility and strength, will be found to possess a degree of mental energy, which is, in fact, the power that impels them to corporeal excitement, and is often the secret of their success over more muscular antagonists. ”

“ Some men could jump higher than their own height, both backwards and forwards, and this with their weapons and complete armour on.
Agility was absolutely necessary in order to obtain victory or escape from danger; many a man owed his life either to a timely jump to one side, or to a leap from a height, or over a circle of surrounding foes. ”

“ Agility, for instance, quickness of action and immediate control of the muscles, is far less common in the country than is supposed, although there is probably no lack in the actual power of the muscles. It is common observation that among farmers an erect carriage is less frequently seen than an awkward, shuffling gait. ”

“ The clumsy, awkward body becomes agile and expert: the child who tumbles down to-day will [11] not tumble down next week; he runs more fleetly, dodges with more agility, plays more expertly in every way, showing thereby a neuro-muscular development. ”

“ Strength and power impart agility and quickness. This every physician and every sensible man knows.
A soldier only becomes fit for his work after the muscles of his body have been gymnastically attended to and developed. ”

“ I am informed, that whenever two or three young shepherds are gathered together, at fold or bught, moor or market, at all times and seasons, Sundays excepted, one or more of these athletic exercises is uniformly resorted to; and certainly, in a class where hardiness and agility are so requisite, they can never be too much encouraged. ”

“ That this movement at present is in the exuberance of its riotous juvenility, which coming years will tame and quiet, is probable, but it is also probable that with this modification will come a more scientific method of playing games, which will convert the mere animal pleasure of using muscles{3} and lungs into a system which, by their fit and reasonable use, ensures for their users not only a greatly increased power in mere strength and agility, but a greatly increased power of mental quickness and moral strength. ”

“ Strong, that is to say, violent exercise gives vigour to the muscles and nerves: such are digging, and lifting a very heavy burden, while one remains in the same spot, or moves about; or lifting small weights and walking about as much as one can. Of this kind, is the exercise of scaling a rope, and many others of a like kind. The swift kinds of exercise are such as do not require strength and violence, namely, running, fighting with one’s shadow, wrestling with the extremities of the hands, the exercise with the leather bag, and that with the small Ball. ”

“ The unfailing brute instinct at once detects the fact that the trainer has let down the bars of his mind, and then comes the long-delayed attack!
Never do I tire of watching a good trainer work his animals, especially those fresh from their native wilds and full of snap and spirit. What sport more splendid and royal can man imagine than that of placing his life in imminent peril for the purpose of putting a wild beast—a creature far his superior in strength, in swiftness of movement, and in all-round fighting power—in complete subjection to his will! ”

“ But in riding, I have the additional pleasure of governing another will, and my muscles extend to the tips of the animal’s ears and to his four hoofs, instead of stopping at my hands and feet. Now in this extension of my volition and my physical frame into another animal, my tyrannical instincts and my desire for heroic strength are at once gratified. When the horse ceases to have a will of his own and his muscles require no special attention on your part, then you may live on horseback as Wesley did, and write sermons or take naps, as you like. ”

“ A.—LESSONS OF INSTINCT.
Bodily vigor is the basis of mental and physical health. Strength is power, and the instinctive love of invigorating exercise manifests itself in the young of all but the lowest brutes. The bigot who undermines the health of his children by stinting their outdoor sport as “worldly vanity,” and “exercise that profiteth but little,” is shamed by animals who lead their young in races and trials of strength. Thus the female fox will train her cubs; the doe will race and romp with her fawn, the mare with her colt. ”

“ The first source of pleasure varies of course with our condition and the state of the surrounding circumstances; the second with the amount and kind of power, and the extent and kind of action. In all forms of active exercise there are three powers simultaneously in action, - the will, the muscles, and the intellect. Each of these predominates in different kinds of exercise. In walking, the will and muscles are so accustomed to work together and perform their task with so little expenditure of force, that the intellect is left comparatively free. ”

“ Can we conceive a “law of battle” among unconscious beings? If success in the combat were a mere matter of brute strength, it would imply some consciousness in its dull exercise. But it is more. It is also a trial of skill. ”

“ Hunting trains up the younger nobility to the use of manly exercises in their riper age. What more manly exercise than hunting the Wild Boar, the Stag, the Buck, the Fox, or the Hare? How doth it preserve health, and increase strength and activity! ”

“ When we are learning to walk, to ride, to swim, skate, fence, write, play, or sing, we interrupt ourselves at every step by unnecessary movements and false notes. When we are proficients, on the contrary, the results not only follow with the very minimum of muscular action requisite to bring them forth, they also follow from a single instantaneous 'cue.' The marksman sees the bird, and, before he knows it, he has aimed and shot. ”

“ While beyond all doubt a wholesale denial of the importance of physical exertion to a desirable condition of bodily strength would savor of foolish hardihood, we are by no means obliged to concede that mere activity of muscles without accompaniment constitutes the exercise best calculated to do us good. ”

“ The rider's employment of force, when properly applied, has a moral effect also on the horse, that accelerates the results. If the impulse given by the legs finds in the hand the energy and àpropos necessary to regulate its effects, the pain the animal sustains will be always proportioned to his resistances, and his instinct will soon make him understand how he can diminish, and even avoid altogether this constraint, by promptly yielding to what we demand of him. ”

“ For, during pursuit,—whether retreating or attacking, in hiding or fleeing,—it displays a something which seems more than instinct: calculation and cunning,—a sort of malevolent intelligence. It knows how to delude, how to terrify;—it has marvellous skill in feinting;—it is an abominable juggler.... ”

“ When I read a naturalist or a biologist I am always ashamed of what I have called a sport. Yet one of the truths of evolution is that [Pg 108] not to practise strife, not to use violence, not to fish or hunt—that is to say, not to fight—is to retrograde as a natural man. Spiritual and intellectual growth is attained at the expense of the physical. ”

“ Physical development and its adjustment to mental control owes its greatest stimulus to games. When physical strength, speed, or nimble adjustability is the pivot upon which the game depends, special muscles are made subservient to will: behind the game there is the stimulus of strong emotion, and here is the greatest factor in establishing permanent associations between body and mind ”

“ Thus the adult fighting or hunting instinct of past generations appears in the young [251] to-day as a fighting-play or a hunting-play. It is open to question, however, whether either the instinctive behaviour or the conscious situation in the one case and the other is so nearly identical that the playful fight or hunt can fairly be called the same instinctive procedure as the serious combat or chase. We may hold, with Professor Groos, that the one is an invaluable preparation for the other without identifying them as the same behaviour under different conditions. ”

“ The force by which a bulldog holds on to an antagonist, the persistence with which a mule will plant his four feet and set himself against blows and menaces, are good examples of the pure animal phase of a property which exists in human beings, and forms the foundation for that heroic endurance, for that perseverance, which carries on all the great and noble enterprises of life. ”

“ These forms of sport however paled after a time, and instead of a fair trial of strength, of beast against beast, or armed men contending for the mastery, it was judged more exciting to see men, and even women and children exposed to the rage and hunger of the animals with no weapon worthy of the name in their hands and no chance of escape from a death of shame and agony. ”