In sports, as in all other areas of life, a knowledge of the rules that govern all groups of individuals is essential to a successful adjustment to the world and the other fellow. If the individual knows why the rules have been made, so much the better. All men must live by rules and the sooner they accept this fact, the better their lives will be. So it is in sports — each one has a basic set of rules regarding personal conduct, team conduct, the execution of plays, and decent behavior toward teammates and opponents.

Thus, if the young man preparing for adult life has a good grounding in the rules that govern sports, chances are he will also have a better understanding of what will be expected of him in all the areas of later life. He will also have some understanding of what to expect of others, having seen in team play many different human reactions to all sorts of situations.

Educators will be the first to agree that it is very important to the young man that he be able to rid himself harmlessly of some of the rebellions and frustrations that beset him. With every young man, there are times when the world seems like a pretty sad place—adults expect too much of him, he does not know where he is going, he feels that he has been badly treated, and he is angry and wants to hit back at something or somebody. This perfectly natural and universal feeling can be greatly relieved by slamming one well-protected body into another well-protected body in scrimmage, or by banging a baseball over the fence for a home run. The boy who breaks the school record for the broad jump and the one who sinks a basket for the winning score in a basketball game feels bigger for his accomplishment and he is bigger — he has helped himself, his team and his school.

I have always believed that the boy who plays a game, whether he does it well or badly, is getting more out of life than the one who does not. So often in sports the dragons of fear and self-doubt must be slain, and each time this happens, the character is a little bit stronger and the whole man a little bit closer to reality.

There is a real need in schools for books that go deeply into the basics of sports and the books in this set do from the very roots of each sport to a pictorial dramatization of each technique.

C. B. FAGAN

National Federation of State High

School Athletic Associations

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