factors of one’s life as well as his physical qualities. One authority
defines health as “that quality of life which enables one to live
most and to serve best”. ‘To live most and to serve best results in
happiness, and happiness is listed by leading philosophers as the
ultimate aim of human existence.

Health, thus, is the product of exercise, rest, attention to body
needs, maintenance of mental balance and emotional control,
favorable environmental forces, and pleasant social contacts. The
basketball coach is not expected to be a technician in every science
concerned with the promotion and maintenance of health;
neither can he be ignorant of the principal facts contributed by
physiology, anatomy, hygiene, sociology, and psychology. His con-
tribution to health centers in his technical knowledge of the use
of exercise, but he must have more than a mere speaking acquaint-
ance with the other fields in order to fit his specialty into its proper
place.

Health and happiness are by-products of a mode of life which
adheres to the Fundamentals of Functional Fitness outlined pre-
viously. Basketball coaches, in order to be successful, must know
the steps leading to Functional Fitness; must be living examples of
their use; and must apply them in their teaching. Their place in
the educational scheme is a positive one in that they train and con-
dition students to give their best against stiff opposition out in the
open where public observation requires them to perform within
a straightforward pattern. Of course, only the most highly trained
and expert players are exhibited to the public and many think,
erroneously, that these few receive all of the values of a coach’s
efforts. Not many realize that behind the scenes hundreds and
thousands of boys in intramural competition and Physical Educa-
tion classes benefit, directly or indirectly, from the training and
conditioning provided by the game and its teachers.

Any educational endeavor which fails to stress the training,
conditioning, and application common to basketball becomes
negative in type, and teaches evasion of physical, mental, and social
obligations. The results range all the way from minor functional
psycho-neuroses to advanced structural defects. An important part
of the coach’s contribution to individual and group health, thus,
is his responsibility to keep the values of strenuous physical exer-
cise before his students, and to see that the public obtains similar
information.

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Ean i sahe saeas E ei PEAS Say ae Ss Wa ae ED