ATHLETICS FOR GIRLS

BY JAY B. NASH

Associate Professor of Physical Education, New York University

THE mere mention of "athletics for girls" is sure to stimulate a heated argument in almost any assembly today. It is a modern No Man's Land. Vigorous vocal action can always be assured by the announcement of such a topic. Proponents and opponents in all walks of life will be found to be fairly evenly divided. The argument is never settled because of the fact that few people use the same vocabulary. They may use the same words but with different meanings.

"Competitive athletics" is the phrase that is many times used. It, in itself, is a misnomer, because all athletics are competitive. It is simply another way of saying competitive competition. When one person talks about athletics, he visualizes the emotionalized interschool contests of the modern high school or college. When another person speaks about athletics he may have reference to the great mass of athletic games which go on in connection with the physical education programme in the school, without spectators and conducted in a perfectly natural way.

In this ever present argument some people visualize girls' athletics in their worst possible form. They see State championship matches in basketball, where girls are called upon to travel long distances and play in exhausting elimination tournaments. They see track meets for girls who have been coached by men. They see great stadiums with throngs of spectators in a highly emotional state. They see games played under boys' rules, coached, managed, and officiated by men. They see an utter disregard for the girls' physiological conditions. They see the girl athlete in the Sunday supplement. They see as an object city, State, National, and possibly International championships for girls.

On the other hand, those who see good in girls' athletic activi

ties see a participation which involves all the girls of an institution in activities adapted to the organic needs of the girl. They see the girl properly costumed. They see the teams coached, officiated and managed by well trained, mature women leaders. They see the group of girls building up an organic capacity and acquiring standards of behavior of a very high order.

So it is that the mere phrase "competitive athletics", or "athletics for girls", has in reality no definition. One might as well ask, "How long is a string?" as to ask, "Are athletics for girls bad?" It all depends upon conditions. What are these conditions?

The conditions relative to girls' athletics are precisely the same as the conditions relative to boys' athletics. Boys' athletics which involve activities not adapted to the needs of the boy and conducted under highly emotional situations, with selfish leaders who care more for the click of the camera, the scratch of the reporter's pen and the gate receipts than they do for the boy, are bad. Much of the athletics in junior and senior high schools and colleges fall under this category. It is obvious, then, that if girls' athletics merely ape boys' athletics, they are likely to be bad for the very reason that many of the boys' activities are bad. The earmarks of bad athletics, whether they involve boys or girls, will always centre around intensive coaching of a few, neglect of the many, spectators, gate receipts, State and National championships. Such activities are not educational. They exist to give publicity to the coach, the principal of the school, the president of the university, the alumni, some local newspaper, the town boosters' club, and the players.

An interesting situation presents itself; namely, that those who today are most vigorous in their condemnation of athletics, both for boys and for girls, are the ones who are at fault for the muddle in which we find the present athletic situation. This group of people, who have only themselves to blame, are high school principals, Boards of Education, college presidents, and Boards of Directors of colleges and universities. This is the group of people who, over a series of years, refused to recognize the educational content of athletics. They are the group of people who forced student associations to organize, raise their own money, build

their own stadiums, hire their own coaches, and, incidentally, spend their own gate receipts. This is the group of people who refused to finance a programme of athletics as one of the important phases of education.

That situation is largely a thing of the past. The school men of the country are vigorously taking hold of the athletic situation both for boys and for girls and a solution is in sight. Education today is upon an activity basis. All learning is through some form of activity, mental or physical. In physical activities all of the value lies in participation: none in the onlooking. No longer can we make excuses that the spectators acquire "loyalty to the school", or "get relaxation", or "are out in the fresh air." These are platitudes. The value is in the doing of the activities. Therefore, plans must be so laid that every child in the school is given an opportunity to take part in activities adapted to his capacities. It is through activities that individuals are educated. Looming large in these activities, especially in connection with physical education, are what we call playground activities, "athletics", or "athletic games". Physical activities adapted to the needs of the girl, conducted under proper leadership, lay the basis for development. Development which is laid in this way is fourfold.

