The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-12-25

New York, December 24 - (Special) - In the summer of 1906 at Athens the American athletes won the greatest number of events they have triumphed in an Olympic gathering.
 In the five mile event George Bonhas was forced to lower his colors to Lieu tenant Hawtrey, the English champion, In 26 minutes % 1-5 seconds. In those days this time was considered very fast because the art of specializing had not begun to play so prominent a part in track athletics as 1t does today. Hawtrey won because he used a style common among English dis tanee runners. It consisted of an eX- treme speed in the early part of the race, with the result that after few miles the British lieutenant was run ming in the lead all alone.
 Bonhag like the majority of Ameri- can runners. affected the American method, which differed in the respect that they used no early speed and de- pended on an average pace to win. In running parlance, the new method was termed running from the gun" and it typifies the highest form of specfaliza- tion in distance running.
 On his return home Bonhag, him. self a great student of the game, real izinf this style was capable of better results and faster time, trained to mas ter the English method with a view to improving the time in this event. That he succeeded is proved by the fact that today he is still a champion and has continued to slip seconds from the five mile figures up to the present day. Today his five mile time is the American record, 25 minutes 1-5 sec onds In addition, he has made the best time in the 10 mile championship run, held at Celtic park in 1909, of 52 minutes 34 3-5 seconds.
 The United States Olympic teams have proved victorious on many foreign strands. Their success, due in a great measure to specializing, of which the Bonhag example is a criterion, has spread our fame as the premier of all athletic nations. on the contrary, Eng land, which has always eXcelled in the distance events, seems to have neglect ed to specialize within the past few years. with the result that she has fall en into an athletic lethargy
 The essential element in the making of champions on field and track is termed specialization. This term means the instilling into the mind of the ath- letic aspirant the fact that to succeed he must learn to cover d certain dis tance with the least waste of energy ol effort
 lhfee methods nave come Tn vogue O late years which have tendency to pro duce good athletes and champions through specialization or improved meth ods. First the professional coach, whf has become the rule, where, years ago he was the exception, has proved h' worth by turning out champions ever. year, who not only break all the ex istng times but prove themselves to b better and more capable of coping witt our athletic rival than their predecessors
 Secondly, by teaching novices prope style in track athletics. the faults whicl crop up in a prospective champion an' which sometimes prevent classy per former from ascending to the champion ship, are corrected Coaches like Mix Murphy, Lawson Robertson and Berni Wefers change the style of practicall. every man who comes under their tutc lage. The reason for this is that fault fin form are very hard to correct, so tn trainer has to start to teach an athlet in an entirely new way, instead of tn tedious manner of correcting all hi