Physical education : in the Young men's Christian associations of North America

Contents

CHAPTER PAGE

Preface v

I History i

Preface

The present volume is a revision of " Physical Training," the Association textbook, written at the Lakehurst Conference. As that volume was the work of a number of different committees meeting separately with little chance for consultation with each other it necessarily contained many repetitions, and while some features of the work were unduly emphasized others were not given the space their importance demanded.

This revision is an attempt to correct those faults while adhering to the principle laid down at that gathering. The historical sketch and several of the chapters have been rewritten but wherever possible the text of the former volume has been used. Many suggestions by M. I. Foss and Dr. Geo. J. Fisher have added to the value and clearness of the text and acknowledgment is given them for their painstaking criticisms and for the parts written by them.

Owing to the limit set for such a textbook, the treatment of many subjects is necessarily brief and is suggestive rather than exhaustive.

G. F. P.

Chapter I History

The Young Men's Christian Association was organized by George Williams, a clerk in a drapery establishment at St. Paul's Churchyard, London, England, June 6, 1844.

This young man, an earnest Christian, and deeply interested in the welfare of his fellows, invited a group of associates in the same employ to meet in his room and talk over ways and means to improve the conditions of young clerks, especially their religious life.

The object of this parent Association was stated thus: " The improvement of the spiritual condition of the young men in the drapery and other trades."

This purpose was soon enlarged to include their mental and social needs. Attractive rooms were secured where reading matter was kept on file and popular lectures given. Membership was limited to members of churches and those that gave evidence of " converted character." Young men not Christians were admitted to associate membership, but took no part in the conduct or management of the organization. In 1848 a library was opened and a short time afterward the simpler forms of educational work were attempted. Physical training received no attention in this early movement.

The first Associations in America were organized in

I

Montreal and Boston in 185 1, on the same basis as the English Association, the work being similar in character and scope.

The first mention of physical work is found in the Annual Report of Brooklyn, N. Y., Association in 1885, as follows : " It is undeniably true that the young men of our cities, especially those to whom the possession of that physical development upon which health of body, strength of mind, and even moral stamina are so necessary, require the stimulus and recuperative energy of recreation and manual exercises. . . . Relaxation, diversion, and animated recreation are a pressing need."

At the third Annual Conference of the Associations of North America, held in Montreal in 1856, the physical work came up for discussion and a special committee, of which George D. Bell of Brooklyn was chairman, was appointed to consider and report on the matter. It submitted the following :

" I. That as bodily health is intimately connected with mental and spiritual activity and development, anything which conduces to the same must be beneficial per se.

2. That, when properly conducted, gymnasiums, baths, and bowling alleys are beneficial to bodily health and development.

3. That the public sentiment in many of our cities in regard to bowling alleys renders it inexpedient for the convention to recommend their establishment.

4. That the convention recommends, where practical, the establishment of baths, to be as far as possible selfsupporting, that is, to be maintained apart from the regular dues of the Association."

These resolutions were tabled.

In Washington, D. C, in 1856, a committee was appointed to consider and report plans for inaugurating physical work, but nothing was done.

The sentiment in favor of this movement, however, was gaining strength and could not be ignored.

In 1858 the Brooklyn Association reported a strong pressure in favor of physical training and the installation of bowling alleys. The Annual Report quotes the following from an address by Henry Ward Beecher: " The amusement question must be faced ; men whose principal occupation is brain work need muscular amusement; men whose principal occupation is muscular work need brain amusement; two classes of amusement are needed — a so-called social and a muscular.''

At the National Convention held in New Orleans in i860, four years after the Montreal resolutions were tabled, the following was unanimously adopted : " That the establishment of gymnasiums is desirable and expedient, provided they be in all cases under exclusive control of such Associations as may choose to adopt this feature as a safeguard against the allurements of objectionable places of resort, which have proved the ruin of thousands of the youth of our country.''

The Civil War rendered it impossible for the Associations to branch out into new lines and the agitation in favor of the physical work was held in abeyance for a time, but it was by no means eliminated. At the National Convention held in Boston in 1864, the Reverend H. C. Potter read an essay in which the following statement appears:

" Any machinery, however, will be incomplete which does not take in the whole man. ... If our Associations would make it a question of how much they can afford toward giving healthful mental and perhaps physical recreation, what machinery they could put in operation."

All that was now needed was a leader of national reputation to crystallize this sentiment into actual effort. This leadership was found in Robert R. McBurney, the General Secretary of the Twenty-third Street Association, New York City, who, when planning the great building at Twenty-third Street and Fourth Avenue, at the suggestion of William Wood, who owned a private gymnasium, included in the equipment a gymnasium, bowling alleys, and baths. The plans were drawn by Mr. Wood and the apparatus with which it was equipped was designed and manufactured under his supervision.

