An Athletics Compendium

The Uterature Aotfhletics is particularly true of distance running where the Marathon boom of the 1980s has resultedin a flood of high-qualitytechnicalliterature. Here TimNoakes,Peter Coe and DavidMartin havebeen prominentwithworkswhich providea rich mixof theoryand practice. Over the years, the AAA/BAAB/BAF event-specific booklets have provided a strong spineof materialin the technicalarea.Of these. Triple Jump (McNab,1968),/^//« Throwing (Paish, 1967), Decathlon (McNab,1971), Hurdles (Arnold, 1952), Triple Jump (King, 1996), Shotputting (Jones, 1987),and Training Theoty (Dick,1984)havebeen seminal works in a serieswhich, though influential,has beenvariable in quality. Like most of the works of the period, the booklets have stressed technical development,though there hasbeen a growing emphasison general and specificphysical conditioning.Alas, what has always been lacking in them and in most other technical literaturehas been any senseof the athlete as a humanbeing,or muchmaterialabout the ultimateaimof training andconditioning,the competitivearena itself. What has been lacking most in the technical literature are the clear, unalloyed voicesof coachand athlete,speakingdirectly from practicalexperience. For coaching, though stronglyunderpinnedbyscience, is a practicalart. Muchof the literaturedoes the coaching process a disservice by confining the coach within the disciplines of an essay-based,literaryformat. There is, therefore, a gap in the market for technical works which go beyond analytical and narrowly prescriptive accounts, to works in which coaches and athletes discuss the practical issues of athletics training and performance. The latter, the performancearena, isone whichparticularlydeservesattention, being the centralaimof allathletics training. Similarly,the group coachingof youngathleteswithin clubsand the teaching of children in class curriculum time are areas which have been inadequately addressed. These are not technically complex issues,but rather ones which involvethe elicitingof technicalfundamentals, presentationand organisation. If athletics is to haverealmeaning and purposewithinphysicaleducationprogrammesand to have impact within our clubs, then these are issues whichmust be addressed,if the technicalliteratureis to progress. Conclusion In athleticsliterature I would wish for three things. First, that historianswould continue to burrowin obscureareas (ruralathletics, the dark sideof modernOlympic politics,earlywomen's athletics andAmerican professionalathletics come immediately to mind),possiblyas sections of compositeworks. Second, that the history of athleticsbe approachedwith the samedisciplineand rigouras that of other areasof society.In the absenceof the publicationin the formalliterature of materialon the less popularareasof athletic history, the Internet would seem to offer rich possibilities for the athletics historian.I wouldalso makea strong plea for more attention to be givento oral history. Finally,that our technical manualswould,whilst usingstrong theoretical underpinning, stress the practical aspects of coaching both in clubs and individual situations, for coaching is, essentially,apracticalart. [ xliv ]