Evening Star Newspaper, May 23, 1929, Page 46

LONG, TIRESOME DRILLS FOUND TO BE HARMFUL Preponderance of Victories Go to Teams Which Have Winter and Spring Sessions—Other Interesting Facts Revealed. BY H. C. BYRD. . TATISTICS have been used for many and varying purposes, but it seems that Penn State is first in the field to make an effort through that medium to determine what is most responsible for | success in foot ball—that is, success as registered in the number of victories attained as against defeats. And, while deductions from statistical data are at best uncertain depending often on the kind of conclusion one wishes to draw, it is a fact that some of the informa- tion obtained at Penn State from a compilation of answers to its questionnaire is very interesting. Of course, success in any business or profession hardly can be gauge: trying to get together data on wha ably had little idea that its findings ing greater success for coaches. d by formula, and Penn State in t makes success in foot ball prob- would be of real value in develop- But even so, the results are interest- ing, even if some of them may sound a bit like trying to prove an axiom. Take, for instance, the matter of length of practice. The study | developed the fact that the successful rractice as much as the unsuccessful. 1t is one case in which statistics bear out what some good coaches | Scalzi, Wi always have claimed, namely, that long, are harmful and tend to destroy a squad's efficiency rather than | build it up. Glen Warner some years ago told the| writer that “the average foot ball team | practices too long. The men stay on | the field until they get tired and worn out, and then are unfit for a game on Saturday. And without the gest and spirit for that kind of competition no | team can win games.” In other words, fairly short practice periods, with real work while practice is going on, are the best kind of practice if one wants to| win games. Thirty Good Men Enough. But, on the other hand, one alleged fact deduced from the study is that “it would seem that a large number of can- didates improve & team's chances of success.” Probably the best teams have out larger numbers of candidates than the weaker, but it is not numbers that always develops the best foot ball. Al squad of 30, with some real foot ball | men in it, would make a much better team than a squad of 230 without some real players. Witness what Center Col- lege did some years back with ‘barely one good team against some schools that had hordes of men in uniform. Under ordinary conditions, though, and all other things being even, it does not take the brain of a Gladstone to com- prehend that the laws of average should | enable a coach to pick a better team out of 200 men than out of 50. ‘The study revealed a preponderance of victorles for teams that engage in Winter and Spring practice as against teams that do not. Those who con- ducted the study simply tabulated the teams that went through Winter and Spring practice and those that did not, then took the number of victories to- taled by those that had the extra work and those that did not. The result was such as to indicate that unless there Was Stronger e stronger elevens. Another very significant item is that which indicates the teams that had too many domestic, home-grown or alumni conches did not stack up nearly as well in games won as did teams tutored by outside coaches. The figures seemed to| 2oCON s remarkable coincidence Winter| (G Spring practice helps develop much v elevens of the country do not That means a good deal, and tiresome practice periods CATHOLIC U. DOWNS GALLAUDET IN MEET Showing general superiority, Catholic University downed Gallaudet, 732 points to 5215, yesterday in the Brook- land stadium. The meet ended the sea- son for both teams. C. U. would have trimmed the Ken- dall Greeners by a much larger margin | 5 had it not been for the fine work of Louis Byouk of Gallaudet, who took individual points. | Oscar Gerth and Johnny Lyons, the former with 11 points and the latter with 9, were most consistent for the Cardinals. Steve De Voe and Gene Orlowski, both of C. U, broke stadium records. The former stepped the half mile in 2 minutes 2 1-5 seconds and the latter pole vaulted 11 feet 1 inch. Summaries: 100-yard dash—Won by Byouk (G): sec- gnd. Lyons (C. U+ third, McGuigan (C. U. conds. ash—Won by Lyons (C. U.): (G.): third, McGuigan (C. ds. k2 (©._ U McGuigan (C.. U.); Byouk Time, 53 seconds. Equals stadium ard run—Won by De Voe (C. U. ond, Dobson (G.): Time, 2 minutes 2%s seconds. Old record. 