Outdoor Sports and Games Part 20

A girl has the physical disadvantage of less endurance than a boy, and she does have to care for herself in that respect, and leave untried some forms of exercise that would be overexertion for her. A girl may "paddle her own canoe," of course, without risk of overstraining herself, but when it comes to moving it from place to place out of the water, the feather-light canoe of poetry becomes heavy reality. Two girls can carry a canoe between them for a short distance without much difficulty, but if one is alone it is far better to drag the canoe over the ground, which is not particularly hard on it, unless the ground is rough. The boy's way of carrying it balanced upside down on his shoulders requires considerable strength.

Devotees of tennis will claim first place for that among girls'

sports. The amount of practice and quickness of thought and motion that maybe acquired in a game of tennis is remarkable; the fascination of the game itself rather than the benefits to be derived from it will hold the attention. The main trouble is in the learning, which requires unflagging energy and constant practice. An overmodest beginner will make the mistake of playing only against her likewise beginning friends; the result is that she takes a discouragingly long time finding out how to use her racket properly and never gets a chance to return a really good serve.

It is really just as well at some point in your practising to see some well-trained athlete do the thing you are trying to learn.

A girl can accomplish a great deal with her brain as well as with her muscles in athletics. Some one once remarked that he learned to swim in winter and to skate in summer. He meant that after he had in its proper season practised skill in the winter sport, his brain, during the warm months, kept repeating to the muscles those directions until by the next winter they had a very fair idea of what they had to do, and responded more quickly and easily. It is rather consoling to think you do not lose time, but rather progress, between seasons.

The girl who goes camping with a crowd of boys and girls realizes how much depends on the mere strength of the boys; at the same time she herself has an opportunity of showing not only her athletic proficiency and nerve, but also her superior common sense. She will really have to leave the heavy work of pitching the tents and chopping the wood to the boys, but she cannot sit down and fold her hands meanwhile. She can be collecting materials for the beds of balsam on which they hope to sleep in comfort, or she may gather chips for the fire, or she may be helping to unload the wagon or canoes in which they have come. When the tents are pitched she has a woman's prerogative of "putting the house in order," and during the time of camping keeping it so.

If there is actually a case of nothing for her to do, far better for her to sit down and keep quiet than to get in the way of the boys and bother them. A young man who in his first season as a guide in the Canadian woods took out a party of girls from a summer school on a camping trip told me that he would never do it again, because they gave him no relief from a continual rain of questions. A case where zeal for knowledge outruns discretion.

After the tents are pitched and the fire made by the boys, it is plainly up to the girls to get supper. Let us hope they have practised cooking for some time before they went camping. Every one gets so desperately hungry in the outdoor life that meals are of first importance, as tempers are apt to develop unexpectedly if many failures are turned out. If the girls are good cooks, however, and wash the dishes after each meal the division of labour will be fair to all concerned.

A girl is more or less dependent on her boy friends for instruction in sports and considerably anxious for their approval. Even if she has a woman instructor, in nine cases out of ten she requires some kind of praise from some man before she is satisfied with her performance.

Sister may tell her that she steers her canoe with beautiful precision, but unless brother remarks carelessly that "the kid paddles pretty well" she will hesitate to take her canoe in places where expert paddling is required. When you know that you can do some things as well as any boy you still have to rest content with the grudging a.s.surance that "you do pretty well for a girl."

XX

ONE HUNDRED OUTDOOR GAMES

The following games are described in this chapter:

