Evening capital and Maryland gazette., 1913-03-12
TYPICAL FORMS OF
PHYSICAL TRAINING
Numerous Theories and Inventors
But Five Basic Principles.
GENERAL FEATURES OF 5 TYPES.
Derived From Grecian Usage Agonistic
Gymnastie and Athletic the
General Features.

II
THE Greeian System The his
tory Of the Greeisn games extends
over a period Of fourteen hundred
years, from the days OF Homer till
| 3s4 A. D., the date assigned to the
last celebration Of the Olympic
games.
In the breadth ard sanity of its
aims; in the magnitude of its pro-
portions and the completeness OF its
/ deyelopm snt, as a national institu-
tion; in the pe rfectiOn Of its organi-
zation in the splendor and solem-
nifty Of its festivals; in its many
sided and abiding Influences as we'll
as in the length of its history and
/ the brilliancy of its record, the
physical training of the Greek has
no parallel.
It's history forms a coherent
whole, presenting well marked
| phases of growth, elimination and
decay. and reflects at every stage
the spirit of the nation. Athletic
contests entered into the worship of
| Greek gods and heroes and the lapse
of time was recorded in Olympiads
/ to mark the recurrence or the prin-
| cipal sacred games. Gymnastics
were assigned an enlarged and hon-
cradle place in the training Of every
free born youth. The codes Of LIZ
curgus and Scion provided for the
organization and regulation of bodily
training, and even the greatest OF
Greek physicians thought il no con-
/ desce nsion to study and adopt eXer-
cises and procedures which had been
originated by paidotrobes or gym
nasts.
In the twenty-third book of Ho
mer's Iliad we read of the first great
games OF all history, the funeral
games conducted by Achilles after
having slain Hector. Here were h I'D
contests ia javelin throwing, wrest-
ling, boxing, foot-racing, etc. Nes-
tor speaks, saying:
Son, thou hast spoken rightly, for
these limbs
Are strong no longer; neither feet
nor hands
Move on each side with vigor as of
yore.
Would / were but as young, with /
strength as great,
AS when the Epeians in Buprasium
laid
King Amrynceus in the sepulcher,
And funeral games were offered by
his sons.
Then of the Epeians there was none
like me;
Nor of the Pfiau youths, nor yet /
The brave Aetolians. In the boxing |
match
l took the prize from Clytomedes, |
son
Of Euops, and in wrestling overcame
Ancaeus, the Pleuronian, who rose up
Against me. In the foot race out
stripped,
Fleet as he was, Iphiclus, aud beyond
PhyIeus and Polydore threw the
spear.
Only the sons of Actor won the race
Against me with their chariot, and
they won
Thru force of numbers.
Such was once. Now feats like
these
Belong to the other younger men,
and l,
Tho eminent among the heroes once,
Must do as sad old age admonIshes.
The Olympic games, the oldest
and most famous of all, were said by
some Greek historians to have been
established by Zeus after his success
over Chromos in the contention over
the sovereignty of Heaven. The Dol
phian and Phythian games were also
we'll established, as were the Isthmian
games at Corinth. All chese games
arose from simple beginnings The
first of the 0lympian contests consist
ed of foot race, to which Hercules
pIayfully challenged his four broth
ers. The straight-way foot race con-
tinued to be the only Olympic game
till the fourteenth Olympiad, when a
second contest was added, the double
course, TO the end and back.