ate

Allen -- Well, here again, Jay, Dr. Naismith conducted another interesting investigatio:

of a different nature and made some worthwhile deductions. This time he used
as his clinical material four high school teams who were entered in a league
tournament. He meant to ascertain the actual number of minutes that the
average high school basketball player was in motion during an entire game.
A separate watch was kept on each of the 20 players in the game. Whenever
a player stopped, the watch stopped, and the count was resumed again when the
player resumed activity. The results of the investigation were as follows:

1. The average time elapsed for one 10-minute period of play, 13 min., 8 sec

2. Shortest time of activity for any one player, 3 minutes, 32 seconds.

3. Longest time of activity for any one player, 7 minutes, 21 seconds.

4. Average time of activity for each player, 5 minutes, 28 seconds.

5. Percentage of average activity of each player to the entire playing

time, 39.6 per cent.

So you see, Jay, that basketball seems strenuous to as spectators because
they naturally follow the ball, which is the focus of activity. It would be
very interesting if any of the spectators «t a basketball game would just
pick out one player and watch him throughout the contest. They doubtless
would be surprised to see how many times during the game this player would
be found to be utterly inactive. Perhaps he would be alert, but he would
not be in motion a great part of the time.

Plumley--Dr. Allen, you mentioned Floyd A. Rowe, who is on the research committee of

Allen --

the National Basketball Rules body of the United States and Canada with you,
John Bunn, H. V. Porter and B. J. Kickox. Just what did Floyd Rowe find out
about the injurious effects of b..sketball upon the junior high school boy?

Well, Jay, Floyd Rowe has done some very wonderful work along that line.

He contends and has figures to prove it that basketball league competition
for junior high school boys very detrimentally retards their physical and
nervous development. You know, Mr. Rowe is director of the Department of
Physical Education and Health of the Cleveland, Ohio, public schools, and

he has done some very extensive work. He feels that it is perfectly all
right for boys to indulge in the mimetics of basketball; to use motivation
of teaching basic basketball fundament2zls to younger boys by illustrating to
them in class how John Doe, the high school star athlete, executes his
fundamentals in high school competition. In this type of motivation no one
should handle the ball except the instructor who demonstrates the play. The
entire class goes through the fundamental exercises as a form of calisthenics.
This should not seriously affect the value of exercise as a basketball
drill. All members of the class should execute the same fundamentals until
each type of play, both on offense and defense, has been fairly well mastered.
You see, it is sort of teaching shadow basketball to immature youngsters
before permitting them to handle the ball. By watching the coach and
instructor demonstrate the play with the ball and then by being directed

to go slowly through the mechanics without the ball, junior high school

boys will acquire the correct fundamentals of basketball before they reach
senior high school. Then after the boys have acquired these skills so
necessary to execute the fundamentals, the coach may nermit the boys to
handle the ball. The next step is to teach the fundamentals through
competition. When one boy has an opportunity to beat the other fellow, the
boy sharpens his play through competitive zeal. Free throwing contests sud
field goal shooting cohtests can be easily arranged which gives the boy his
competitive game thrill without the physical wear and tear taunt comes in

too much scrimmage. Many adults get a great thrill out of seeing tiny
youngsters play a full game of football or basketball. But very few physical
educators who have developed their research along these lines will approve
such contests.