The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1902-03-08
FOR FEMININE READERS
BASKETBALL As 4 MEANS OF PHYsI-
CAL AND MENTAL DEVELOPMENT.
Masculine Alarm at Feminine Adj
vancement-A Too Aggressive
GOOdness-The Latest sleeves.

What sport this is, Ny, but basketball
must be fun That is the invariable COM
ment Of the stranger who watches game
of basketball between girls for the first
time, says a writer in Good Housekeep-
ing She can see one at almost any col
lege she happens to visit, from Massachu-
sets to California, where there are enough
girls to make up a team, for basketball is
enjoying an unprecedented popularity. The
general effect is always the samoan audi
ence with enthusiasm for the teams divided
on class lines, carrying flowers and flags
and banners, singing energetic songs and
cheering lusty cheers, in the midst of it
the hurrying shifting kaleidoscope of play
ers, fighting for victory and the honor of
the class.
1t is fun. That is one reason why the
game leaped into favor so quickly all over
the country. But any one of the whirling,
twisting, running, painting players who
loses her sense Of self. time and space in
the concentrated determination to possess
that great, swift, elusive ball and send it
home can tell the visitor that fun is not all.
1t means steady hard work for long prelim-
mary months, hours of practice in the gym
nasium or on the field before ones strength
and breath will last through the rapid
halves of a match game. 1t means that
the players give up candy and sweets while
they are training and go to bed early when
they long TO sit up late for a jolly party
and do a great many other things that they
don't wish TO do because they are on the
team and win they must, and win they
can't unless every unit is in condition to do
her level best. But even the losers In
well-fought game do not grudge the pre-
.f.v~x- to n1aar 0f ha
winning team listening to the toasts at
the supper afterward, thrilling with the
thought that she has helped to win the vic
tory for her class, past sacrifices dwindle to
When the athletic director of a college
thinks of the benefits of basketball how
ever, the dramatic recognition of merit
which the match game gives, so over
whelmingly important in the college girls
mind, seems to her the least of its bless
ings. She thinks of the physical improve
ment n the players, the brighter eyes and
quicker circulation, the endurance they
show, the coordination of the muscles that
playing has taught them. the agility and
deftness with which they manage their
physical machinery. If she is a good di-
rector she sees the mental gain well
behind all these things. COntroi OF the
physical means first a well-behaved, obedi-
ent nervous system, as responlve to the
will of its owner as she herself to the sig
nal of her captain. Quick playing, too.
means quick thinking, an instructive dash
TO meet the ball, a lightning calculation
and balancing of results as one leaps to
catch it and sends it flying to a waiting
ally. 1t must not go wrong. A slip might
cost the game. Brain and hand must act
as one. Not second may the mind halt
between two opinions Such self-control
and a judgment so automatically correct
are worth the price of many strenuous
half hours, and once attained they not
confined to the crises of basketball game.
But there is still another benefit of the
game kind of sugar-coa ted psychological
discipline, which critics of woman, rightly
or wrongly, say that she needs most OF all
for her own happiness and best develop
ment. The effect of the discipline is appar-
ent when each player finds comrade al
ways at the exact spot where she can help
her. and the ball goes from one ally to arr
other with clocklike regularity ''Magnifi-
cent team work is the name the specta.
tors give it. But more than this it indi
Gates that the players have learned how
20 be a part Of the whole. They are work
ing for the team, not for themselves. They
are willing to take the position of cog to
sacrifice the brilliant play and individual
distinction, to win the game.