PART I. ‘THE PROBLEM EXAMINED

or a decade preceding the outbreak of the present war there was
EF a growing number of persons, claiming some prominence in
the field of health, who received wide spread publicity through
statements asserting that school and college athletics were so strenu-
ous that participants were damaged physically. These critics sub-
mitted as proof for their assertions a few cases of collapse of players,
and then demanded that school and athletic authorities reduce the
vigor of playing periods and increase the time for rest. Basketball,
being both vigorous and popular, was a favorite target of these
spellbinders whose campaigns received enough support to force
some coaches to “ease up” in their training of players. In fact, a
few coaches also became persuaded that the game was too tough
for growing boys, and joined in the propaganda to reduce its speed.

Arguments that basketball and other strenuous forms of school
athletics harmed too many players were, without exception, based
on a small number of individual cases. Careful thinkers usually
refuse to draw general conclusions from a few specific cases, but
many conscientious people are not careful thinkers. Coaches and
other school athletic authorities found this faulty logic difficult to
combat and, in addition, were handicapped by lack of scientific
facts with which to answer the arguments.

At present there is a noticeable decline in protests concerning
the evil effects of strenuous exercise because of war time results in
the physical training of soldiers and sailors. Military leaders have
maintained consistently that soft living during the last years of
peace caused physical deterioration of vast numbers of American
youths. Results of medical examinations for draftees sustained
their contentions. Four million of thirteen million were rejected
as structurally unfit. Too many of the structurally acceptable nine
million were functionally unfit. Almost one million of the accepted
nine million have been discharged as unusable. With the accept-
able young men under their control the commanders of the armed
forces immediately established schedules of physical training activi-
ties far more rigorous than coaches had ever dared to enforce. The
valuable contributions of this conditioning program to the health

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