Bredin on Running & Training

RUNNING AND TRAINING. lack thereof usually affects other men in a very sensitive part-1 refer to their pockets; and being well aware that, however willing the spirit may be, human nature is proverbially weak, backers or supporters of pedes– trians consider it advisable to guard against any preventable turnings from the strait and narrow path leading to athletic fitness by calling in the aid of a reliable man, frequently an old pedestrian, to act as companion, counsellor, and trainer. So far, then, the methods in each of these classes are practically identical, except that a trainer in England usua1ly looks after one or two men at most, and also that I should regard it as extremely doubtful whether there could be found any first-class professional in Great Britain at the present moment who would endure the very strict discipline that the American trainer exer– cises over his amateur team of athletes, in their preparation for an important contest. A great deal has appeared in print, more amusing than instructive, on the subject of amateur and professional training, during the past few summers, and excuses were made for so many of the Amateur Athletic Association's championship cups passing out of the keeping of British athletes on the ground that their present holders were professionally trained, instead of this fact being assigned to its proper cause-that, taken all round, we had a comparatively poor lot of home-bred competitors, who were called upon to meet very fine American runners . The amateur has, if he is willing to avail himself of it, almost an equal chance of getting fit as the professional. Certainly the majority of the former class do not employ a trainer, therefore