Coaching and Care of Athletes

COACHING AND CARE OF ATHLETES June 27. We left home with a 6o-mile drive before us, and if ever the Fates seemed unpropitious it was on that day, for we had a wretched lunch at a roadside inn at I o'clock, and before we reached Erith Dick's nose was simply pouring with blood. This, however, seemed to clear his head, and, making his opening height I I ft. 6 ins., he vaulted I2 ft., I2 ft. 4 ins., and I2 ft. 7 ins., without a single failure, for a new English record. Sunday was a rest-day, on Monday he vaulted I I ft. 9 ins., I2 ft., and I2 ft. 5 ins., and then did light gymnasium work and four easy vaults on Wednesday (July I), followed by two more rest-days. It is always a good thing to introduce a period of almost a week's rest into an athlete's schedule about half-way through his training, and when he is really coming into form, as it was obvious, in this case, that Dick was doing, in view of the fact that he had just made a new record of I 2 ft. 7 ins. On Saturday, July 4, having had practically no training during that week, we left home at midday, and at 3 P.M. reached Enfield, where he was to make a further attempt to improve upon his own English record. That was, perhaps, the most amazing competition in which he has ever taken part. The contest started at 4 P.M., and, again without a single failure, he vaulted I I ft. 9 ins ., I2 ft. · I in., I2 ft. 5 ins., and I2 ft. 8 ins. for a new English record. Before he --.. could go on to a new height, however, the bar was remeasured and found to be at I 2 ft. 6 ins. He then asked to have the bar put at I2 ft. 9 ins., and, having cleared that height with equal ease, discovered that, according to the judges, the height was actually I 2 ft. 8 ins. I see from the note I made at the time that he cleared this r 2 ft. 8 ins. so easily that there was little doubt that he could have gone on to I3 ft. that afternoon, but in pursuit of our policy he decided, having made a new record and therefore reached a new peak, to stop at the I 2 ft. 8 ins. he had actually cleared. This evidence of the way his form was becoming stabilized at a peak performance pleased me, and I decided to change the schedule that I had already drawn up for him. He had made new English native records, both from grass runways and take– offs, on two successive Saturdays, and I now decided that one day's rest would possibly suffice, so on Sunday (July 5) there was no work done, but on Monday (July 6) he was vaulting quite nicely and clearing I2 ft. 4 ins. very easily. A relapse, however, followed on the next day (July 7), when he seemed tired and listless, and, 102