In 1866 the Constitution of the New York City Association was changed to read, '* The object of this Association shall be the improvement of the spiritual, mental, social, and physical condition of young men."

This building was opened in 1869 and Mr. Wood became the first Physical Director. The same year the San Francisco Association provided a gymnasium in its new building, but this was a much smaller structure.

Mr. Wood had the distinction of being the pioneer and forerunner of that splendid body of men who later became not only the leaders in the physical work of the Association, but of the physical training movement throughout the entire country. He brought to the work a large experience gained in conducting a private gymnasium, and under his enthusiastic and energetic management the movement was a success from the very first.

At this time physical training in the country was in a chaotic state. The German and Swedish systems had been imported unchanged, but except in isolated instances, had not met with popular approval. Dr. Die

Lewis with his system of light gymnastics had popularized the lighter forms of exercise, but there was nothing that could be called an American system. Athletics and games were extensively indulged in, baseball, a distinctly American game, being the favorite, while cricket, lacrosse and football had many devotees.

Three colleges had built and equipped gymnasiums in i860, namely, Amherst, Yale, and Harvard.

In 1861, Edward Hitchcock, M. D., a graduate of Amherst College and Harvard Medical School, was called to take charge of Amherst College Gymnasium and the following appears in a report of his work made to the Board of Trustees of the College in 1881. It is a fairly accurate description of the character of physical training carried on by colleges and schools in this early period :

" Physical culture, as expressed to Amherst College students by the experiences of the past twenty years, means something besides, something in addition to, muscular exercise. It includes cleanliness of skin, attention to stomach and bowels, relaxation from daily mental work, freedom from certain kinds of petty discipline, but with so much requirement and restraint as will give coherence, respect, and stability to the methods of maintaining health and the men employing them. The way in which students here are called upon to secure health and its correct and normal maintenance for college requirements, is to be sure of some active, lively, and vigorous muscular exercise at stated periods ; not requiring a rigid military or hardening drill of certain portions of the body, but offering them such exercises as shall, while regularly engaged in, be vigorous, pleasant, recreative, and at the same time, even without a manifest consciousness of it, be calling into exercise their powers in active, vigorous, easy, and graceful movements. Light wooden dumb-bells, weighing about one pound each, are placed in the hand, and then a series of movements are directed and timed by music, occupying in all from 20 to 30 minutes each day, and are simultaneously performed by a whole class under the lead of the captain. . . .

*' During the first few years of our work, the simpler and easier forms of heavy gymnastic work were required of all the classes ; every man was expected to practice heavy gymnastics under the direction of the leader, one of the class. This became very tedious work, irksome and impossible for men to do except with such effort, moral and physical as was injurious to be put on a large part of the class. . . . But it was found out that the men who were sound in all four of their limbs and eyesight could go through movements enough with wooden dumb-bells to secure the necessary muscular waste and development for healthful study, and hence no requirement for heavy gymnastic work has been made of any student for the past fifteen years. At the same time there are a few who take as naturally to heavy gymnastics, and as profitably too, as ducks to water, and these are allowed and encouraged to reasonable efforts in this direction. These at first are guided and watched, but they are at length allowed and expected to go on with their exercises in this direction at their own discretion, save with the aid of one of the members of the older classes who has shown himself the best gymnast in the college."

The type of work conducted by Mr. Wood was largely of this character. A vigorous and rapid calisthenic drill with wooden dumb-bells was followed by a few minutes on the apparatus, the period ending with a run around the gymnasium floor, the indoor running track not having been invented. Mr. Wood was not a promoter and the influence of his work was not felt outside of New York City. In a word, he was a gymnastic instructor only and was in no sense an Association officer. To the work of the other departments, and especially the religious, he felt no responsibility. This was not at all strange, for the attitude of the religious leaders of the Associations was one of tolerance, if not active opposition to the physical work, and it was considered largely in the light of an attraction to draw young men under religious influence.^

Physical work now became a permanent feature of the Association activities and in nearly all the new buildings erected accommodations were provided for its prosecution. At first grudgingly, but later, as its importance was recognized, spacious and well-lighted and ventilated rooms were planned. Brooklyn and Boston erected gymnasiums which were models for their time.

The progress of the movement met with opposition from many of the religious leaders of the Association who could see no relation between the spiritual and physical natures of men. The conception of the unity of man had found no place in the thought of the majority of its secretaries and lay workers. The movement lacked the essentials of Christian leadership. This introductory period lasted for about fifteen years.

