The Birmingham age-herald., 1922-05-07
How Far Will Record Breaking Go? Asks
 Camp
Fly WALTER CAMP
Special Correspondent of The Age Herald Copyright. 1922, by The Age-HeralD
 Nc I


 Copyright. 1929, by The Age-HeraId)
 New York, May 6.-How far will our record breaking go? It would be indeed venturesome man who concludes that we have reached the limit in anything. In the last 46 years we have improved the sprint record 10 per cent; the records for the quarter mile up to the mile. Is per cent; the high hurdle and the high jump nearly 20 per cent: broad jump one-third and the shot put nearly sixty per cent
 The rumor has reached this coun- try from Honolulu that Charlie Pad dock ran the 100 in nine seconds. Few indeed vii be those who will believe this. or even who believe that within the next decade or per- haps within the next fifty years the feat will be performed. And yet one must hesitate to say we have reached the low point in any record of phys ical prowess.
 There are undoubtedly many records which will be much lowered. Last Saturday saw the two mile re- lay and the four mile relay records lowered But team running is a diff ferent thing from individual run ming, and there will be a reduction of middle and longer distance records and possibly we shall see in the sprints still more fifths of sec onds cut off.
 Timing the Century
 But not for long time will any runner cover the hundred yartlI in nine seconds onsreliable timing And this brings up another point of spe- cial interest The writer has com ma tad hef O,r e are not valuable in the sense of com parisons. Our timing is not scien- tific, as it depends entirely upon the personal equation of those holding the watches, and these watches all ways vary when produced at the finish of a possible record breaking event. There are means of scien- tific timing which would show us absolute comparisons between the flash of the gun and the breaking of the tape by the individual run ner
 But to continue. The times of the first intercollegiate meet were: 100 yard, n seconds; 440. 56i2 seconds; the SS0, 2 minutes 161a seconds; mile. four minutes 5Sis seconds; high hurdle. 1SA; broad jump. IS feet SA inches; high jump 5 feet 4 lncneS, SnoI-put oU rect II 12 iHcnes When one considers what the records are today he is minded to accept almost anything reasonable for the future.
 Compared to the present records it seems foolish to say that we shall not go on improving and lower fur ther these records. But to do that in certain of the lines. we shall have to have one of two things-either better training, coaching or better men Now probably America has reached very nearly the height of scientimic development In the mat ter of training men for specialties and in coaching them in form and style so as to produce the maximum amount of speed. The writer doubts very much if we are going to get further along in this line. Then 1t comes to question of either better men or better conditons-that is a track which might be unusually fast In the datter probably we have not reached the best yet and the clip ping of fifth of a second may come through that line. Now as to bet ter men-a prodigy appears once in so often Thompson, of Dartmouth in the hurdles is one of these. Pad dock in his srpinting is another. But they come once in a blue moon.