Against over-athleticism / by Joseph H. Barach.

  • Barach, Joseph H. (Joseph Hayem), 1883-1954.
Date:
[1913]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Against over-athleticism / by Joseph H. Barach. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    AGAINST OVER-ATHLETICISM BY JosEPH H. BARACH As to whether we as a people are to survive the times—as to whether we are to go on living, growing, improving, and continuing to be an important factor in earth’s civilization, and as to whether or not we are going to keep the pace which we have thus far set for ourselves, depends primarily upon the physique we now possess, and the one we will transmit to future generations. In the great average, out of a good animal a good man is probable, and out of a poor animal a good man is doubtful. If history could be read aright, I believe we should find that so long as physical decadence was averted, national life continued and flourished. | Grecian history for example, teems with evidence of the high type of physical development that existed in the heyday of their zenith. But when their abstemiousness was lost—when their healthy pleasures were displaced by orgies and excesses—then it was that they passed their meridian. With us as a people, very little attention has heretofore been given to the physical side of our lives; and it is only in recent times that we have begun to see ourselves in the perspective and have taken heed of the necessity for physical education. . And now that it has come, that in the present day our consciousness to such a need has been awakened, it is well that we exercise judgment and care, so that we may look forward to the best results possible. There are but few spectacles that give one more wholesome satis- faction and are more pleasing to the eye than the witnessing of a stalwart body of marching men or youths, showing strength and grace and har- mony of motion. There are very few scenes that are more pleasing than groups of healthy youths engaged in a game on the athletic field. And what is finer and gives us a purer pleasure than the sight of a strong symmetrical, and agile human being? Up to this point of development we may well devote ourselves, and with profit. But, with Athleticism as with all things, an excess may be reached, before its presence is fully realized. And with this excess of athleticism, there come certain conditions which may easily be a,source of trouble and danger to the individual. It is this over athleticism and overtraining that I shall discuss to- day, attempting to show its manifestations, the harm that may come with it, and to indicate to a certain extent how such may be prevented. From the Transactions of the Fourth International Congress on School Hygiene, Buffalo, August, 1913.
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