Norwich bulletin., 1916-10-24
l49 Navy
Army.
INTERCOLLEGIATE ATHLETICS
Football Demands Smooth Working Machine-EIiminatio of Mass Play and Brawn Made Game Better.

When we see fotbal1 team play ing it's big game we are impressed both by it's team play and by it's in dividual skill. We rapidly conclude that the finished product is the result of long and tedious hours of practice and that the practice itself is most systematic affair. It is with no small degree of surprise we learn that the best elevens are turned ou5 in a most limited amount of time. At once and rightly we infer that this practice, be- ing limited, has to be scientifically y managed.
 There was time when football practice was all we imagined-a long gruelling grind. But the elimination of mass play and the substitution of speed and skill for beef and pushing power-which completely changed the sport for the better-also altered prac- tice methods. The coach who sought to correct faults thereafter by long hours of scrimmage soon had a defeat ed team on his hands. Practice be- came a matter of keeping men in tip top condition; in having them 'On their toes" for the big games. Speed and dash took the place of beef and pushing power, and it was found too much scrimmage knocked speed and dash out of players.
 Football demands so much of the candidate individually and as part of a smooth-running machine that prac- tice, or preparation, is now matter of intelligent planning for three pur- poses: Individual instruction, team play and the necessary exercise to keep constestants in condition. To ac- complish this triple end and to pre- vent conflict with scholastic duty parctice must be systematized. After all, it is a very good thing for football that educational institutions do no al- low more time for practice Too much is more than enough and results in OVerstraining, injuries, defeat and scholastic conditions.
 The last year I played at PennsyI- vania our material was of the best. Yet we lost several of our big games, which we should have won, because of long hours spent in scrimmage. Four days weekly from the middle of Sep tember on we had a daily portion of from one to two hours of scrimmage. One hot September day the squad never forget. We played each other in the morning, played Swarthmore in the afternoon and then, when we hoped. to drag our weary bodies home ward, we were driven against each other for another hour. Some of the fellows lost 15 pounds. We never re- covered from that gruelling. It killed the team
 How different modern methods Last year Cornell and Pittsburg took highest rank in Eastern football A Ithaca Dr. Sharpe could have team practice but three days week fol three hours each. The other two days were given to individual instruction tc i the few men who were free from scholastic duties Nine hours week 1 1y practice gave Cornell it's greatest eleven. This sort of thing makes fol good scholarship, too. Cornelrs var ] sity passed 93 per cent. of its work | Pittsburgh does its hard work ir | September before college open-ar 1 ideal solution. After that the clever
 works but an hour and half a day bsolutely Il the time Warner need: l to develop the splendid elevens he has so uniformly produced
 1 Harvard and Pennsylvania are con. i tinuarlly making efforts to have play period set side each day for athletic as afternoon hours conflict with foot. | ball, but to no avail. Yale unlike mos
 universities, long ago did this, the time being from two to four, and thu:
 solved a big athletic problem as vel
 as a scholastic one. Princeton anc Dartmouth, featuring classical cours.
 es, have little difficulty with a conflic
 of this kind as most college work ii
 over by four. The conflict is a prob.
 lem only for the university.
 ] It is rather surprising what result. are obtained in football in limited practice periods. The Army and Navy
 as successful in the long run as othel big teams, practice rarely over 6, ] hours 8, season. In 1913 the Army hat