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education teachers cooperate closely with the physicians, above all
with sport physicians and biologists. The active cooperation of doctors
and biologists is necessary for mass sports and particularly for top
performance sports. Innumerable works, books and booklets of physicians
and biologists, which again are available in all world languages,
witness this close collaboration.
PECULARITIES OF THE SCIENCE OF PHYSICAL EDUCATION
The structure of physical education shows peculiarities which become
visible in scientific observation. Noteworthy is the vitality which is
peculiar to genuine physical education. Looked at in the proper way,
vitality turns out not to be in opposition to necessary objectivity. Intimately
connected with physical education is its nearness to life, its
connection with, the present. Vitality and nearness to life - the dynamic
elements of physical exercise - make physical education interesting,
attractive and generally understandable. It often happens that someone,
who is not qualified, believes that he is able to take part in discussions
of problems and questions of physical education.
The science of physical education is a complex science that comprises
the whole man, together with all his spheres, and thereby goes
beyond the narrowness of the sciences hitherto existing. To realize
the phenomenon physical education scientifically, does not only mean
to investigate it in all its details, but above all to comprehend it as a
totality. We must keep in mind the manifold and significant connexions
of reality and place man in the centre of scientific research. The science
of physical education is not only a young, but also a new science. Its
task is to arrive at a synthesis of all the sciences of man, and consequently
it addresses everyone who daily experiences the limitations of
his own professional subject and who endeavours to overcome this narrowness.
The new science is capable of escaping from this isolation of
the individual science and advancing into the vast region of a synthetic
knowledge that comprises the entire reality. It is within everybody's
grasp that the science of physical education can never be the work of
a single man. Only by a close cooperation - only by means of a teamwork
which spans the international scope - can the science of physical
education arise. The research also will show peculiarities. The new science
that lies at the point of intersection of the arts and the sciences, will
develop new, different methods of research.
It is obvious that the science of physical education will make use
of the methods of research generally valid today. Consequently the obser-
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