San Antonio light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1911-1993, 1923-01-07
PROBLEMS Of |
GRID MENTOR 4
ARE PECULIAR.
Faces Obstacles Not in Paths
Of Other College Ath-
letic Coaches.
MUST DECIDE QUICKLY
Hasn't Chance to Daily
Around, Mainly Because
Of Lack Of Time.
MUST DECIDE QUICKLY
Nv WALTER CAMP.

Copyright, 1879, py me san ANTONIO bisht'
New York, Jan. 6.-The football coach
has mighty little time for abstract
theorizing during the season OF play.
The very nature Of his job calls for
action, decisive action.
ArThe work Of coaching football squad
is vastly different in this respect from
the same position in any other line OF
sports. The college baseball coach has
three months of outdoor work with his
squad, including the playing season,
and not including the long summer
months when his charges are off at
their respective homes practicins on
amateur teams the problem of shifting
them where they amt" coaching them
as they fall, or pitching the ball to
batter so it will go over the plate but
not be hit. The rowing coach has long
weeks of preparatory indoor work and
many weeks of outdoor work with crew
candidates. The field and track coaches
and the basketball coaches, and the
hockey and swimming coaches, in fact,
all other coaches, have similarly long
periods of time prior to and during
the actual season.
1t is not so with the football IN
structor, who must perforce quickly
make up his mind, not only in select
ing the men who are to be his first
string men, but in deciding his strategy
for the season.
Has About Ten Weeks.
And the football coach has season
of approximately ten weeks of actually
elapsed time in which to accomplish
all this. This ten weeks is narrowed
down to an average of something like
three days q week for scrimmage work
in other words, thirty days in all.
So the football coach, who is to be-
come successful. finds early in his ca
reer that he must have a mind OF his
own, make up that mind with no loss
of time. and then see the job through
as he has planned it regardless of sur
face criticism, disgruntled alumni, we'll
meaning but annoying debating socie-
ties. theorists and dreamers about pos
sibilities.
The student of psychology would
find much of interest to his studies in
following the recent me- tai peregrina-
tions Of those who are interested enough
in college athletics to devote cOnsid-
cradle time and money to the subject.
\ EsI-s for instance, the recent meeting
In New York OF the greatest group
Of football coaches ever gotten to-
gether at one time. Not a man OF
them who attended but whose name Is
known wherever a football is kicked or
| passed. All of them have been up
against the problem Of rounding in ten
weeks time eleven young men into
cohesive team to play game that. TO
he well played, calls for physical
prowess, mental agility, moral stamina,
courage and all that goes into the make
up of the real sportsman. This gath
ering did have its discussions and de-
bates. but in three or four very brief
meetings it rot down TO the work in
hand. decided what the sense of the
gathering was, and proclaimed it to the
world without the usual accompaniment
OF extraneous verbiage. The coaches
got together, decided quickly what they
would recommend and what theT would
MT. and got it off their chests in rapid
fashion and in resolutions that could
be understood nv everyone
Recommendations Conservative.
The resolutions which these football
coaches adopted regarding changes in
the game have been widely published
and are now well known. Nearly
every angle of the game was considered
and the conservatism of the coaches in
their recommendations mus, have
struck everyone interested in the game
as being very marked. considering the
humber of suggestions made.
Regarding the meeting OF the Ma
tional- Collegiate Athletic Association,
which is held during the same week
hat the coaches held their conferences.
little history Of the organization Is
interesting.
The National Collegiate Athletic As
location was formed nearly score OF
rears ago, and was then known as the
National Inter collegiate Athletic As
ociation. Palmer r. Pierce, then cap
Gin later major. and now general, was
-~eSovinc spirit and in the second
rear il laid out a program under three
leads. rrmely:
1st. That the association Is clear
NO house of athletic ideas.
End. That it is a central bureau OF
Propaganda in intercollegiate athletics.
3rd That it is an agency Of prac-
ical reform.
Made Gopd Job 81 1t.
And nobly has General Pierce steered
through the dangers and difficulties
its halfway. True. {, ere are things
hat It has undertaken which have
Vt DetU UTOuEul W .bhA AAtNt
lingS involve problems which have been
roblems always and viii undoubtedly
Dntfnue 70 be nroblems until the end
time. More than ten years ago the
ssociation undertook to do away with
Immer baseball as demandirg. on ac-
bunt Of its crying evils. "the atten-
on Of everyone interested in the well
re of the youth of the II. s. A." Ten
pars ago a committee was appointed
secure some workable Settlement Of
. amateur law. and no less than
Felve years ago the association voted
Il is the sense of the National Cole
ut" Association that all coaching he
MINED to regular members of the
aching staff Of the college"
Hopeless Senrch.
"A teacher In n grade school had been
the habit Of leaving instructions on
hoard for the ianitnr. And II fire.
ently happened that the work ~ the
dents at the board was not erased.
a. ,r--K,s- so n. her