of the men and women in the armed forces have been so widely
recognized that it would appear that those who insist school
athletics have been too exhausting would be silenced forever.

It is well to note, also, that one of the most important divisions
of the military physical fitness program consists of the strenuous
games long conducted in high schools and colleges. Basketball, the
sport formerly condemned because of its health hazards, has been
wholeheartedly endorsed by military leaders. The game has been
included in almost all training schedules with facilities and equip-
ment provided in camps wherever Americans are stationed.

Soon, though, a welcomed peace will return and, if historical
experience is repeated, demands will be heard again that basketball
be made less of a physical strain upon the players. Again it will be
argued that exhaustive activities damage the organic system, and
that training for peace should not be so strenuous as it was for war.
The purpose ofthis research work centers around a desire to find
exactly what effects upon the participant may be anticipated in
a program of fatigue producing activity. To that end a test was
divised which was vigorous and exhausting, and a careful analysis
of the accurately recorded results was made. ‘This report of the
experiments furnishes the ammunition to combat future cam-
paigns aimed at making basketball an easier game. The study has
been sponsored by the National Association of Basketball Coaches,
and the expenses for publication were met by a research fund pro-
vided by the National Collegiate Athletic Association.

Briefly the project consisted of inducing fatigue in a large
number of persons by the use of measurable and controllable
series of vigorous work periods. The recorded results covered the
time of the effort; production or amount of work done; improve-
ment in production and application through training; and the
effects upon the body as indicated by pulse rates. The findings
represent the recording of approximately 20,000 cases numbering
among them subjects ranging from adolescence to sixty years of
age. Specific interpretations of these findings are submitted follow-
ing the statistical reports, but a general and positive conclusion
can be stated now. The results prove that vigorous physical exer-
cise, properly graduated and conducted in the presence of health,
is not harmful, but actually is a medium which develops in the
individual a capacity to do larger amounts of work with less.
discomfort.

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