Evening star., 1936-10-18
By George II. Dacy.
~ UNIT, pass and prayer days
. again have arrived in the Dis
trict as the pigskin personnel

UNIT, pass and prayer days
- again have arrived in the Dis
trict as the pigskin personnel
L Of Georgetown, Catholic Uni
Versity, George Washington, American
University, the five local high schools,
as we'll as half dozen preparatory
schools and a multiplicity of sandlot
teams, take to the greensward.
Fall spraining time has written the
first couple of chapters of 1886 foot
ball history. Arnica has not been on,
but in the air. That new stunt, which
Is actually an old pickle, of toughening
the athletes epidermis by rock-salt
baths has even been tried by some of
the schools. The guess of certain of
the local coaches is that it would be
better to blast at the boys from long
range with a convincing double
barreled shotgun charged with rock
salt in lieu of buckshot. Such shelling
would surely either tougher the foot
ballers or else turn them from the
game.
1t might even be good tempering
test to determine if the players could
take it, for take it they must in one
form or another before they punish
Thanksgiving turkey.
Modern foot ball training is radi-
eally different from that of the assault
and battery and human mayhem era,
when the second team, or scrubs, were
scrubbed" daily, bruised, battered and
reduced to a pulp. That was the &C
cepted fate of the "second-runners,
the human targets upon which the
varsity whetted its attack. Today
what appropriately may be called me-
chanical foot ball is introducing new
magic to the gridiron and reducing
hospital squads. 1t is f1areaway from
human contact scrimmage practice.
The star-not Stars-of dummy" foot
ball is now in ascendency. Charging
machines, bucking devices, tackling
dummies which duck, dodge and side
step; slapstick contraptions which SIM
ulate the opposing eleven on defense,
as well as hurdling devices which hit
back at the gridiron warriors and tune
Them up for championship games, are
now the order of the day.
Training gadgets spare the second
string players. Backfleld runners
practice dodging, shifting and re-
versing their fields on special prac-
tice picket line" veritable labyrinth
of 5-foot posts set in the ground in
staggered formation. 1t resembles the
mazelike runways of pig-in-the-poke
puzzle more than anything else. The
coach tosses a ball to promising
quarterback and orders him to run
rs fast as he can through the post
strewn area No easy stunt at first,
but soon the candidate masters the art
of bobbing and weaving and shifting
his hips to avoid collisions and how
to change pace and shorten his stride
where the posts are close together.
To make the arrangement more real
istic, the posts are wrapped with
flannel of similar color to the jerseys
and stockings of the team to be met
the following Saturday. This new
training stunt is successful in develop
ing open-field runners.
Substantial rubber dummies as re-
placements for opponent linesmen
during scrimmage drills and signal
practice formation have proved their
worth. They are simulations of the
India rubber sparring partners which
some boxers use in training, padded
efigies of fighters mounted on heavily
weighted bases so they do not tip over
readily. Hit one of these dummies
and it rebounds with plenty of come
back" These contraptions are fun