All-around Athletic Championship Archery a.s.sociation Football Badminton Balli-callie Bandy Baseball Basket Ball Bean Bag Best College Athletic Records Blind Man's Buff Boulder On Bull in the Ring Call Ball Cane Rush Canoe Tilting Cat, or Cattie Counting-out Rhymes Court Tennis Cricket Croquet Curling Dixie's Land Duck on the Rock Equestrian Polo Fat Feather Race Foot-and-a-half Football Garden Hockey Golf Golf-Croquet Hab-Enihan Haley Over Hand Ball Hand Polo Hand Tennis Hat Ball Hide and Seek High Kick Hockey Hop Over Hop Scotch Hunkety Hunt the Sheep Intercollegiate Amateur Athletic a.s.sociation of America I Spy Jack f.a.gots Jai-A-Li j.a.panese Fan Ball Kick the Stick King of the Castle Knuckle There Lacrosse Lawn Bowls Lawn Bowling Lawn Hockey Lawn Skittles Lawn Tennis Last Tag Luge-ing Marathon Race Marbles Mumblety Peg Names of Marbles n.i.g.g.e.r Baby Olympic Games One Old Cat Over the Barn Pa.s.s It Pelota Plug in the Ring Polo Potato Race Prisoner's Base Push Ball Quoits Racquets or Rackets Red Line Red Lion Roley Boley Roque Rowing Record Rubicon Sack Racing Scotland's Burning Skiing Soccer Spanish Fly Squash Stump Master Suckers Tether Ball Tether Tennis Three-Legged Racing Tub Racing Volley Ball Warning Washington Polo Water Water Race Wicket Polo Wolf and Sheep Wood Tag Yank

While all the games and sports described in this chapter are not absolutely confined to outdoors, almost any game in which violent physical exercise results is better if played in the open air rather than in a house or gymnasium. In fact, we should only play indoors when the weather makes it impossible for us to be outside.

There are very few indoor games that cannot be played in the open air with proper apparatus or rules. It is also equally true that many of our outside sports may be played indoors with certain modifications.

ALL-AROUND ATHLETIC CHAMPIONSHIP

This contest was inst.i.tuted in America in 1884 to give athletes an opportunity to demonstrate their ability in all-around work. The contest is rapidly becoming the blue ribbon championship event in America for track athletes. The following ten events are contested for:

100-yard dash High jump Long jump Vault Throwing 16-pound hammer Putting a 16-pound shot Throwing 56-pound weight 120-yard hurdle race Half-mile walk One-mile run

The system of scoring in the All-around Championship is complicated.

Each contestant has his score made up independently. The world's best amateur record is taken as a basis and 1,000 points are allowed for it. For example, the best record (amateur) for the 100-yard dash is 9-4/5 seconds and for each 1/5 of a second more than this that the runner in the All-around Championship contest makes in his trial 42 points are deducted from this score. The same method is used in all the events. In the ten events the maximum score where the contestant equalled every world's record would be 10,000 points. The contest was won in 1909 by the remarkable score of 7,385 points.

ARCHERY

Archery is the art of shooting with a bow and arrow. It is especially adapted as a lawn game for ladies and gentlemen, but boys and girls can practise archery and become proficient with bows and arrows just as the Indians were or the boys in England in the days of Robin Hood.

Of course the invention of gunpowder has practically done away with the bow and arrow either as a means of warfare or as a weapon to be used in the chase, but it is still used by savages.

The modern bow used in archery is made of lancewood or yew and for men's use is usually 6 feet long and for women and children 6 inches shorter. The strength or pull necessary to bend the bow, given in pounds, determines its cla.s.sification. The arrows for men's use should be 28 inches long and for women 24 to 25 inches. The target is a straw-filled canvas disk painted in bright colours. There are usually five circles and the object in archery, as in shooting with firearms, is to hit either the centre ring or "bull's-eye" or as near to it as possible. In scoring, a shot in the inner gold centre counts nine; red ring, seven; inner white ring, five; black ring, three, and outer white ring, one. Targets are of various sizes from 18 inches in diameter to 4 feet, depending on the distance of the range. A common distance will be from 50 to 100 yards.

Each archer should have some distinguishing mark or colour on his arrows. Standard lancewood bows will cost two or three dollars, arrows from one to two dollars a dozen, and targets from two to five dollars each, with three dollars extra for the target stand.

