Physical training

“ Believing that the training of the body should be placed upon the same educational basis as the training of the intellect, Dr. Sargent has published these papers as pioneer efforts toward the realization of his ideals. The earlier physical condition of the American people is described, and the urgent necessity for some form of physical training is shown, then follow chapters which contain “the principle theories which the author has employed in evolving a comprehensive system of physical training.” ”

“ The teacher of physical training finds opportunity for incidental and yet very important instruction leading to the [Pg 202] formation of fine qualities of character and fine standards of personal conduct. These opportunities arise constantly in the various general types of physical exercise found in the curriculum of the department of physical training. They are especially present in those activities in which competition occurs, as in play, games, and athletics. ”

“ This new emphasis on physical training is due in part to a recognition of the wisdom of extending education so as to include all sides of the individual. It is due in part also to the conviction that the only way to deal successfully with the ordinary work of the classroom is to provide the kind of change and relief which comes from physical exercise. Regular opportunities for play are accordingly provided in the schools of to-day, and an elaborate system of physical supervision is being developed in all the leading school systems. ”

“ The great object of physical training is then to secure the most perfect development of the body, with the corresponding development of the brain, so that the highest physical and mental efficiency of the individual may be attained. ”

“ Systematic physical training is necessary both for country and town children.
“The daily walk to school is exercise, but not exercise which develops the body as a whole, or counteracts the liability to stoop, to be round-shouldered, or to be slovenly in gait. Moreover, all children during school life must spend many hours with but little change of position, the effects of which can only be corrected by systematic physical exercise. ”

“ A perfect system of physical training, especially adapted to the wants of the invalid and weak, and most skillfully conducted and applied, is not the least important among the many advantages that the chronic sufferers here find. ”

“ Physical Training.—The class should be carefully trained throughout in correct muscular movements. The position of the body should be closely watched in working and in sitting, and the classes should enter and leave the room in systematic order. ”

“ The instruments of physical training were the exercises of the palaestra. When the youth had become a man, his mental education was tested in public counsel and speech, his physical training in military service for the State. ”

“ A program of physical training wisely planned with reference to infancy, childhood, and early youth would include types of exercises, play, games, and sports, that would perfect the neuro-muscular and other functions far more completely than is commonly accomplished through the natural unsupervised and undirected physical training of those early age periods either in city or in rural communities. ”

“ Good chest and lung development, a strong heart, well-developed and firm muscles are the tripod on which rests physical endurance and resistance to disease. And this was just where the entire class was found to be gravely subnormal.
Physical training consists primarily of heart training; in increasing the breathing capacity; in strengthening and developing the heart and other muscles of the body. As [Pg 22] the muscles become stronger the body is held more erect, and this favors, as we have seen, all of its functions. ”

“ Many men before beginning my system of physical training have been so weak that doctors have thought little of the prospect of saving their lives, yet to-day they are amongst the strongest. They have progressed gradually, always being careful not to undertake too much, and thus to adapt the exercises to their own individual requirements. It may be mentioned also that the old, as well as the young, may derive great benefits from my system, though all who are over the age of fifty should moderate the exercises on the lines suggested in the table of ages for pupils between fifteen and seventeen. ”

“ In regard to physical culture your Committee is 41 agreed that there should be some form of special daily exercises amounting in the aggregate to one hour each week, the same to include the main features of calisthenics, and German, Swedish, or American systems of physical training, but not to be regarded as a substitute for the old-fashioned recess, established to permit the free exercise of the pupils in the open air. Systematic physical training has for its object rather the will training than recreation, and this must not be forgotten. ”

“ IN the studies that have been made in physical training in this country, the standpoint taken has been almost exclusively physiological. It is my conviction that, while physiological considerations must have a prominent place, psychical considerations will prove more definite, tangible, and important guides as to the nature of the physical training that should be given to children. ”

“ Physical training.—Seeing that it is so difficult to find a man or a woman among our people who has attained physical perfection, it behooves society and the schools to take a critical inventory of their methods of physical training and their meager accomplishments as a preliminary survey looking to a change in our procedure. ”

“ Physical training does not consist alone of the creation of swelling muscles. Nor does the possession of a few easily learned tricks of attack make an athlete.
He who would seek physical perfection must carefully observe all the conditions that bring it about. ”

“ But systematic physical exercise has its sufficient reason in its aid to a graceful use of the limbs, its development of muscles that are left unused or rudimentary unless called forth by special training, and for the help it gives to the teacher in the way of school discipline. ”

“ Training prepares us for those strains; our ability to meet them increases as the training advances. The best training is that which trains all parts of the body in unison. Don’t allow your exercise to develop one physical portion of your body at the cost of any other; because you are going to throw weights don’t neglect your leg muscles; because you are going to try for the one-hundred-yard dash don’t neglect your arms. In short, avoid becoming a ‘specialist’ as much as possible. Keep in mind the fact that general health and not success at one feat is the end of athletic training. ”

“ Practice makes a man perfect: Where as in the field co-sports and games or in the field of Physical Activity, practice alone is not sufficient. The scientific principles based upon such as physiology of exercise tells us the efficiency of physical activity depends on physical fitness, mental fitness and emotional fitness. The physical fitness components such as strength, speed, endurance, co-ordination, agility, flexibility and balance can be developed through Training Methods. ”