In 1877, the Boston Association engaged the services of Robert J. Roberts, an earnest Christian young man, as physical director, and it was largely through his efiforts and those of the men whom he trained that the physical work came to be recognized as an important adjunct to the religious work.

Mr. Roberts entered the Association work at a critical period. He was an enthusiast in physical training. Previous to his employment by the Association his evenings were given up entirely to gymnastics. He was a

1 Mr. Wood continued in charge at this Association until the fall of 1888, when he retired to take up business, having been twenty years in the service.

member of the Union Gymnasium, Dr. Winship's gymnasium, and the Association gymnasium, in each of which places he spent two evenings every week. The Association at Boston had been very much discouraged with the results of its physical work and was contemplating discontinuing it when Mr. Roberts asked for a trial as instructor. When he took charge the membership was 226, but in 1885, nine years later, it had increased to 1,270.

His enthusiasm was unbounded. He became dissatisfied with the type of work with which he had been familiar. The heavy work of Winship convinced him, he says, " that health did not necessarily improve as strength increased," and that the heavy lifting of Dr. Winship's system did not yield the '' greatest good to the greatest number, physically speaking," and Die Lewis's exercises he considered too light. Dr. Leonard, in '' Pioneers of Modern Physical Training," quotes him as saying:

" I noticed that when I taught slow, heavy, fancy, and more advanced work in acrobatics, gymnastics, athletics, etc., that I would have a very large membership at the first of the year, but that they would soon drop out because they could not do the work, and . . . the weak members would not renew the next season. ... I give most of my attention to those who need it most, the bejDfinners, and those who cannot for various reasons do the more advanced work. By . . . pushing simple work I can get more men to go into it, and find it easier to get leaders to teach it, and also can run more classes in a day. ... In the competitive work and the harder kind of safe exercises the men leave the classes and become spectators, but when I reach easier work the crowd do the work and the few look on."

Mr. Roberts also emphasized trunk exercises, rather than those of the legs and arms, so as to influence the respiration and circulation favorably and keep the abdominal organs in a condition of healthy activity. He gave special attention to the muscles which expand the chest, draw back the head and shoulders and hold the body erect. According to the *' Roberts Platform," as it came to be known, all exercises should be safe, short, easy, beneficial, and pleasing. They must be safe for the man who does them, i. e., well within the limit of his capacity at the time. When apparatus is employed such work must be selected that the members of the squad or class follow each other rapidly without tedious waits. No exercise must represent more than a sHght advance over others which have preceded it. " Each must serve some definite and useful end," instead of being chosen at random and with nothing in mind beyond the mere desire to keep the class busy. It must give pleasure, if it is to exert its full eflfect and not degenerate into a sort of monotonous and mechanical " grind." These principles found illustration in the '' Roberts Dumb-bell Drill," and the little volume of " Classified Gymnasium Exercises, with Notes," which were very generally used in Associations twenty years ago.

Not the least of the contributions of Mr. Roberts to the physical work was the large number of men he trained for the physical directorship. During the years 1885, 1886, and 1887 he sent no less than twenty-eight meii into the work. Dr. L. H. Gulick thus sums up his contribution to physical training in the Association :

"He developed a distinctive style of gymnastic work which is exceedingly simple, is attractive, can be operated in large classes, is effective in relation to the vital functions of digestion, circulation, and respiration, and which can be successfully taught by teachers of mediocre ability. The wholesome and helpful personality of the man, his unswerving loyalty to his own platform, and the enthusiasm for right living with which he inspires his classes have made him a notable figure among his colleagues. The ' Health Hints ' and other short articles published from time to time, chiefly in the Young Men's Era and other Association organs, have been lay sermons on his one text, * Hygienic body-building.' Among other inventions and improvements in gymnasium equipment, we owe to him the indoor shot, the medicine ball, the thick felt mattress, and the felt and canvas running track. The objective of Mr. Roberts' work can be summed up in one word — Health."

Another man to whom not a little credit belongs for breaking down the prejudices of the religious leaders against physical work was J. Gardner Smith, a strong Christian worker, who was in charge of the physical department at the Young Men's Institute, New York City, while a student at the College of Physicians and Surgeons. He organized the first Leaders' Corps in the Association in 1885 and conducted a strong religious work among the members of the Physical Department, his Sunday morning Bible class being especially popular and successful. He spoke before many Association gatherings and to his influence the Physical Department owes much of its earlier success. Dr. Smith remained in the work for many years as Physical Director of the Harlem Branch, New York City. He resigned to become Director of Physical Education of Public Schools in New York City, which position he resigned to give his entire time to the practice of medicine.

