| Show Mr Athlete It Is s Not So Much M ch What You Eat as aSI How You Eat It I By Robert Edgren INCE the Japanese Russian war the S SINCE Japanese have been pointed out as asa asa asa a a people who can fight on less food than others use merely to k keep ep them alive Japanese athletes are not heavy eaters Their diet Is made up principally of ot rice and vegetable foods This isn't entirely a a. matter of ot choice or dieting for condition Meat is hard to get in Japan and rice is plentiful There are athletes In Japan who eat as much as possible all the time These are wrestlers In the Japanese style of wrestling weight and strength count than q quickness Japanese a are troa f trained ed to the lie sport r through several g generations ten gen and everything is done to make the wrestlers grow as big as possible Many of them are G 6 feet tall and weigh over three hundred pounds The result of their thell system of training is to make them like members of a different race of people wrestling champion of ot Japan told me that through several years I of training before he became a first class wrestler he gorged himself with food daily dally until he could hardly stand He HeI wrestled for hours every day He didn't I move around much A favorite training stunt was to butt heads with a a. rival wrestler until one fell down unconscious Then the winner would go and put away awaya I a a. big meal Waist me measure sure never worried a Japanese wrestler I think mas ma's was about five feet But his legs and arms were monstrous and knotted with muscles theory was that the more fo food d he could de devour detour our the themore themore themore more material he lie would turn into muscle TRAINED ON ON- CANDY One of the strongest wrestlers I ever knew was George the Russian Lion Lon was a marvel of strength and symmetry In his prime he could throw any rival with ease and the wrestlers of today wouldn't have lasted one minute with him was not a heavy eater But he had a fad tad He believed that eatIng eating eating eat eat- ing candy and pastry gave him strength He didn't eat a great deal of candy but buthe buthe buthe he ate candy and cakes and sugary dishes every day If you want to be strong Hacken schmidt said you must develop nerve power Sugar supplies that Recently I read an article by a prominent physician proclaiming as a new discovery the very thing that practiced ten years ago ago disagreed with nearly all other athletes when he declared that the best exercise for developing strength is lifting heavy dumbbells It is usually thought that weight lifting makes an athI athlete ath ath- Jete lete slow and ties tle his muscles into knots But certainly wasn't either eith eith- I er or slow or 01 muscle bound when he first came to America and beat Tom Jenkins at Madison Square Garden He was a streak on the wrestling pad And he could turn like any circus acrobat An athlete wh who didn't agree wl with h Hack Hack- about restricting the amount of ot food taken and indulging in sugar was Denny Hor Horgan an once holder of the worlds world's record at Denny was trainIng trainIng training train- train Ing at Traver Travers Isla Island d. d One day I met him at the training table Denny finIshed finished finished fin fin- his lunch and called for tor a 1 pitcher of ot milk and a dozen raw eggs He broke the eggs into the milk stirred the combination combination combi combi- nation and drank It down This was his daily dally performance I inquired into his method of training Im a big strong man mar and Ive I've got to have something to eat Denny explained I might mention however that Dennys Denny's best with the shot that summer was forty-five forty feet whereas in Ireland where no rio doubt he was furnished with less leas laT hay ish rations he did about three feet better better bet bet- ter Ralph Rose flose Pat McDonald Martin Sheridan John Flanagan Matt McGrath Con Walsh Simon Gillies and Pat Ryan were all tremendous eaters and great weight throwers I have seen Sheridan eat two dozen fried tried eggs at a meal and andon andon andon on another occasion get getaway away with eighteen eighteen eight eight- een lamb chops Gillies used to eat hard- hard boiled eggs whole without even cracking the shells When he went to London with the American team to compete In Ind the d Olympics fl I Mike Murphy w was coach and trainer Mike told Gillies his whole ha egg stunt wouldn't help him win the hammer throwing event It didn't SI didn't-Si- Si Simons Simon's mons mon's explanation was that he had a bad knee v C Freddy Welsh was noted as a nan rian fighter I hoppen to know that Freddy was vegetarian in public and fond of roast chicken in private He lIe depended almost entirely u upon on vegetables however I Perhaps that tha explained his fighting righting style WHERE MEAT IS BEST As a rule athletes taking part in heavy competitions want plenty of beef beet There is always a lot of meat on a football training table The United States army gets ets Its meat rations no matter what restrictions are put on civilian food supplies supplies supplies sup sup- plies for the army authorities and theorists theorists theorists the the- believe that In the good old theory of plenty of ot beef and ale for a a fighting man man only only barring the ale I The Turks were very strong Some of the big Turkish wrestlers who came over ovel here hers years ago men ago men like were as strong as horses and seemed to have unlimited endurance in spite of ot their big round stomachs I asked Nou Nou- about his training system one day He lie said that his grandfather and his father were wrestlers and he was trained for wrestling from early boyhood He did dida a lot of hard work for several years also eating heavily and drinking much thickly I sweetened coffee When he reached his full growth growth growth-ab about ut pounds In weight and 6 feet teet 6 inches In height height height-he he ate lit littIe little little lit lit- tle tIe and lived principally upon sweetened coffee and cigarettes on which diet he lie hewon hewon won wrestling matches to the death In Turkey Turkey matches matches in which the winner was supposed to strangle the vanquished rival rival for for the amusement of ot some Iome Turkish potentate He smoked cigarettes incessantly incessantly inces Inces- trained I d d drank and a beat coffee all all American day long n wrestlers e never I at that time tim with absurd ease George ascribed the power and endurance of the Turks to the fact that they never use Ule alcohol And there ther may be something in that But the Irish arent aren't noted for their abstemious aD- aD habits and they produce nearly all aU the weight throwing champions Of course athletes competing In events e that t require speed and endurance must use f food au and d ISI In dm moderation And considering the results of overeating or so often seen in the swift fall from championship form torm of of some great athlete this seems the only reasonable reasonable reason reason- able thing hl to O do As long as moderation et is the h rule e I it makes little difference whether a man eats beef beet or 01 beans drinks red wine light beer coffee cortee milk or water Copyright 1918 by the Press Publishing Co Cn the New York Evening World |
