Athletic Training

RELAY RACING 145 practice the 1,600-metre team developed suf– ficient skill to transfer the baton properly, and won easily. The substitution of the baton for the touch-off has been adopted by the Inter-Collegiate Association of Amateur Ath– letes of America and looks like a permanent change ~nd a good one. Since I have already explained in the fore– going chapters how to train for the quarter– mile, the half-mile, and mile runs, which form the basis for most relay racing, I need not refer to this phase of training here. The bet– ter one can run these distances the more val– uable will he be to his relay team. Relay races are frequently won or lost by a poor arrangement of the runners or poor work in touching off or passing the baton. There is no set rule to be followed in arrang– ing runners according to their speed. On more than one occasion I have rearranged the order of a team during the progress of the race; but as a general rule it is best to re– serve the fastest man for the last relay, using the next fastest for the first and sandwiching the slower .men in on the second and third relays. This arrangement is based on the