Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1910-01-22
ODD KINDS OF TRAINING
HOW THE TYPIST PREPARES
FOR SPEED CONTESTS.
Great Chess Players Look for Abso-
lutte Mental Rest Before
Games.
From the New York Press


Those who train for contests in which
mental dexterity is involved To as great
or greater an extent than physical have
sets of rules for getting into condition
that are entirely different from those
adhered to By athletes.
The present champion typist-who has
won medals and cups and money prizes
at typewriting contests year after year
is a good looking young woman named
Rose Fritz. Her latest record is close to
100 words a minute in copying OH the
Typewriter from a highly abstruse book
on astronomy which she never had seen
before and whose words were mostly
sesquipedalisn. Miss Fritz like most OF
the other exceptionally rapid typewriters.
is employed between contests as a dem
onstrator for the company whose ma
chine she uses. Thus she keeps in practice
all the time. but about a month before
she is scheduled TO enter contest she
starts i'm to train systematically. With her
with all other expert typists under
such circumstances the first thing to he
looked after is to stop practicing before
becoming much fatigued. Plenty al
sleep is most essential and while any
special diet is not necessary. rich food or
anything that is likely to upset the diSes-
ton has tn be avoided.
Miss Fritz spends two hours das-one
i'm the morning and one i'm the afternoon :
when in training, copying on the type
writer from some book which contains he
hardest words she can find. Works or ffc-
ton are too easy; the fayorites are those
of philosophy, history. higher mathematics
or astronomy. In ordinary hooks the trained
eye can gather the contents of A sentence
at a glance because the words bear al
intimate relation to each other. Rut Ia
scientific words the tendency is toward
long sentences that are loosely Joined to-
gether. Therefore. the eyes have care
fully to follow every word on the printed
page. while the fingers are racing over
the keys. tNO expert typewriter nov
adays. by the way. ever looks at the
Keyboard. The printed matter must be
tuation mark. because every error how
ever small. counts when the work OF the
contestants is measured up.
Timing the Fingers.
Each day the expert in training is timed
and the speed record and number of mis-
takes are kept as accurately as IL would
be in a regular contest. The same mat
ter is written over two days i'm succession
and speed comparisons made. New work
is taken up every other day. Aside from
this two-hour practicing at top speed the
typist In the training spends several hours
more at the machine. without attempting
to push herself to the limit, but simply
to keep her fingers In the highest state OF
Suppleness.
Finger tips and nails have to be looked
after most carefully: each contestant has
some fayorite lotion for keeping these IN
good condition without in any way dead
ening the sense of touch. The machines
used do not differ materially from any
that may be found in the saleSrooms. In
the machines where the carriage does not
have to be lifted to see the writing the
space levers handle is about twice as
high as IL is ordinarily.
Ways of Chess Experts.
The great chess champions. whose sue
cess depends on their mental strength and
agility alone. train for their championship
matches in an entirely different way
The first thing they try to do. in addition
to getting into first-caass physical condi-
ton is to get an absolute mental rest
DIR. Lasker the present worlds champion.
when training for his great match with
Steinitz, spent about three weeks in an
Austrian hamlet. where no one ever heard
of chess. All the practicing he did was
to play over some of the great games OF
the masters purely a matter of recrea-
ton. In his most recent match-the one
with Tarrasch-he went into the contest
without even the usual period of absolute
repose. Not only that. but he entered into
engagements to report and anaiyze each
days play for newspapers in America.
England. Germany and Austria. So great
was the strain that he came near break
ing down i'm the middle OF the contest and
had a narrow escape from being forced to
retire. But he concealed his condition
and won the match without any one sus-
pecting how near he had been to giving
up.
some Of the most noted OF New York =
LAWYERS when they have an extremely
important case to argue or question to de-
eide. retire to a quiet place i'm the country
and rest themselves mentally by forget
ting law for the time being and reading
nothing but the mush.est of fiction or the
widest of dime novels.