An Athletics Compendium

The Uteratureof Athletics technicalmaterial. Most of the limited amateur literature on field eventswas therefore descriptiverather than prescriptive,and offeredvirtuallynothing on training methods. With the rapid international development of governing bodies in the period immediatelyfollowing the 1896Olympics and the speedy growthof the Americancollege system, therewas an equally rapid increase in the output of technical books. In this respect, F. A. M. Webster's Olympian Field Events (1913) is remarkable,in that it was written by an athlete with limited coaching experience, operating within an athletics culture hostile to field events.In Olympian Field Events Webster revealed a remarkable earlycapacity to analysetechnical eventsof whichhemust havehadonly limitedpractical experience. In contrast, the American coachMike Murphy(the inventor of the crouch start) had the advantage of considerable experience in the American East Coast club and collegiate systems and, though he is weak on several field events, his only book Athletics Training (Bickers and Son, 1914) reveals his immense knowledge of track athletics. Similarly,the SwedeErnest Hjertberg's Athletics in Theoryand Practice (1913)revealsa good earlyunderstandingof fieldevent techniques. The worksof Websterand Murphyunderline the difficultieswhichall writersof trackand fieldmanualswouldsubsequentlyface.For athleticsisnot a sport, rather it is a seriesof separatesports whichhappen to occur withinthe samearena, and thus,though publishersalmost invariablyrequestcomprehensivecoverage,fewcoachesare ever able to do justice to everyevent. Some writers made no attempt to do so. As an example, in Mussabini's The CompleteAthleticTrainer(1913) he makesit clear that he has no expertise in field events, 'The writer is diffident of touching subjects with which he has so litde practical acquaintance'. Mussabini was unquestionably an outstanding coach but The Complete Athletic Trainer, like his later Track and Field Athletics (1924) and Running, Walking and Jumping (1926) reeks of Captain Barclay. Indeed, Track and Field Athletics contains a detailedrecipefor 'Blackjack', a laxativecalculatedto shock the mostsluggishof bowels into violentmotion. This beingsaid,Mussabini had a coachingrecord far superiorto Webster, taking A. V. Hillto twoOlympic goldsin 1920 andHaroldAbrahamsto 100mOlympicvictory in 1924, and waswithout doubt the most successfulBritish coachof the first halfof the twentiethcentury.His thinkingis, however,rooted firmlyin the nineteenthcenturyand nowhereis thismore clearlydisplayed than in his advocacyof the 'Cross Arm' actionin sprinting.Fortunately, earlysilent16mm filmhas survived,showing HaroldAbrahamsin training in 1923. He is seen miraculously surviving a ludicrous forward lean, using Mussabini's 'cross arm' method. This earlyinstrucdonal film also shows Abrahamsin competidve action, runningwith a conventional posture, using an efficient back and forwardarm movement. HarryAndrews' Trainingfor Athletics andGeneralHealth (1903)is similarlyrooted in the nineteenth century,and is the first coachingmanual whichopenly discussesdrugs. Andrews, though he expresses an abhorrenceof drugs on health grounds, appears to harbour no ethical objections to them. Indeed, he admits to the employment of [ xxxvii ]