COMMON sense is the primary rule that regulates all training nowadays. The system of wrecking and then rebuilding is dead and gone. Our trainers are more enlightened, and our know. ledge of the laws which govern the existence of mankind more extensive.
It is useless to attempt to formulate any special set of rules or recommendations for training. Every swimmer has his constitutional peculiarities to consider, and the diet, as well as exercise, which suits one may be absolutely injurious to another. The main principle of all judicious training is to get into the best possible condition, and to keep in that state as long as possible. It is better not to train at all than to do it by spas modic spurts, and then lapse back into a careless style of living.
The old styles of training are too well known to need recapitulation. They were never extensively indulged in by the old race of amateur swimmers, to whom, doubtless, the sensible idea that for a race it was absurd to go through a fearful ordeal of almost prison work must often have occurred, while the present generation rarely, if ever, make any pretence of training, beyond indulging in practice swims. Those who are in the front rank generally do prepare themselves for the great events of the year in a more or less desultory fashion, but the susceptibilities of the strict training disciplinarian are often affected by the habits in which his charge will indulge just before starting in an important race.
So great has been the progress made by the teachers of physical education during the last decade, that boys and girls now usually pass from school well grounded in the prin ciples of elementary exercise. But the temptation to relax physical work when one is healthy in body and mind is one which cannot be easily overcome. There are many successful athletes who boast that they never train, but yet are equal to meeting all the trained men of their time. That time is, how ever, short, and surely, if but slowly, the day of reckoning comes, and the trained division win from them the pride of place. Neither a swimmer nor any other athlete can afford to play with his constitution. If it be strong, it is certainly advis able to make it stronger, if possible, rather than to weaken it in the slightest degree ; whilst if it be weak, sound exercise may result in incalculable advantages in later years.
In this country the majority of swimming races are held in the evening, and in covered baths. The swimmers—who, as a
rule, are engaged in business all day---eat a hearty meal just before going to the bath, and swim in their particular race, or play water-polo, perhaps within half an hour after satisfying their appetites. The digestive organs are thereby considerably affected, and if the system be maintained for years, as it very often is, the general vitality of the body is impaired, and the seeds of chronic alimental disturbance sown. It cannot be too strongly impressed upon swimmers as a body that the eating of meals prior to racing is absolutely injurious from a physical point of view, as well as a deterrent to success. One of the greatest evils that a swimmer has to contend with is that of cramp, and this is often brought on through a deranged or full stomach. It is, therefore, of the highest importance that strict attention should be paid to diet, that the meals should be eaten regularly, and not too soon before practice or racing.