3 minutes 415 second: Wheeler (Johns Hopkins). One-mile run—won by Dobson (G): sec- ond, tie between Ferris (C. U.) and Wurde- man (G Time, 8 minutes 35 seconds. ‘wo-nilie run—won by Ferrls (C. U): (C. U.); third, Rosenkiar 0 minutes 54 seconds. gh hurdles - Wo rth (C. U.); nds s—Won b th (C. s, made by n by Zeno (C. third, ‘Stebbins McGrath )5 third, hes. n_by Orlowski (C. U): : third, tie between show that several'coaches for & squad | 11 feet St {Gen ‘won for the squad greater success, pro- vided the coaches were not all of the alumni variety. - In other words, the results of the study do not speak very 3 well for the system of having the squad | g tutored by a group of alumni. ~ Coaches Appear Wrong. ‘The answers to another fon show quest; that what the majority of coaches think | D really is not best. Sixty-eight rer cent of the coaches stated that they felt it was best for their squads to go to the scene of the game just in time for the game, so that disconcerting contacts might be avoided. Yet the number of victories chalked up by teams of the other class—that class tutored by coaches who feel it is best to take their squads to the scene of the game early, in order to familiarize them with the J—lndlm that the last-men- tioned system is best. As the announced result sums it up, “in spite of the fact that most of the coaches favor one pol- icy, the results indicate that it is wiser to adopt the other.” Other points of interest were devel- oped by answers to It all teams scrimmage Wednesdays and Thursdays, with many of them scrimmaging on Mondays and Fridays as well. In October most of them still scrimmage on Tuesday, Wedn‘esdny and Thursdam, ;‘vma t;nly Xx‘x very few scrimmaging on Monday. November about all the scrimmaging that is done takes vK’ltu:e on Tuesday and ‘Wednesday, with virtually none on Mon- gly or Friday, and some few on Thurs- ay. Eighty per cent of the teams an- swered that they warm up on Friday, while 6 per cent take complete rest and 10 per cent do just whatever the day demanded. Four per cent did not indi- cate any preference. It also seems that very few teams enforce any rest period after practice before eating, and so far as could be gauged this did not affect the squads. Sixty-nine per cent of the teams have their big meal in the eve- ning. Goes Without Saying. Now here comes a most remarkable deduction: “The team with the largest proportion of bright men has a slight edge on any other.” Almost as well draw the deduction that after pouring several glasses of water on one’s clothes that water is wet. Everybody, however, was of the opinion that to do much traveling is a decided disadvantage. Some coaches have held that a team is not affected by traveling, and some cases would seem to bear that out. The old Carlisle Indians, for instance; or Notre Dame. However, either Warner or Rockne probably would admit, de- spite their victories with much travel- ing, that it is far easier to play games at_home. The report of the study contludes‘, with this statement: | “It is possible to predict roughly the! most likely number of games a team| will win if we know the size of its equad, whether it engages in Winter practice, the number of weeks of Spring practice it has, and the proportion of home gamps on its schedule.” All of which is very good, so far as it | goes, and it undoubtedly is true that these factors affect foot ball victories very materially. It also is true, too,| that foot ball success, with the vast| psychological element it carries, cannot be measured with a yardstick any more | than a man’s success in business can be definitely weighed and the factors con- tributing to his success used to help others. Give two men the same money, the same advantages, the same condi- tions generally, and one will succeed and the other fail, and it will be diffi- cuit for anybody to tell why. The same is true of foot ball. One school may seem to have everything to contribute to its success on the gridiron. Another school may not be half so fortunate, yet the school that seems at a great disad- vantage will be victorious in more games than the other. So many factors enter into_the achievement of success that it is almost impossible to determine what really is responsible for it. Schools may fill out questionnaires on what they do to attain success on the gridiron, but no formula ever will be deduced from the answers that will contribute much 15 tha sionaes of 6thers, ). lagher (G.): sec- hl‘rd. Malevich :8 1 inches. ampa (C. U.), Helght, 5 feet ). -Wo! rth (C. U): N yons (. econd, s n (c. 7. e T L T e (8D, Ridings (8. scoring honors with 20| TRIP WILL DECIDE * STANDING OF G0 | Nine, Which Has Won 8 of 13 Games, to Play Seven Times in North. G wind up approximately no- | where, leaves tonight on a 7- EORGETOWN UNIVERSITY'S base ball team, which started |8 victories and 5 defeats. | There will be no set-up among the seven opponents, of which Providence University will be the first, but the Hilltoppers are confident of an_even break at least. They have won five of their last six games. Providence will be met tomorrow. The other games will be with Yale, Holy Cross, Harvard, Boston College, West Point and New York U. Coach O'Nell will take along the fol- | lowing players: Ralph Duplin, captain; | Johnny_Bozek, Johnny Dunn, Johnny alter Morris. Tom Phelan, Mc- | Namara, Charley Ralph McCarty, Packy White, Poole and Ed Leary. 