Coaching and Care of Athletes

COACHING AND CARE OF ATHLETES up all the while for future success. Then, just prior to the Oxford and Cambridge Sports, we had a final try-out at Biddenham in which Dick went very comfortably to 12 ft. 6! ins., which was, I- think, 2 or 3 ins. higher than he had ever vaulted before. It was a new peak performance, but there was obviously some doubt in his mind as to whether I had measured accurately the height of the cross-bar. Therefore we started again at a low height, because I was determined to stabilize his confidence that after– noon, and worked up again to 12 ft. 6! ins., which he measured himself before attempting the height, and then cleared with his first vault. There is little doubt in my mind that he could have gone considerably higher that day, but he had twice made a new peak of the same height, and I was anxious that he should not realize the limitations of his own power. Again the policy proved profitable, because when the Oxford and Cambridge Sports were held he cleared I 2 ft. 6! ins. for a new English native record, despite the fact that the judges kept him waiting about in the cold for an unconscionable time while they were measuring the height to make sure that the bar was at a new record level. In this same connection I have another word of advice to give to coaches. They must train their athletes to look after themselves, because it is not the custom, at any rate in England, for the coach to be allowed on the field while the men he has trained are com– peting. At that time they are entirely dependent upon their own resources. Upon the occasion ofmy son winning the Oxford and Cambridge pole vault and making a new English record in 1935 he did not vault too well at the opening height, mainly because, perhaps by reason of a very natural excitement, he had failed to do a full limbering-up practice, and, secondly, was without his coat on a bitterly cold afternoon. A word of advice from a kindly friend, however, served the purpose, and after his first two vaults, having limbered up and got warm in the meantime, he did a good deal better. Then, Dick having cleared 12 ft. 3 ins., the bar, as I have said, was raised to 12ft. 6! ins., but the judges, what with fetching tapes and step-ladders and climbing the ladders to measure and remeasure the height, must have kept the vaulter waiting the best part of a quarter of an hour or twenty minutes. Instead, however, of Dick sitting about and getting thoroughly chilled, which would have destroyed his chance of making a record, during that interval g8