Soviet Youngsters ‘All in Good Shape,’ Coach Allen Asserts

Retired professional football coach George Allen said Tuesday that Soviet youngsters are in better physical condition than their American counterparts.

Allen, who coached the Los Angeles Rams from 1966 to 1970 and the Washington Redskins from 1971 to 1977, is chairman of President Reagan’s Council on Physical Fitness and Sports. The former National Football League coach talked about the relative fitness of Soviet and American youngsters at a news conference after watching Soviet schoolchildren in training exercises.

“I have yet to see a Soviet youngster who is very overweight,” Allen said. “They’re all in good shape, the way I like my players to be--very little body fat.”

A recent study, he said, showed that the average American boy or girl watches television or listens to the radio for more than seven hours a day. In the Soviet Union, he has found, television broadcasting stops well before midnight, and he thinks this is a healthful thing for young people.

TV and Junk Food

“Some American kids watch TV until 3 o’clock in the morning,” Allen said. “Usually, when watching TV you’re eating popcorn or some other junk food.”

Also, he said, nearly two-thirds of American schools no longer have classes in physical education.

“In California, where I live, Proposition 13 practically removed physical education from the school system,” he said, referring to the initiative limiting property taxes and thus cutting school district revenues.

“In my state,” he went on, “kids wait 20 minutes for a bus when they could walk to school in 15 minutes.”

The Soviet fitness program for young people is better organized and shows greater discipline than similar programs in the United States, Allen said, even though the equipment used here may not be the newest.

“I was impressed, and it takes a lot to please me,” he remarked.

Allen said he has reached an agreement with Marat V. Gramov, chairman of the Soviet Sports Committee, to have Soviet children take a U.S. fitness test and American youngsters take a similar Soviet test. The tests measure strength, flexibility and quickness through such activities as pull-ups, sit-ups, push-ups and running.

“The Soviet test is more difficult--I prefer that,” Allen said, but the aim is “not to compete but to compare.”

Soviet Kids Invited

He said he has invited two to four Soviet youngsters to take part in a five-kilometer run in Los Angeles next March 1. And he said six to eight other Soviet boys and girls will be invited to attend two-week fitness camps next July in Los Angeles County and San Diego County.

Some of the American youngsters who attended a similar camp last summer at the University of California, Irvine, could not touch their toes, chin themselves or run a mile under 10 minutes, he said, adding, “Fitness of youth is our top priority.”