31, will end the Georgetown season. | “'Navy's Plebes were beaten, 11 to 6, | by the Hilitop Freshmen in & slugging battle at Annapolis. Slater hit a homer, double and single to lead the winning attack. George Washington's tennis team scored a clean sweep over Virginia at | Charlottesville yet it was a tough battle all the way. Only one of the six matches was won in straight sets. In this, Seidel | defeated Noel, 6—4, 6—3. Summarles: Singles. Considine (G. W.) defeated Johns, 6—4, Phulips (G. W.) defeated Morcroft, 3—6, Staubly (G. W.) defeated Taylor, 63, Beidel (G. W.) defeated Noel, 6—4, 6—3. Doubles. Considine and Phillips defeated Johns and Moreroft, A R Staubléy and Seidel defeated Taslor and , 71—, 6—1. Wright, 4—8 James E. Pixlee, the Colonials’ new athletic director, was promised the whole-hearted support of the student body at a mass memn§ in Corcoran Hall, attended by several hundred. Dr. Cloyd Heck Marvin, president of the university; Pixlee, and the retiring ath- speakers. EVENTS SCHEDULED FOR COLLEGE TEAMS TOMORROW. Georgetown vs. Providence at Provi- dence, R. 1. (base ball). Maryland Freshmen _vs. Baltimore SATURDAY. Maryland vs. Johns Hopkins at Balti- more Stadium (lacrosse). Georgetown vs. Holy Cross at Worces- ter, Mass, (base ball) JUNIORS WANT GAME. Raleigh A. C. base ballers are after a game for Sunday with a junior class They have a diamond. Call nine. Columbia 4995 after 6:30 p.m. COLLEGE BASE BALL. Navy, 8; Western Maryland, 2. Northwestern, 5; Meiji of Japan, 3. Lafayette, 8; Princeton, 7. — mileage grow! TRADE IN YOUR OLD SET OF TIRES ON GOODYEAR DOUBLE —EAGLES— or on ALL- WEATHERS 6-PLY HEAVY DUTY or STANDARD the season as though it would | game Northern trip with a standing of | Malone, Bob Wholley, | Hal | “The New York University game, May | letic director, H. Watson Crum, were | City College at College Park (lacrosse). | | [ | == | By GRANT EAR SIR: We have three or four teams playing a one-team foot ball game: a two-man team in | Heydler proposing a_ten-man base ball nine. Why not extend the same idea to the boxing game? Any change the rules so that his manager can send in a substitute; if not during a round, then at the end of any round. more. sport these days—and the manager or coach. So the fight manager with the hift his fighters to the best advantage would win the bout. Think of the fine strategy that would be brought into ager's starting horse, of putting in a boxer or a slugger as occasion seemed to require, of seeming to be about to moment the gong sounded of sending in a slugger. What a matching of wits thta would stimulate! What do you | R, | _ Think also of the duffer in goif. In place of winding his way into & morass of weeds and dough and could always have at hand a husky who might tear out enough scenery to get the ball on the fairway. Or, putt in a pinch, he could rush into action a first-class putter who had no bet on the match. He might even Long Reign of lllinois and Michigan in Blg Ten | All Team Stuff. six-day bicycle races, and time a man seems close to a knockout, An individual doesn't count much any best stable or the canniest ability to | action in anticipating the other man- substitute a boxer, say, and then at the | think? OLDTIMER. bushes to hack his heart out, he facing a trickling, sidehill, 6-foot FIVE IN RUNNIN May Be Broken. B the Associated Press. in big track, preliminaries in | the twenty-ninth renewal of the annual Western Conference championships will be held tomorrow at Dyche Stadium, Northwestern University. Illinois is favored to repeat its tri- umph of the last two years and Michi- gan is ranked close behind, but Iowa, Ohio State and Chicago have earned consideration by performances in Spring events. Michigan and Illinois each have won the outdoor title 10 times since the first meeting in 1901, and have won the championships of the last 11 years be- tween them. During the latter period the Illini have taken six titles and five };;v)e_‘ been carried back to Ann Arbor, ich, Chicago has finished at the top of the heap three times in the history of the meet and was the last school to conquer before the Illinois-Michigan domination set in. The Maroons won their last track champlonship in 1917. least three schools accorded chances of ending the 11-year | one, California one and Stanford and | Notre Dame tied for one. largest entry list since it was restricted to Big Ten schools in 1926, with 325 stars entered. Coaches will meet tomorrow morning to arrange for heats and other details in connection with running off of 11 events in which qualification tests are to be held. It's the team spirit that rules| HICAGO, May 23.