The Physical Department of the Association was now entering upon a period of rapid expansion. In 1885

HISTORY II

David Allen Reed, a clergyman in Springfield, Massachusetts, organized a school for the training of secretaries for the Association work. In 1887 this course was enlarged and a Department of Physical Training was organized under the leadership of Dr. Luther H. Gulick and associated with him was R. J. Roberts, who had been called from Boston. '

Dr. Gulick, while a student at Oberlin College in 1885, where he had as roommate Thomas D. Wood (now Dr. Wood of Columbia University), became interested in physical training through a series of circumstances described by himself thus :

" The advent of one of Dr. Sargent's graduates. Miss Delphine Hanna, now Dr. Hanna, had brought to our minds in a more vivid way than ever before, that there really was such a thing as scientific teaching of gymnastics, genuine body building. We had both of us iDeen very much interested in the gymnastics and athletics of the college, had identified ourselves thoroughly with all the work that was going on in these lines, and had read as far as we were able to what had been written on the subject at that time. Blaikie's ' How to Get Strong,' particularly the chapter entitled, ' What a College Gymnasium Might Be and Do,' filled us with enthusiasm. One Sunday afternoon we took a long walk out into the woods, and sitting beside a rail fence we looked forward to the future of physical training. That day, that hour, was a turning point for both of us ; and . . . the glimpse which we secured that day of the future has remained ... a prophecy of the work which each of us was to do."

Dr. Gulick was so impressed by the importance of the subject and its immediate necessities and opportunities that he gave up his studies at Oberlin to attend Dr. Sargent's Normal School of Physical Training at Harvard. The following spring he became physical director of the gymnasium in the Association at Jackson, Michigan, but resigned in the fall of the same year to take up the study of medicine at the University of New York. In the summer of 1887 he and R. J. Roberts, conducted the first Summer School for Physical Directors at Springfield, Massachusetts, and in the fall he organized the Department of Physical Training in the School for Christian Workers. At the same time he continued his studies at the Medical College and gave part time to the International Committee in an advisory capacity on the physical work at large. He graduated in medicine in 1889 and then gave his entire effort to organizing the work of the school and supervising the general work as secretary of the Physical Department of the International Committee.

To Dr. Gulick belongs the credit of establishing the physical work of the Association upon a sane and scientific basis. His studies and writings on the philosophy of exercise, and the biology, psychology, and physiology of adolescence, were not only a stimulus to the physical work in the Association, but to the physical training movement throughout the country. His writings created an enlarged interest in the work for boys and his paper on the '^ Psychological, Pedagogical and Religious Aspect of Group Games," is one of the classics of the literature of physical training. He laid particular emphasis on the unity of man and introduced the equilateral triangle, base upward, as a symbol of this unity, the sides of the triangle representing Mind and Body respectively, the top. Spirit. This was adopted as the International emblem for the whole Association movement.

The progress of the physical training movement was now both rapid and permanent.

A Summer School for Physical Directors was conducted from 1887 to 1891 by the Springfield School. In this latter year basket ball was invented by Dr. Naismith, then one of the students at the school. In 1892 it called the first Summer Conference of Physical Directors, at which the preparation of a gymnastic and calisthenic nomenclature was begun. These conferences were the birthplaces of many of the present successful features of the physical work.

The discussion of anthropometry was one of the chief features at the conferences, and out of these discussions arose that extensive system of measurements and tests which held for so long a time a large place in the physical examination but which have now been almost discarded.

Emphasis was placed upon the all-round work, and Dr. Gulick brought out the indoor and outdoor pentathlons, which were received with immediate favor. He also introduced the point system of scoring which has since come into almost universal use.

At the International Convention in 1889 and 1891 the advisability of forming an athletic league within the Association was discussed and at the International Convention of 1893 the Physical Department Committee of the International Committee was instructed to present a working plan for such an organization to the next convention.

At the convention held in Springfield in 1895, the International Committee was directed to proceed with the organization, which it did, and on February 13, 1896, the constitution of the Athletic League of North America was adopted, which placed the direction of the League with the International Committee. The purpose of the organization was stated as follows:

1. The furtherance of Association Physical Department work.

2. The institution, regulation, and government of inter-Association gymnastic and athletic meets of all kinds.

3. The securing and maintenance of a genuine amateur basis in Association sport.

In the first year of its existence 87 Associations joined the League. It published its first handbook in 1897, which contained, besides the Constitution and By-laws of the League, rules for various athletic events, working schemes for all-round competition, rules for marching, dumb-bell drills, apparatus work, etc., all of which were the result of the work of the Summer Conferences of Physical Directors which were now called by the League.

