Page:Association Football and How to Play It (1908) by John Cameron.djvu/32

30 this in itself is excellent. When Montague Holbein was training for his Channel swims he used to make a practice of walking from Catford to the City, and also back, a distance of several miles, and this he found very valuable indeed. In the early days of some of the more important clubs a great many of the players who were professionals went to their ordinary occupations all the week and used to play on a Saturday. When West Bromwich Albion, captained by William Bassett, won the English Cup against Preston North End twenty years ago, the Midlanders were all local lads, whose wages totalled about ten pounds a week, while Preston's pay-list was four times as much. Indeed, men who are regularly at work, especially if it be out of doors and if it taxes one's bodily powers, need very little training. No one ought to play football unless he has a sound constitution, and every organ in the body must be sound, especially the heart and lungs; it is a game for those who are healthy and vigorous. A good plan is to pursue some exercise during the "close" season, i.e., the summer months. Professionals will tell you that August is their hardest month, a large number of them having done nothing since the end of April. Their muscles have become stiff, and they have probably too much surplus flesh. It is very different where professionals take up first class cricket, and trainers have frequently told me that those professionals and amateurs who play the summer game require little or no preparation, and there are many instances of that. Take, for instance, J. Sharp, the