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Show SPO? 7.GH 7 . Years Catch the Fastest Athlete By GRANTLAND RICE Raw Speed You speak of the. speed of Coal-town, Coal-town, or the speed Citation knows. You speak of the speed of the western gale when the young tornado blows. But there's only one speed that matters, wherever the simooms rage, And that is the speed of the flying years that turns youth into age. What Are Reflexes? "Just what," writes L. M. P., "are the reflexes you and other sporting experts (thanks) write about? Are they physical or mental? men-tal? Why should they affect an old-timer old-timer more than a younger fellow? fel-low? Why are they so important? I would think that a veteran would have better reflexes than a younger young-er fellow." Reflexes are merely team play between mind and muscle. For example ex-ample years ago, gyy I was talking with SgKS' about through. "I fslX jf3;j; know I'm as strong tiu -Ji f as I used to be," f JL he said. "I know Jk '1f I can bit as hard. Vl 1 knW 1 StU1 'Jj take a punch as hmttM&&aM well- But i-u tell Grantland Rice you what makes me sore. I see a punch starting. I know where it's headed for. Six or seven years ago my chin or my head would be out of the way instinctively. in-stinctively. But today too many of these punches hit me. Even the sucker punches. "There's another angle," Jack said. "Six or seven years ago when I spotted an opening, my fist swung in that split second. Today when I see an opening it disappears disap-pears by the time my fist gets in motion. It is either blocked or it has moved out of the way. I don't believe many people know what this means to a fighter. It is only a matter of a split second. Maybe a fifth of a second. But it happens that way as you get older. The message from your eye or your mind travels slower to the muscle. Not much slower. But a fifth of a second means a lot." There probably never was a better bet-ter instinctive puncher or fighter than Dempsey when he was at his peak. Or during those days when Dempsey was hungry. You might think that as you got older the message from eye or mind to muscle would travel faster. It doesn't. As you get older nothing travels faster except the years. The only detail de-tail an athlete picks up as he grows older is experience. When Louis was working, after a fashion, against Joe Walcott, he would stalk the Jersey retreater and catch up with him. Then do nothing. Ten years ago, he would have knocked out Walcott in the first round, for Louis was a fast, hard puncher. But after his 10 or 11 years in the ring, Louis' reflexes re-flexes were shot. He could see hi opening but by the time he had the blow under way, Walcott would be out of reach. The same thing happens to ballplayers. ball-players. The hitters can no longer follow the pitch and get the bat working in time. Notice how many veterans are called out on that third strike. Ted Williams has the best set of reflexes in baseball. Ted can swing a bat on a fifth of a second's notice when the pitch is only 20 or 30 feet away. You don't believe this is true? Ask Bill Dickey, who caught back of Williams for some years. On Being Hungry For several weeks inhabitants of various wayside inns around the world have been telling me this story. It concerns Walter (Good Time Charlie) Friedman, Car-nera's Car-nera's original importer. Good Time Charlie's dream is now to locate a seven-foot chinaman china-man or a seven-foot Zulu one of those who can high jump eight or nine feet. We questioned him about it recently and discovered Good Time Charlie feels thst he has the answer to the next heavyweight champion. "I'd keep h i m hungry," Charlie says. "I'd get him and starve him. The trouble with fighters today they are too well fed. They have been able to make a good living outside of the ring. They eat too much. "Jack Dempsey was hungry when he was at his best. Tunney needed money when he forced himself to train for Dempsey. Joe Louis was hungry when he broke in. Willard was hungry when he started after Jack Johnson. Hungry Hun-gry guys are hard to lick. "That's what's the matter with white fighters today," Good Time Charlie continued. "They are fat and overfed. So they have no ambition. ambi-tion. Most of them can make good money without fighting. "A well-fed man seems to have nothing to fight for." |