Evening capital and Maryland gazette., 1913-03-11
TYPICAL FORMS OF
PHYSICAL TRAINING
Numerous Theories and Inventors
But Five Basic Principles.
GENERAL FEATURES OF S TYPES.
Derived From Grecian Usage AgOnistic
GFmnastic and Athletic the
General Features.

Paper No. XXXITT-By Prof. +. :. krantz
Asst Phys Inst. II, ;. n. A
The most repress ntative and typical
forms Of physical training are five IN
number and may be styled the Gre
cian, the Mediaeval, the British, the
German and the Ling or Swedish.
There have been many forms Of ply
sical training propagated by numer-
Gus theorists and inventors, but all
have either been founded on one or
more of the above standard types or
have been radical to the point OF alb
surdity. and have never attained to a
more than local recognition, speedy
dying a natural death.
1t were best to compare these
five representative systems in a two
fold manner. First, from the his
torical point of view in order to dis
cover the place influence attained by
them in life and history of these
nations which have organized or
adopted them, and in the second place
to compare them as regards their
fitness to realize the true ends of
bodily education.
In speaking of the m)st general
features of the FIVE tyres of physical
training it is convenient to use the
terms "agonistic. " "gymnastic" and
athletic, " derived from the Grecian
usage. In Homer's Jliad we find an
Agon, meant an assembly to witness
a contest of some sort. For instance,
the Olympic games were gymnic
ag0nes, being so called because the
contestants were nakel. The prizes
were in the form of spears and
wreaths and were termed athla, and
an athlete as a winner or contestant
simply, later, in its worst sense, an
athlete was a prize fighter, governed
by mercenary and professional ends.
A gymnast was trainer primarily,
especially after the agonistic games
had become systematized and regu-
lated and were practically d neces-
sary part of the education of every
free-born youth.
Greek physical training was then,
agonistic, during the period of its
growth, when its main purpose was
to afford sport and pastime; it was
gymnastic during the period of it's
best estate, about the time of Peri
cles, when its aims were distinctly
educational and ethical, and it be-
came athletic in the worst sense of
the word Turing the decadence of
the institutions of learning and the
Independent life of the Greeks when
a spirit of mercenary self-seeking
and professionalism dominated both
and athletics.
Using these terms, then, we should
call the martial exercises of the an
cient Gauls and Teutons agonistic.
Out of these sports and exercises were
the physical training of the
young page and squire, and the chival-
ric tournaments and jousts of the
Medieval period. The same terms
may be applied to British sports.
They were agonistic and have become
chiefly athletic within the last hun
dred years.
German turning is somewhat
agonistic in its nature the its aims
and methods are in the main gym
nastic. No system of physical train
ing, ancient or modern, so we'll de-
serves the name of gymnastic as the
Swedish system, which has, perhaps,
too little of the athletic element in
it. In the swedish gymnastics, more
over, we find medical gymnatics more
highly developed and accorded high
er place than in any other system OF
physical training. Indeed, excepting
the Grecian there is, properly speak
ing, no system of medical gymnastics
worthy of the name to be found out
side OF the Swedish gymnastics.
(Continuedl