Part 5

Chapter 53,364 wordsPublic domain

The other two methods of signalling by the use of words rather than numbers, and signs given by certain movements, although they have now given way in most teams to numbers, are still made use of, and have merit enough to deserve a line or two. The word-signal was usually given in the form of a sentence, the whole or any part of which would indicate the play. As, for instance, to indicate a kick, the sentence "Play up sharp, Charlie." If the quarter, or whoever gave the signals, should call out, "Play up," or "Play up sharp," or "Play," or "Charlie," he would in each instance be giving the signal for a kick. Sign-signals are more difficult to disguise, but are none the less very effective, especially where there is a great amount of noise close to the ropes. A good example of the sign-signal is the touching of some part of the body with the hand. For instance, half-back running would be denoted by placing the hand on the hip, the right hip for the left half, and the left hip for the right half. A kick would be indicated by placing the hand upon the neck. Particular care should be exercised when sign-signals are to be used that the ones selected, while similar to the acts performed naturally by the quarter in stooping over to receive the ball, are never exactly identical with these motions, else there will likely enough be confusion.

No matter what method of signalling be used, there is one important feature to be regarded, and that is, some means of altering the play after a signal has been given. This is, of course, a very simple thing, and the usual plan is to have some word which means that the signal already given is to be considered void, and a new signal will be given in its place. There should also be some way of advising the team of a change from one set of signals to another, should such a move become necessary. It is very unwise not to be prepared for such an emergency, because if a captain is obliged to have time called and personally advise his team one by one of such a change, the opponents are quite sure to see it and to gain confidence from the fact that they have been clever enough to make such a move necessary.

TRAINING

At the present advanced athletic era there are very few who do not understand that a certain amount of preparation is absolutely essential to success in any physical effort requiring strength and endurance. The matter of detail is, however, not faced until one actually becomes a captain or a coach, and, as such, responsible for the condition, not of himself alone, but of a team of fifteen or twenty men.

Experience regarding his own needs will have taught him the value of care and work in this line; but, unless he differs greatly from the ordinary captain upon first assuming the duties of that position, his knowledge of training will be confined to an understanding of his own requirements, coupled with the handed-down traditions of the preceding captains and teams. When he finds himself in this position and considers what lines of training he shall lay down for his team, unless he be an inordinately conceited man he will wish he had made more of a study of this art of preparation, especially in the direction most suited to the requirements of his own particular sport.

Many inquiries from men about to undertake the training of a team have led me to believe that, even at the expense of going over old ground, it will be well in this book to map out a few of the important features of a course of training. It should go without saying that there are infinite variations in systems of this kind; but if a man will carry in mind the reasons rather than the rules, he has always a test to apply which will enable him to make the most of whatever system he adopts.

He should remember that training ought to be a preparation by means of which his men will at a certain time arrive at the best limits of their muscular strength and activity, at the same time preserving that equilibrium most conducive to normal health. Such a preparation can be accomplished by the judicious use of the ordinary agents of well-being--exercise, diet, sleep, and cleanliness.

One can follow out the reasons for or against any particular point in a system rather better if he cares to see why these agents act towards health and strength.

Exercise is a prime requisite, because the human mechanism, unlike the inanimate machine, gains strength from use. Muscular movement causes disintegration and death of substance, but at the same time there is an increased flow of blood to the part, and that means an increased supply of nourishment and increased activity in rebuilding. As MacLaren has expressed it, strength means newness of the muscle. The amount and quality of this exercise will be treated of later in this chapter.

In considering the matter of Diet, a captain or coach should think of this question not according to the tradition of his club, nor according to his own idiosyncrasies. He should regard the general principle of not depriving a man of anything to which he is accustomed and which agrees with him. Of course, it is advisable to do without such articles of food as would be injurious to the majority of the men, even though there might be one or two to whom they would do no harm. Men should enjoy their food, and it should be properly served. I remember once being asked my opinion regarding a certain team at the time in training, and I expressed the conviction that something was wrong with their diet. The team, as a whole, were not seriously affected, but some three or four were manifestly out of sorts. I heard the coach go over the bill of fare, and it sounded all right. I then decided to take dinner with them and see if I could discover the trouble. One meal was sufficient, for it was a meal! The beef--and an excellent roast it was, too--was literally served in junks, such as one might throw to a dog. The dishes were dirty, so was the cloth. Vegetables were dumped on to the plates in a mess, and each one grabbed for what he wanted. Some of the men might have been brought up to eat at such a table, still others were not sufficiently sensitive to have their appetites greatly impaired by anything, but the three or four who were "off" were boys whose home life had accustomed them to a different way of dining, and their natures revolted. So, too, did their appetites. As it was then too late to correct the manners of the mess, I simply advised sending these men elsewhere to board, and they speedily came into shape. I cannot too strongly advocate good service at a training table. The men should enjoy their dinners, should eat them slowly, and should be encouraged to be as long about it as they will. As food is to repair the waste, it should be generous in quantity and taken when the man will not, from being over-tired, have lost his appetite. Sometimes a team is not overworked, but worked too late in the day, so that the men rush to the table almost directly from the field, and fail to feel hungry, while within an hour they would have eaten with a zest. This course persevered in for several days will show its folly in a general falling-off in the strength as well as the weight of the men. To train a football team should be, in the matter of the diet at least, the simplest matter compared with training for other sports, because the season of the year is so favorable to good condition.

