An Athletics Compendium

TheUteratureof Athletics The post-warperiod sawa radicalchangein the organisationof Britishcoaching, with the appointment of a dynamic and creative AAADirector of Coaching,G. H. G. Dyson. The AAACoaching Bookletswrittenby the AAANationalCoaches werenot the first specialistcoaching works in English.As alreadynoted, Spaldinghadproducedin the UnitedStates a fine series in the 1910-30period, bookswhich stillmakeexcellentreading. The AAAbookletsdidnot, however,meanthe end of the generalmanualon track and field athletics,with coaches such as Le Masurier,Watts, Paish and indeed myself producinga prolific flowof material between1950 and 1990. From the UnitedStates cameBresnahan, Tuttle and Cretzmeyer's arid Trackand Field Athletics (1947), and the still immenselyreadable Modem Trackand Field (1953) byKen Doherty. The AAA-based manuals initially took a strongly biomechanical line, but I and coachessuch as Paishincreasingly advocateda more practical,pragmaticapproach, and in the 1970s more stress was laid on specialised conditioning and in the phasing of training. If the fiftyyearanniversariesof the Amateur AthleticAssociationand the Scottish Amateur AthleticAssociation had been low-key works, then the equivalent centenary publicationswerebooks of a quitedifferentnature.Lovesey(AAA)andKeddie(SAAA) took approacheswhich were polesapart, with Keddietaking an event-based approach and Lovesey a direct chronological one. Both resulted in works which, for all the limitationsof officialaccounts,contribute richly to our knowledge of athletics history. The 1970switnesseda flood of excellent books on long distancerunning,driven by the marathonboom in the United States. This wasrepeatedin the UK in the 1980s,the catalyst being the 1981 London Marathon,which stimulated a plethora of works on distancerunningand with it an increasingfocuson its physiologyand psychology. The most popular of these was the AmericanJim Fixx's The Complete Book of Running (1979).Fixx'sbook is essentiallyan astute scissorsand pastecollagerather than a coachingmanualand relatesto fitness-runningrather than to competitiveathletics.The period following the first London marathon saw many excellent works on distance running,whereHarryWilson,DenisWatts andBruceTulloh wereoutstanding,but the three great books are unquestionably Fred Wilt's Run, Run, Run (strangely, never published in the UK), Peter Coe and Dr David E. Martin's Better Training for Distance Runners (1997) and Tim Noakes' monumental RunningYour Best (1995). The American Wiltwas essentially an enthusiastic collator rather than a coach, and the material in Run, Run, Run, written by diverse authors, varies considerably in quality. WhatWilts book attemptedto do was to move distancerunning awayfrom 'seatof thepants' coachingto a more rational, scientifically-based approach and this he does excellently. Peter Coe s book could have produced two separate, albeit complementary, works: the first physiologically-based and the second centering on practical coaching. Instead, his partnership with David Martin produced a seamless work of high quality, combining practical knowledge with solid theoretical underpinning. Better I rainingjor Distance Runners is immensely readable and will endure for many years as a standard work. Noakes Running Your Best is possibly best described as a compendium and is a rich mine of practiceand theorywhich anyathlete and coach canprofitablyexplore. Moreextensive [ xix ]