Coaching and Care of Athletes

COACHING AND CARE OF ATHLETES athletes to study the cinders, and also the landing-marks in the sand-pit. The footmarks on the cinders portray the correctness or otherwise of an athlete's footwork. Instruction may be supplemented in a valuable manner by the use of films, action photographs, and diagrams. Pupils should be shown pictures of athletes in ideal positions, and should be asked to take up the attitudes shown. The coach can then correct their faults by 'hand-setting.' He can demonstrate by a light push or pull how the right pose gives perfect poise for the production of strong effort. And, contrariwise, he can show, also by a light push or pull, how easily an athlete can be put off balance when he is in the wrong position. Each pose should be taught separately in the sequence of actions making up the whole evolution. In the next stage the sequence of poses is practised in slow time, and thus the whole evolution is gradually knit together. Even when young athletes show the beginnings of good · form it is still advisable to keep them down to fairly slow work. The moment any loss of form is detected the coach shm~ld put his charges back to slower action and less effort. Out of working hours the young athlete's interest must be maintained without his thoughts straying too far from matters connected with training. It is a good practice, therefore, to en– courage young athletes to keep training-books and to make graphs of their own performances. If this habit is inculcated it will add greatly to the interest of training, will keep the boy keen, and will alsb be a guide to the coach as to the progress that is being made and the conditions, atmospheric, dietetic, and so on, ~ which may affect a particular athlete's form. Instruction should be divided into progressive stages. First of all the coach should explain the fundamental principles of the event which he is going to teach or which the athlete is prac– tising. Mter the pupils have themselves tried out the event, prob– ably very inefficiently, the coach should explain their faults to them, besides picking out any good points they have shown, and, in the case of a throwing event, should also explain the nature of the missile itself and which extraneous influences affect its flight. It is surprising to find how many people do not know that· a discus will fly farther against a wind of up to 14 miles an hour than with the wind behind it. This I quote as an example ofwhat is in my mind.