Coaching and Care of Athletes

COACHING AND CARE OF ATHLETES of Finland under Mikkola and now Valste; of Estonia under Klumberg; of Sweden under Hjertberg and then Krigsmann; and, finally, of Italy under Boyd Comstock. These men are great professional coaches, but amateur coaches also have their value. Bedford School, coached on scientific principles for twenty-two years, won the English Public Schools Challenge Cup, which no other English school has held more than twice, no fewer than eight times. Bedford Modern School, champions in I934, have eclipsed the athletic reputation of the larger local school, thanks mainly to the encouragement given by the headmaster and the genius of P. J. King, the games master. Lancing, one feels, owe recent -successes, and especially their hurdling reputation, to the traditions established among them by G. M. Butler, and Shrews– bury certainly won the Public Schools Challenge Cup in I 920 and I92I as the result ofthe teaching and training ofLaurie Edwards. Despite all past successes, the coaching of the future, I think, will be something vastly different from that of the past. Formerly, even in the most advanced countries, professional coaches were almost entirely self-educated in athletics. Many were former champions, with a genius for imparting knowledge of their own particular sport, but sometimes with no more than a nodding , acquaintance with other departments of athletics. I think it was the institution of Coaching Conferences in America which first started what may be called higher education in athletics. America and Germany were among the first countries to in– stitute Coaching Schools, at which the science of athletics is properly taught. No emphasis need be laid upon the success of the United States, but the progress made by Germany has been most remarkable. That nation had won only one Olympic Gold Medal in track and field athletics up to I936-the women's 8oo metres in I928. In I936 they took five medals, and their placings in the world rankings of I93 7 were exceptional. England in I934-not yet prepared to pay a suitable salary to a professional coach-instituted an annual Summer School for the instruction (with a week set aside for the tuition of active athletes) of sports officers, ga,mes masters, and club coaches. The students have been given a thorough knowledge of funda– mental principles, and mucH valuable information has been disseminated. In I937 we founded at Loughborough College the first real English School of Athletics, Games, and Physical Edu– cation. At this school important research work is being carried 8