—With at| reign of Illinols and Michigan | Wisconsin has taken two titles, Missouri | This year's event has drawn the RTLIGHT LAND RICE engage a Walter Hagen or a Horton Smith in matches against opponents he was especiaily anxious to hook. The ' possibilities_are unlimited and around 1935 or 1940 it may all come to this method. The Matter of Balance. EAR SIR: Read with your article on balance. some more; ‘The Prince of Wales was crazy on interest Here Is | of the inner ear and no balance sense. He can ride good on the flat, but as soon as he goes over the jumps, espe- | clally the broad double English hurdle | and water jump, his sense of balance | fails him. He won't give up because of | the obstinate Deutsche streak in him. I myself used to be a good diver, but now having lost hearing of one ear, I lose my sense of direction under water, even with my eyes open, and have ben nearly drowned twice, once in a swimming pool, diving, and once_coming down the chute. As soon as I get under water I cannot find my way to the top again. This may explain some mysterious drown=- ings of strong swimmers in warm waters, where the danger of cramp should not exist. I never go in the water now. I guess the dumb English doctors do not know that his hearing affects the balance of the Prince and so he will go on riding steeplechase until he is killed, which is a pity, for his mother is a fine woman. If he rieds good on the flat and falls at the jumps any dumb doctor would know it is his hearing. READER. 'HE point has been pretty well made that if Max Schmeling flops, the heavyweight situation will be in a some- what patchy condition. This, then, | would leave only Paulino and Sharkey. | | | | | i with Heeney and Risko, who were not in Tunne class. Sharkey lost to Dempsey, got a draw with Heeney and lost to Risko. He had only a slight mar- in on Christner and Stribling. There s nothing in the records of Paulino and Sharkey to indicate championship class, Paulino is as tough as rawhide and he has shown he can take as much as a rhinoceros. Sharkey is a good boxer. But to rate either on their past perfcrmances as a successor to,Demp- sey and Tunney would be out of order, unless one of the two can show a ter- rific bulge over anything they have shown so far. If Schmeling can beat both men decisively there will be no question about awarding him the top place and the accompanying rewards. ‘There are any number who believe the German can beat Sharkey if only he can crowd his way by Pau- lino. which they consider much the | harder test. The point is that it will be & mis- | | take to have any of the three survivors now holding most of the spotlight to flying till they found he had & disease | | Paulino barely moved on even terms | low all kinds of sporting events, and | today. Which is also something hard you may be sure I am always pulling | to prove. for our Uncle Sam'’s boys in any and all | | international events. | . Would like to have your opinion on | the above, if you can find time to com- | ment on the same. H. H. E. | all very well to let some one else set the lead, but letting some one else pick up six or eight laps is another Each c! i e hampion to his own genera- ... - tion—there is no way of arranging any comparisons that would mean anything. | | Conditions change along too many | [lines. And with all the innumerable | isn't more & mental t | It 15 next to impossible to compare now engaged in competitive | proiociion As ,a:l ‘"",.' e | the stars of one generation with the | is honor enough to lead any | Sl ong as & two-year-old 'cha.“pm; ofh:nolhor. d’rhcre is Jno ion of the game as it moves | Child can easily tap a putt twenty | question but that golf today has a far through any one neration. "or thirty feet, the e greater number of fine players than it jaetis { b ienaily® aoer Pm‘:‘,:f;: 1!:!;1?