“ This personal care and training may include attention to special sense-organs, — teeth, throat and other parts of the body which may need treatment as well as corrective gymnastics for tendencies to weakness and deformity. The improved physical education of the future will provide for the logical correlation of large motor-activities with subjects and interests of the young in school and outside wherever such correlations are practicable. The material of the new physical education will be largely composed of play, dancing and games. ”

“ If apparatus is used, see to it that the pupils do not get hold of heavy pieces, or attempt more difficult exercises than they are prepared for. Overdoing here is as bad as over-study. Strict discipline must be preserved, and the same thoughtful attention given to this as to any other department of study.
Illustrations of the Results of Physical Training.—Wherever physical education has been tested in the schools, of whatever grade, and in whatever country, the results have furnished the most abundant proof of its value. ”

“ Here, there are five factors which contribute to the development of muscular efficiency i.e power, endurance, volume, speed of contraction and co-ordination. Whenever an athlete faces any accident he/she is reconditioned by this training method first and then specific conditioning.
To develop power to a normal athlete, heavy equipments which give greater resistance may be used. This method may develop power, endurance, speed of contraction and co-ordination. ”

“ Both made provision for exercise and contained a system of baths, but in the thermæ the baths occupied the greater part of the space, and the rooms and courts for exercise were smaller and fewer.
The Influence of Physical Training on the Health and Life of the Individual.—If we believe, with Spencer, that “Education is preparation for complete living,” we must appreciate that good carriage, bodily control, physical judgment, will power, and courage are an important part of the equipment of every man and woman. ”

“ We know that a muscle unused means a muscle un [Pg 204] developed, and that, on the contrary, intelligent, systematic use, with a definite purpose in view, will accomplish wonders in physical development. We know something as to what a physical trainer can do with a bunch of raw foot-ball material. We know how the gymnasium can metamorphose a loose-jointed, lop-sided, stoop-shouldered, shamble-gaited young fellow. We know what the brisk recruiting officer can do with the "awkward squad." In the one case as in the other, the physical training stands him upon his feet ”

“ In his earlier months of practice he is kept mostly at the feats whose aim is the development of muscle and endurance, and he is given only enough combat work to keep up his interest in the study of physical well-being.
After the first few months of practice the student is taught to think more for himself. There is much that he can teach himself. Reference has been made already to the student's ability, after some early instruction, to locate for himself nearly all of the vulnerable muscles and nerves of the body. ”

“ I INTERCOLLEGIATE athletics provide a costly, injurious, and excessive régime of physical training for a few students, especially those who need it least, instead of inexpensive, healthful, and moderate exercise for all students, especially those who need it most. ”

“ DR. LUTHER HALSEY GULICK The leading exponent of physical training in America; one who has worked hard to impress the value of physical training in the schools; when physical training was combined with education at the St. ”

“ While membership in a well-appointed gymnasium and athletic association offers the most favorable conditions for the symmetric and fullest development of the body, and when possible it is advised always to take at least a short course in physical training under the direction of a competent instructor, yet every woman has it in her power to very greatly improve her physical condition without these aids. ”

“ The best exercises are of little importance when the breathing which accompanies them is not properly done.
Improved Physique as the Result of Physical Training.—Dr. Mary Taylor Bissell, formerly the medical director of the New York Berkeley Ladies Athletic Club, [Pg 287] and one of the pioneers in the systematic physical training for women, gave as the result of her experience there, “The gain of twelve months’ exercise in the gymnasium is, for the chest two inches, stature two inches, and an increase of 30 per cent. in the lung capacity ”

“ A pleasant contrast is the athlete. The athlete is a man who endeavours to develop the latent powers of his body to the utmost; and in the achievement of this desirable object the physiologist takes great interest. Physiology has revolutionized our ideas of training, as well as many other things, during the last half-century. We now recognise two kinds of training—the preparation which a healthy man makes for an occasion on which unusual exertions will be expected of him, and the slower and permanent strengthening of the whole body, now usually called physical culture. ”

“ Suppose Smith or Wellesley, or Vassar or Bryn Mawr, should at once introduce in their deservedly famous colleges a system of physical education which should proceed on the simple but intelligent plan, first of training the weaker muscles of each pupil until they are as strong as the rest; and then of transferring the young woman thus physically improved from the class of this or that special work, to that which insures to all muscles alike ample, daily vigorous exercise. ”

“ The man of the future may, and even must, do things impossible in the past and acquire new motor variations not given by heredity. Our somatic frame and its powers must therefore be carefully studied, inventoried, and assessed afresh, and a kind and amount of exercise required that is exactly proportioned, not perhaps to the size but to the capability of each voluntary muscle. Thus only can we have a truly humanistic physical development, analogous to the training of all the powers of the mind in a broad, truly liberal, and non-professional or non-vocational educational curriculum. ”

“ The table of Proportional Measurements, according to height and weight, will form a good guide for the athlete as to his special muscular development. Banting’s System of Reducing Corpulency, though not exactly intended for training purposes, is not to be despised, containing, as it does, much interesting and reliable information, on the subject of diet especially. To complete the treatise, and in order to prove what can be done by man when in proper physical condition, we add a record of the best athletic performances. ”