In 1889 the League affiliated with the Amateur Athletic Union, the national body controlling athletics in the United States and Canada.

In 1884 a Western Conference was held at Lake Geneva, Wisconsin, and in 1890 a Department of Physical Training was organized at the Association Training School at Chicago.

The Physical Directors' Conference up to this time was in no sense a representative body, and all its recommendations were subject to the approval of the Athletic League.

In 1902 the first Physical Directors' Conference was called at Jamestown, N. Y., by the directors themselves, and the Physical Directors' Society was then organized. This society has been the dominating factor in shaping the policies and standards of physical work in the Association in later years.

The Physical Department, now possessing a strong internal organization manned by a body of trained Christian specialists, has entered upon a period of extension.

Physical Training, published monthly, has been able to conduct a program of education which has been an efficient means of unifying and propagating the various Physical Department activities.

Dr. Gulick resigned both from the School at Springfield and as Secretary of the Physical Department of the International Committee to become head of the Department of Physical Training in the public schools of New York City.^ Dr. George J. Fisher, who had been Physical Director at Cincinnati and Brooklyn Central, was appointed to succeed him. Dr. Fisher brought to the office the qualities of leadership most needed at this time, those of the promoter and organizer. Under his guidance the work of the Association has been extended to include not only those young men and boys within the Association, but also the young men and boys of the community at large. During his administration many phases of the work have been organized on a national basis. A National Health League has been founded; a National Leaders' Corps organization effected; great campaigns for teaching swimming have been conducted, and a new religious emphasis has been given to the whole movement.

As president of the Physical Directors' Society he has been the leading spirit in its gatherings and as editor of

2 When the United States entered the war, Dr. Gulick accepted a commission from the War Work Council to go to France and make a report on conditions in the camps of the American forces. On his return he wrote his report and then went to his camp on Lake Sebago, Maine, for a much needed rest. There he died suddenly on the morning of August 13, 19 1 8. His death leaves a large vacancy in the ranks of the apostles of Physical Education and Hygiene.

its organ, Physical Training, he has wielded an influence which cannot be overestimated. As secretary of the Athletic League he has successfully championed the " clean sport " propaganda and been the chief instrument in changing the basis of amateur athletic organization and competition. His influence has been widely felt outside the Association movement and he has been called upon to discharge many important duties in kindred organizations. In 1916 he was appointed by Governor Whitman of New York to be one of the commission to plan and put into operation a system of physical training for all public schools in the State of New York, as provided for in the Compulsory Military Training Law.

In this later period great buildings have been constructed with magnificent equipment and splendid natatoriums. The whole work has taken on a magnitude and completeness commensurate with its importance. The Physical Department of the Association has furnished the model in both equipment and method for a large variety of similar institutions, churches, settlements, boys' clubs, etc. Its work has been extended to foreign lands where it has found an eager acceptance in almost every country in the world. Oriental as well as Occidental. Everywhere the call has come for the American type of work and its spread is only limited by the means to equip it and the men to supervise it.

A number of Summer Schools have been organized to supplement the work of the regular training agencies at Springfield and Chicago, and to aid in meeting the greatly increased demand for physical directors. Those at Lake Geneva, Wisconsin, Silver Bay, New York, Couchiching, Ontario, Black Mountain, North Carolina, Estes Park, Colorado, Asilomar, California, and Seabeck,

Washington, have been largely attended not only by those already in the work who sought to supplement their previous training, but by members of the leaders' corps and others who were loSking forward to entering the field of Chrstian service.

Meanwhile there had been a growing dissatisfaction with the form of alliance with the Amateur Athletic Union. Dr. Kallenberg of the Chicago School, in 1908, with others organized the Cook County Amateur Athletic Federation to solve a local problem, and this organization proved such a success from the very first that the movement spread into many other fields.

The Physical Directors' Conference held at Columbus, Ohio, in July, 191 1, recommended to the International Committee that the alliance with the Amateur Athletic Union be terminated and the League be reorganized on a basis more in keeping with the spirit of athletic competition as conducted by the Association. (See "Athletic League Handbook.")

The Physical Directors' Society in June, 1913, passed a resolution that the time seemed ripe for a conference of leaders to state objectives clearly, revise policies, and establish higher standards.

Through the liberality of George D. Pratt, Chairman of the Physical Department of the International Committee, A. A. Hyde of Wichita, Kansas, John Penman of Paris, Ontario, John W. Ross of Montreal, and James Stokes of New York, such a conference was called to meet at Lakehurst, New Jersey. Twenty-five of the representative leaders of physical training in the Association were brought together and spent eight days go-» ing over the entire work of the Department.