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3 <!-- Mirrored from users.eniinternet.com/bradleym/Legend.html by HTTrack Website Copier/3.x [XR&CO'2014], Sun, 06 Nov 2022 06:49:33 GMT -->
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5 <title></title>
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7 <body text="#000000" link="#0000ff" vlink="#551a8b" alink="#ff0000" bgcolor="#c0c0c0">
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8 <a name="The Legend Of The Mysterious Stranger">
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9 <p><hr>
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11 <br wp="br1"><br wp="br2">
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12 <p><strong>The Legend Of The Mysterious Stranger</strong></a>
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13
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14 <p>©1997 Milton N. Bradley
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15
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16 <p>Imagine that you are an athletic coach, magically transported 50 years back in time. One day, you
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17 are approached by a mysterious stranger who offers you a new training method that he claims
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18 will improve the performance of <em>all</em> athletes, male and female, young and old, able bodied or
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19 handicapped, and which will also aid in the rehabilitation of injuries. "Of course this is only a
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20 training adjunct", he says, "and the athletes will still have to practice and perfect their specific
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21 sport skills just as before. But if they add this discipline to their training they will become faster,
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22 stronger, and more enduring. Its only drawback is that it's hard work, and unfortunately there's
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23 only anecdotal evidence to demonstrate that it works."
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24
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25 <p>Your first reaction would almost certainly be one of complete disbelief, but, restraining your
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26 negative impulses you inquire as to the nature of this marvelous new method. The stranger
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27 replies "It's called progressive weight training". Now your disbelief turns to derision, because
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28 back then everyone "knew" that weight training caused athletes to become "muscle bound" and
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29 less, not more competent. So you dismiss him as a slightly deranged fanatic, more suited to
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30 residence in a "rubber room" than someone to be taken seriously.
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31
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32 <p>Now quickly fast forward a half century to the present, and we find that everything that the
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33 mysterious stranger predicted about the ability of the unusual new training method to improve
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34 athletic performance has proven abundantly true. Today all athletes male or female, young or old,
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35 and whether engaged in football, swimming, tennis, or any other sport now routinely make
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36 progressive weight training an integral part of their regimen, and performances have soared to
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37 previously unimagined levels as a result.
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38
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39 <p>A miracle? A lucky coincidence? Hardly, but you must understand the simple underlying
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40 principle to appreciate why the method works. The specific requirements of every sport, even
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41 such multi-disciplinary events as the decathlon, require that the athletes who participate in it
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42 repetitively practice a specific, limited series of movements. This inevitably results in overuse of
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43 some muscle groups while underusing others, producing an unbalanced and sub-optimal physical
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44 development. Progressive weight training <em>complements</em> each athlete's specific sport training by
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45 filling in those gaps to produce a much more balanced development which is not only stronger
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46 and more versatile, but also more enduring and less injury prone. In addition, it simultaneously
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47 provides a graded method for progressively increasing the resistance applied, thereby increasing
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48 the athlete's strength and ability with maximum efficiency.
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49
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50 <p>Now imagine that it's still the present but instead of an athletic coach you're a parent and/or
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51 educator, and this time the mysterious stranger approaches you with an even more outrageous
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52 proposal. He claims to have discovered <em>a near magical extra-curricular activity that will
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53 improve the thinking ability and academic performance of even marginal students</em>. Just as was
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54 true of progressive weight training, <em>this new activity won't replace the need to study and master
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55 the regular academic subjects, but it will make those who habitually employ it better and more
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56 willing students</em>. Best of all, it isn't hard work but pure FUN!
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57
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58 <p>Once again, with great effort you suppress your disbelief and enquire as to the nature of this
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59 almost magical paragon of pedagogical tools, and the stranger replies "It's the 4000 year old
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60 Oriental strategic board game called Wei Ch'i in China, Baduk in Korea, and GO in Japan and
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61 the rest of the world." Your skepticism in response to this information is even greater than
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62 before, but you're understandably more cautious about rushing to a possibly erroneous judgement
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63 given the overwhelming success of weight training in athletics, so you ask for some proof that
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64 the new method works. Once again, the stranger informs you that there are no controlled
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65 experiments which conclusively demonstrate GO's efficacy in improving student performance,
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66 but there is abundant and <a href="JapEd.html"><Font Color="#0033FF">highly persuasive
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67 anecdotal evidence in Japan.</Font></a>
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68
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69 <p><a href="JapEd.html"><Font Color="#0033FF"><strong>Continue</strong></Font></a>
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70
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71 <p>Click Here To Return To<a href="index.html"><Font Color="#0033FF"><strong> Milt's Go
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72 Page</strong></Font></a>
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73
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74 <p><hr>
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75
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76 <br wp="br1"><br wp="br2">
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77 </body>
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79 <!-- Mirrored from users.eniinternet.com/bradleym/Legend.html by HTTrack Website Copier/3.x [XR&CO'2014], Sun, 06 Nov 2022 06:49:33 GMT -->
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80 </html>
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