Crews and ball nines have oftentimes the trial of exceptionally hot and exhausting weather to face, while a football team, after the few warm days of September are passed, enjoy the very best of bracing weather--weather which will give almost any man who spends his time in out-door work a healthy, hearty appetite. In order that any captain or coach reading this book may feel that, while it offers several courses of diet, it would emphatically present the fact that there is no hard-and-fast system of diet that must be religiously followed, I submit a variety of tables, showing some old as well as new school diets. None of them are very bad, several are excellent; and I don't think that a captain or coach would be called upon to draw his pencil through very many of the items enumerated.

THE OXFORD SYSTEM.--(Summer Races.)

A DAY'S TRAINING.[A]

Rise about 7 A.M. | |So as to be in chapel; but | | early rising not compulsory.

Exercise | A short walk or run |Not compulsory (walk only, and | | short).

Exercise (forenoon)| None |American football men should | | kick, catch, and pass.

[Footnote A: As has been stated elsewhere, improvements have been made in diet since this table was compiled. This will also apply to the Cambridge System, page 143.]

TORPID RACES.

A DAY'S TRAINING.

Rise about 7.30 A.M. | |Early rising not compulsory.

Exercise. |A short walk or run. | Not compulsory.

Breakfast, 9. |As for summer races. |

Exercise (forenoon). | None. |

Luncheon about 1 P.M.|Bread, or a sandwich. | |Beer, half a pint. |

Bed, 10.30.

THE CAMBRIDGE SYSTEM. Summer Races (1866).

A DAY'S TRAINING.

Rise at 7 A.M.

Breakfast, 8.30. |Meat, beef or mutton. |Toast, dry. |Tea, two cups, or towards the end of training a |cup and a half only. Watercresses occasionally.

Exercise (forenoon).| None.

|Meat, cold. Supper about 8.30 |Bread. or 9. |Vegetables--lettuce or watercresses. Bed at 10. |Beer, one pint.

H. CLASPER'S SYSTEM.

A DAY'S TRAINING.

Rise between 6 and 7 A.M.

Exercise. A country walk of four or five miles.

|Meat, chop or Breakfast, 8. |Couple of eggs. |Bread. |Tea. ("We never drink coffee.")

Exercise. |Rest for half an hour, and then a brisk walk | or run. If morning exercise has not been heavy, | a row on the river, terminating about 11 A.M.

Exercise. |Rest for an hour, and then on the river again for a hard row. | "Rowing exercise should be taken twice every day."

Tea. |"Tea, with toasted bread sparingly buttered, with one egg | only--more has a tendency to choke the system."

Supper. |Not recommended. When taken, to consist of new milk and | bread, or gruel, with raisins and currants and a glass | of port wine in it.

Bed about 10.

C. WESTHALL'S SYSTEM. For Amateurs.

A DAY'S TRAINING.

Rise at 6 A.M., | Cold bath and rub down. or earlier in the summer. |

Exercise. | Sharp walk about a mile out, and run home; or a | row of a couple of miles at three-parts speed. | A dry rub-down.

Breakfast (time not stated). | Meat, mutton-chop or steak (broiled). | Bread, stale or toast. | Tea, half a pint.

Exercise. | (Not stated.)

Dinner, 2 P.M. | Meat (as at breakfast). | Vegetables, none; "except a mealy potato." | Bread, stale. | Beer, one pint.

Exercise (afternoon). | Rowing.

If dinner be late, luncheon to be taken to consist of Meat, beef or mutton, hot or cold. Bread. Beer, one glass. (If dinner be early, "tea with viands and liquids as at breakfast" to be taken.)

Supper. | Half a pint of thin gruel, or dry toast | and a glass of ale.

Bed. | Time not stated.

N.B.--It is added "that the above rules are of course open to alteration according to circumstances, and the diet varied successfully by the introduction of fowls, either roast or boiled--the latter preferred;" and "it must never be lost sight of that sharp work, regularity, and cleanliness are the chief if not the only rules to be followed to produce thorough good condition."

McLAREN'S SYSTEM.

A DAY'S TRAINING.