One is the development of organic power. This is probably best illustrated in what we call endurance or vitality. It means simply the power to expend great energy and to withstand fatigue. This organic power is today tremendously needed. It is a matter of common knowledge that many of the men in present day positions of great responsibility were raised on the farm. In the big-muscle activities on the farm their organic power or endurance was obtained. More and more there is a strain upon the nervous system. There is the hurry and worry of business life. If men are to stand under this strain, there must be built up through big-muscle activities-playground activities during childhood and youth-great organic capacity.

A second is menti-motor development. This means that the latent powers in the neuro-muscular mechanism called strength and skill are developed; and that millions of nerve cells are brought into functional activities under the control of the will.

This power is greatly needed today in connection with the varied and highly mechanical life that we live. Quick responses learned on the athletic field or in simple games may save a life in the crowded traffic, or prevent accidents in connection with our modern factory system.

A third is the development of the impulses. In the games of childhood and youth the most powerful impulse tendencies of human nature are exercised. Character traits are developed. In the stress of the game the temptation is particularly strong to be unsportsmanlike and violate the rules for the sake of winning. Probably the most effective instance where the child distinguishes right from wrong is when other children point their fingers at him and say, "You didn't play fair." Playground activities offer a tremendous range of opportunities for guidance and the development of the impulses in an approved direction.

Finally, there is the development of judgment. In no phase of education is it necessary to think situations and to will coördinations so rapidly as in playground activities. Judgment is necessary. Action must be instantaneous. A slight error in judgment is fatal to the individual and to his team. The entire being of the player is set upon making a good showing for his team mates. He thinks because thinking is imperative in play to do his best. Based upon these fourfold objectives are the intermediate and the remote objectives, or what we term standards of behavior; namely, health and character. Over all these objectives and ways of acting is the adult adjustment to the recreational life, namely the right use of leisure.

Several factors are necessary to insure this development. These may be enumerated as follows:

1. A recognition of athletics as a phase of physical education. Athletic games are in reality the heart of the physical education programme of the adolescent, and are definitely concerned with the "want" of both the boy and the girl.

2. A recognition of physical education as a phase of general education. This makes necessary a recognition of the educational values of physical education, not just for the physical, but through the physical. It is one of the approaches to education and today must be recognized as one of the most vital approaches.

3.-A scientific classification of children. All children must be classified in accordance with sex, age, capacity and individual differences. Skilled leadership is necessary. Physical examination must be given. The individual capacity of each child for activity must be determined in order that activities adapted to the individual's need may be prescribed. As soon as this classification of children is properly made, the next step is the adaptation of activities to these needs.

4.-Adaptation of activities to needs. As soon as individual needs have been determined the programme of activity can be planned. Here is where the programme of activities for girls will differ very decidedly from that of activities for boys. Girls who have spent a relatively inactive early childhood, which up to the present time has been less vigorous than the boys, can not suddenly plunge into vigorous activities. On the other hand, physiological differences begin to appear at adolescence. The dangers which are involved in throwing a girl suddenly into the highly charged emotional situation of an athletic game, where she is a representative of the school and there are many spectators, is well pointed out by the experience of Dr. St. Clair Lindsley, who has had a wide experience in her capacity as advisor for girls in connection with the Los Angeles public schools: "The entire endocrine balance is being established and the adolescent girl who is subjected to highly emotional situations is but sowing the seed for a nervous breakdown later on by putting undue stress on these glands of internal secretion, which are trying to adjust themselves to the physiological changes taking place at that time, and are really having all they can do. Moreover, many of our chronic backaches in later life are the results of the 'sacroiliac spreads' which occur through the abuse of the body when not sufficiently developed to withstand the sudden and difficult training involved in athletics.'

5. A proper leadership. This involves thoroughly trained physical directors-men to have charge of boys' activities and women of girls' activities. Without this leadership, good results can not be expected either in connection with physical development or in connection with standards of behavior which are involved in character education and health education.