Los Angeles Herald, Number 252, 22 August 1921 Training Is Energy Conservation, Says Edgren ATHLETES OF PRESENT I DAY ARE EXPERTS IN PHYSICAL CONDITION RING, TRACK, FIELD GAMES By ROBERT EDGREN Modern athletic training methods have advanced with the spread of organized school athletics and with the trips of the American teams to the Olympic games. Scientific training under experienced coaches has done away with the over-training of the old days, when scores of promising youngsters were ruined by too much work. No growing boy should be allowed to run long races or undergo any continued athletic strain that will weaken him afterward. Moderation in everything gives the best results. Moderate training, moderate competition, moderate eating and plenty of sleep are the necessary No excess in anything. Conserve energy, don’t waste It. Some of the old-time athletic who trained, ate and drank immoderately, made great records, but I have no doubt they would have done much better if they had been trained in the modern way. They were phenomenal men, and succeeded in spite of their mistakes. DEMPSEY ALWAYS FIT Paddock’s apparent nervousness before a race is only a sign of his bottled-up energy. Ability to store energy for the contest is the thing that makes any athlete. Jack Dempsey is a good example of the modern champion. He is naturally nervous, with the kind of nervousness that indicates tremendous vitality. In the first round of the fight his burst of energy is fairly an explosion. In the fight with Willard he let go with every ounce of strength and energy he had, from the moment he struck the first blow. In the Carpentier fight he held this nerve force in check until he felt Carpentier weakening under body punishment, and then let it loose for a quick knockout. LIVES MODERATELY If he had gone after Carpentier the way he rushed Willard, the Frenchman might have used his speed and skill to keep away, which would have drawn the fight out longer. Jack never smokes, never drinks, lives moderately. He exercises regularly and says he never will allow himself to get out of condition as long as he continues fighting. His theory is the modern one, that to keep fit all the time and pile up energy for a contest by rational training methods is better than to throw away vitality in periods of relaxation alternated with periods of violent work. American fighters and athletes may have learned something new about training from Carpentier. CARPENTIER’S TRAINING After the Dempsey match was made Carpentier went to France and began training, gradually rounding Into the best condition possible. When he returned to this country he could have been ready for the ring in a week. During a month at Manhasset he did very little training and a great deal of resting for the purpose of storing vitality for the fight. July 2 found, him in perfect condition. The little work he did In the training camp was Just to study a fighting method to oppose Dempsey's well known attack. He stayed at the same weight 172 pounds stripped, from his first day at Manhasset until he entered the ring at Jersey City. As Gus Wilson and Francois Descamps explained it to me, Georges worked on a theory that being in condition he needed only to store up energy. CONSERVED ENERGY Georges trains to conserve all his energy for the fight,” said Wilson. “He wastes nothing in hard fighting or hard hitting here at Manhasset He loses no weight. He bottles up his energy. He will save his strength for Dempsey, and you will see that when he meets Dempsey he will have everything.” Wilson was right. Carpentier’s burst of energy in the four rounds fought, until he was overcome by the champion’s superior strength, was amazing. He did everything that any 172-pound man in the world could possibly do against the greatest heavyweight champion within our recollection. Old- timers to train off gobs of superfluous weight. Carpentier entered the ring weighing exactly what he weighed a month before. Jess Willard was much criticized for not training harder for the Dempsey fight at Toledo. If Willard had won his system would have been approved. He was careful not to overtrain, but even at that he did twice the work Carpentier did at Manhasset. He wasn't in Carpentier's condition, of course. WILLARD NOT FIT Four years of easy living had softened him. Nothing short of a year in a lumber camp would have made him entirely fit. He was heavy, and his weight had broken down his feet so that he couldn’t run much on the road. The training he did was about right, considering his condition. Tom Gibbons, who is to be Carpentier’s next opponent, has the modern idea of conserving energy for an important match. He refuses to take on any bouts in the hot months, and spends his time at a Minnesota lake fishing. Mike Gibbons has stayed in the ring in very fair shape for many years by following the same system. IMPORTANT LIMITS An athlete should remember just a few important things about training. First, you can overtax your system and throw away energy as much by overeating as by overtraining. Any athlete knows that a man can jump better, run better, fight better, play a better game of golf or billiards, play better football or baseball after not eating at all for several hours than within two or three, hours of any kind of a meal. Second, overtraining is worse than undertraining. Overtraining saps speed, strength and vitality. Undertraining only cuts down endurance. I’ve seen remarkable performances by athletes who didn’t train at all, but no over trained man can possibly do well. He has no reserve to draw on. In every kind of a contest It's the reserve of power, the thing you can draw on for a final spurt when you’re behind, that wins.