In championship matches in archery the customary range for men is 60 yards with 96 arrows, and the same number of arrows at 50 yards for women. A recent match championship was decided for men with 90 hits and a total score of 458, and for women with 85 hits and a total score of 441.

a.s.sOCIATION FOOTBALL OR SOCCER

A game similar to Rugby football except that it more closely resembles what its name implies and kicking predominates. A round, leather-covered ball is used and the game is considered to be much safer than our college football. Efforts consequently have been made to introduce the game into American colleges because of its less dangerous character. As there is practically no tackling or falling, the "soccer" uniform does not require the same amount of padding as a Rugby player's uniform. The game is ordinarily played in running trousers with a full sleeved shirt and special shoes with leather pegs or cleats. The stockings are rolled down just below the knee. The a.s.sociation football goal net into which the ball is kicked is fastened to the ground and is made of tarred rope. Thus far, the game has not been very popular in America, although a number of exhibition match games have recently been played by visiting English teams which attracted considerable attention. As a game, soccer is fast and exciting, and splendid opportunities are given for team work; but for some reason it has not succeeded in displacing our American game of Rugby, although possibly it is more interesting for the spectator.

BADMINTON

An English outdoor game similar to lawn tennis but played with shuttlec.o.c.ks. The net is five feet above the ground. The shuttlec.o.c.k is a cork in which feathers have been inserted. The shuttlec.o.c.k is served and returned as in tennis and either two or four may play. A badminton court is 30 feet wide and 44 feet long.

BANDY

A game very similar to hockey, except that it is played out of doors instead of in a covered rink and a ball is used in place of a puck or rubber disk.

The name "bandy" is sometimes applied also to shinney or shinty and in England it is also applied to our American game of ice hockey.

BASEBALL

The national game of America. (See chapter on baseball.) The game is played by eighteen persons, nine on a side, called "nines." The positions are pitcher, catcher, first base, second base, third base, shortstop, right-field, left-field, centre-field. The first six positions are called the in-field, and the last three, the out-field.

The diamond or field where the game is played is a square plot of ground with sides ninety feet long. At each corner of the square are bases called first, second, third and home plate. A game consists of nine innings, in each of which both teams have an opportunity to bat the ball and to score runs. The players bat in turn and attempt to reach the various bases without being put out by their opponents. Each year the rules are changed in some slight particulars, consequently a beginner in baseball must be thoroughly familiar with the rules of the game before attempting to play. The pitcher attempts to pitch the ball over the home plate to the catcher and the batsman endeavours to hit it. If the ball after being hit is caught by one of the opposing players, or if it is thrown to the base to which the batsman is running before he reaches the base, he is "out." Otherwise he is "safe" and will try to make the next base. If he completes the circuit of the four bases without being put out, he scores a run for his team or nine. When a player makes the entire circuit without being forced to stop for safety he makes a "home run." A hit which gains him a single base only is called a "base hit." Similarly if he reaches second base it is a "two-bagger," and third base, a "three-bagger."

After three players are put out, the other side has its "innings," and at the completion of nine full innings the side having scored the greatest number of runs is the winner. The game of baseball has become very scientific and the salaries of professional players are almost as high as those of the highest salaried men in business life.

The ball used in the game is made of the best all wool yarn with a horsehide cover and a rubber centre. Baseball bats are usually made of ash.

BASKET BALL

A game of ball which may be played either indoors or out, but which is especially adapted to in-door play when weather conditions make out-door sports impossible. Two baskets suspended on wire rings are placed at the two opposite ends of a room or gymnasium and the players strive to knock or pa.s.s the ball from one to another on their own side and to throw it so that it will fall into the basket. It is not permissible to run with the ball as in Rugby football. The ball used is round, but in other respects resembles the ball used in football.

It is made in four sections of grained English leather and is inflated by means of a rubber bladder. The players use rubber-soled shoes with peculiar k.n.o.bs, ridges, or depressions to prevent slipping.

The conventional uniform is simply a gymnasium shirt, running trousers, and stockings which are rolled down just below the knees.

The game of basket ball is especially adapted to women and girls and consequently it is played very largely in girls' schools and colleges.

Any level s.p.a.ce may be used for basket ball. A convenient size is 40 by 60 feet. The baskets used for goals are 18 inches in diameter and are fixed 10 feet above the ground or floor. The official ball weighs about 18 ounces and is 31 inches in circ.u.mference. Five players const.i.tute a team. The halves are usually twenty minutes, with a ten-minute intermission for rest.

It is not permissible to kick, carry or hold the ball. Violation of a rule const.i.tutes a foul and gives the opponents a free throw for the basket from a point fifteen feet away. A goal made in play counts two points and a goal from a foul one point.

BEAN BAGS