‘: B B B BB By i a matter of mental attitnde. which for growth of the game has been one of the siccess demands ease, confidence and most, phenomenal turns in sport. There e ST L L were fine goifers in the day when Ver- | ¥ situation. don, Taylor and Braid dominated the . sport and won their 16 championships. But there were not nearly as many fine dcf;"z‘:"fj""{_"'\“{_h- (o;m:-:: boxer, ea golfers then as there are mow. | b ey l;om"’nr ig Chicago Greek, In o discussion of smart ball players Jast DghtTat e Gane an oldtime fan wrote in recently that Bobby M . King Mike Kelley had more base ball . RN ol brains than any four ball players can Young Gotch in preliminaries. R. L. wants to know whether putting The Athletics seem to have decided it was a slight technical mistake to | allow the Yankees to get a jump of thirteen and one-half games, ‘as they did a year ago. After thinking it over id A's planned to use a new system this Spring, permitting the ankees to get almost no jumn at a'l his is a far better system. Last Sum: mer the Athletics chopped a.ay wi of the thirteen-game lead. but couldn’t quite close up the entire gap. It is America’s Best Known Shoes W.L. I?UGLA oes for MEN and BOYS Are WY paying too much \3/«51' y%urgs/wes? ' you feel that your shoes are costing more than they really should.... and if want good shoes.... well styled, carefully made and properly shaped for the com- fort of your feet.... fluy W. L. DOUGLAS SHOES r You Men's %5 10 8.50 Boys’ $3.50, $4, $4.50 get the best workmanship, highest quality im- ported and domestic leathers....correct style, You comfortable fit and long wear....and you Save from $1 to $3 on every pair....a savingon the family shoe bill for a year which runs into ‘..enou%:x to let you buy yourself a new pair of sport shoes, or give your son a new pair of ‘W. L. Douglas shoes for Decoration Day. | figure that any one can be awarded the championship by merely edging by with | only a shade to spare. The top of the | hill happens to be vacant and some one | should be made to earn his place there, | rather than survive becanse the others | | were a trifle worse. Hagen and Vardon. | EAR Mr. Rice: Do you not think that the feat of Walter Hagen, in winning the British open golf cham- pionship four times in the last seven or eight years, is more of an accomplish- ; ment than that of Vardon in saining it | six times? At that time the high-class golf- ers were not so plentiful and Amer- ica had given the game but very lit- tle attention, while today the game is alive with crack players capable | of winning major titles at any time. | Do you think Vardon could win six | tiits against the present fleld, and were his total stroke scores as low as those made in the last eight or ten years? I am no golf bu or player, but fol- | Mid-Washington SERVICE COMPANY, Inc. ROAD SERVICE Phone_ 3::@:6 32 these great tires on the road That’s the best test, the surest demonstra- tion of their grip and strength and supple shock-absorbing Goodyear quality. Test them in Washington’s heaviest traffic —out on our highways. Watch trouble-free Goodyear’s name and seal is on these tires! New GOODYEAR Improved Pathfinder TI 29x4.40 ..56.15 31x5.25..$1(.5¢ 30x4.50 ..$6.95 31x6.00..513.80 30x5.00 ..$8.85 22x6.00..514.00 \J 31x5.00 ..$9.25 33x6.00..5]4.20 TRUCK T 96 GOORNSYEAR PA RES PG OO DYEAR IRES 30x5 .......521.10 33x5 .......§23.30 32x6 .......532.00 36x6 .......$35.15 Electrical Vulcanizing MOUNTED AND SERVICED FREE Thousands of men and boys have learned the secret of saving on shoes.....they wear ‘W. L. Douglas shoes, because THEY COST LESS..... THEY WEAR BETTER W. L. DOUGLAS SHOE CO., Brockton, Mass. 125 STORES IN PRINCIPAL CITIES OF UNITED STATES If mot sold in your vicinity, write to factory for estalog of Spring Stylas. Open Saturday Evenings 905 Pennsylvania Ave. N.W. You can’t wreck the SAMSONBAK BELT with your hands—so yow won’t by wearing it STRONG men aren’t all in the circus! That’s the warning we received when we first challenged men to a tug-of-war on the new HANES SAMSONBAK Union Suit. But we knew our garment. And now big men and little men in every walk of life are satisfied that here are the longest service, the best fit and the most comfort ever found in a union suit. Hustle around to your dealer. Tell him you want to see for SAMSONBAK The belt sta-et-c-h-e.s marvelously, but never rips. That belt goes three- quarters of the way around your body too—everywhere there’s any possibil- ity of pulling or binding. And there’s not a strand of rubber in it to break or lose elasticity. You won’t find this belt in any other union suit—or anything like the comfort. The whole idea is patented. The cost is only one dollar. There are many other styles in HANES Underwear. See them all — particularly the smart new shirts and shorts. P. H. Hanes Knitting Co., Winston- Salem, North Carolina. yourself how strong the SAMSONBAK really is. He’ll get a stranglehold on one end of the suit. You grab the other. Then pull, pull hard. Look for the Samson- BAK label before you bwy. Center section of bels.is in blue to help Mentification.,