Rise at about 7 A.M. (Glass of cold water recommended.)

Exercise. | The crew meet at 7, walk and run for four or five | miles; or, in later practice, quick run of two | miles. | Wash and dress.

Breakfast, 9. | Meat (broiled); bread (brown) and butter; tea, two | cups. "Cocoa made of the nibs boiled for four hours | is better than tea for breakfast." | Smoking allowed (conditionally). "Smoking is barred, | for, though here also a man's habits are to be | taken into account, the subjects | of training in match-boats are usually too young to | have contracted a custom of smoking so inveterate | as to have made tobacco indispensable | to the body's internal functions, though it is not | unfrequently so in older men. After breakfast is | the only time allotted to the pipe."

Luncheon at 1. | Beef sandwich with half a pint of beer, or | Biscuit and glass of sherry, or egg in sherry.

Exercise. | At 2.30 go out to row, and row over the whole | course. "This altogether | depends on the state of the crew." | Wash in tepid water.

Supper, 9. Oatmeal gruel if desired.

Bed at 10. N. B.--On Sundays a brisk walk of three hours or so is taken.

SUMMARY.

Sleep, eight or nine hours. Exercise, about three hours. Diet, very varied.

STONEHENGE'S SYSTEM.

A DAY'S TRAINING.

Rise at 8 A.M. | According to season and weather. | Cold bath.

Exercise, 8.30 to 9. | Walking or running. "Let all take a gentle run | or smart walk."

Exercise, 9.30 to 11.30, | Billiards, skittles, quoits, or | other light exercise.

11.30 to 1.30. | Rowing.

1.30 to about 2.30. | Running. "According to circumstances." | Rubbed dry and linen changed.

Dinner, 2.30 to 3 or 3.30| Meat--beef (roast) or mutton (boiled mutton | occasionally), roast fowl, partridges, or pheasants | (allowed), or venison (nothing better). | "It is generally directed that the steak or chop | should be underdone; this, I am sure, is a fallacy." |--Bread (_ad lib_.).--Puddings occasionally, | made of bread, eggs, and milk, and served with | preserved fruits.--Vegetables--potatoes (one or two | only), cauliflowers, and broccoli (only as an | occasional change). If training is protracted, | fish allowed (cod or soles).--Beer, from a pint to | a pint and a half.--Wine, a glass or two, port or | sherry.

After dinner, until 5 or 6. |A gentle stroll or book.

Exercise, 6 to 7. |Rowing.

Supper, 8. |Oatmeal porridge with dry toast or chop, | with glass of port.

Bed at 9 or 10.

SYSTEM OF JACKSON AND GODBOLD.

BREAKFAST.--Stale or whole-meal bread, or toast, a little butter, plenty of marmalade if you like, but not jam. Bacon and eggs, or chops or steaks, with watercress if obtainable. To those who like it, a basin of oatmeal porridge, _properly made_, taken with pure milk about an hour before breakfast, is an excellent thing, and has a very beneficial effect upon the stomach, but it should not be taken every day. It is better to miss it every third day, or to take it regularly for a fortnight and then omit it from the next week's diet, as the too frequent use of it is rather injurious to the skin of some persons. Tea--not too strong--is better than coffee. Good ripe fruit is a capital adjunct to the breakfast-table, and is an excellent article of food.

DINNER.--Lamb, mutton, beef, fowl (tender and boiled), varied by fish, of which haddock, whiting, and soles are the best, with potatoes (well boiled, and not much of them), and well-cooked vegetables, followed by a small allowance of light farinaceous pudding or stewed fruit, will be a good, wholesome diet. If you want bread, have it stale. Never eat _new_ bread. Avoid all sauces, or made dishes, and adhere to plain food only. One thing we would particularly impress upon the reader, and that is never to take his exercise immediately before or after meals, nothing is more injurious, or likely to produce indigestion, and its concomitant evils. Some authorities abjure the use of sugar, but taken in moderation it is not injurious. A well-known champion of our acquaintance, when in the pink of condition, was wont to amuse himself by eating the contents of a sugar basin, if one were inadvertently left near him, and without feeling any ill effects from so doing. Our readers need not follow his example, for although it might suit him, it probably would not agree with them. We have said, take sugar in _moderation_. Now, in this last word lies all the lectures one can give on this subject. Be moderate in all things, one might say, but above all things be moderate in the use of all edibles not actually necessary to support the increased exertion which a man in training is called upon to perform. No liquid should be taken except with, or just after meals, but we would not advise stinting the quantity too much. In summer three or four pints, and in winter two or three pints per diem would be about the quantity. Never drink just before exercise, and it is better not to drink just before going to bed. In fact, the less one has to digest when retiring for sleep the better, and be sure not to drink tea late at night.