Page:Hockey, Canada's Royal Winter Game.djvu/32

 a player has scarcely the time to grasp, accustoms a man to think quickly and act promptly. Surrounded so closely by thousands of inquisitive eyes, the hockey player is almost prevented, through the reasonable fear of being promptly called to order, from indulging in any unbecoming work, of which, perhaps, in other games he might be guilty. Besides, the referee of a hockey match is so strongly backed by a clear code of rules, and has such an unobstructed view of the game, that the strict and continued observance of his omnipotence developes a certain character in a player, that has its good effects in after life.

As a muscular developer it stands without an equal, which to doubt would be a confession of one's ignorance of the game. The act of skating frontwards and backwards, not to mention the numerous times when occasion demands that we should go sideways, too, developes the muscles of the legs and back and expands the lungs, and the rush down the ice, twisting and turning, and being twisted and turned, exercises the muscles in the neck, the sides and the stomach.

The multiplex movements required in manipulating the stick, call into play, by shooting