Coaching and Care of Athletes

MAKING A CHAMPION having cleared I I ft. 6 ins., he failed twice at I 2 ft. and then cleared that height twice. This led me to put in two days of complete rest and mental relaxation, with a visit to a cinema to distract his mind from all thoughts of athletics. The point was that the eliminating trials of the English Cham– pionships were taking place on Friday, July IO. In those trials he took one vault at I I ft. and one at I I ft. 6 ins., and qualified very easily. The . all~important day o,f the ;final (Saturday, July II) was characterized by a downpour of rain which might well have made even the most experienced pole-vaulter fall at least a foot below his proper form. As the weather was so bad.and the take-off getting worse every moment, we decided to take the risk of Dick's coming in at I I ft . 9 ins., which height he cle,ared very comfortably, and then went on to vault I 2 ft. 9 ins. at the third attempt, and ·thus establish his third successive English native record in the space of three weeks. On this performance he was finally selected to represent Great Britain at the Olympic Games in Berlin. Two days of rest followed, and during the next week, workjng very easily, we reached a stabilized vault of I2 ft. 6 ins. He was still doing a good deal of work in the gymnasium and a considerable amount of fast sprinting. This programme was followed out right up to the last day of training in England (Saturday, July 25), with vaulting stabilized each day at I2 ft . 6 ins. No attempt to go any higher was made, as I was particularly anxious to keep the edge on his keenness. We arrived in Berlin on Thursday, July 30, and the team went straight into quarters at the Olympic Village. Very wisely Dick kept to our previous plans, and tried nothing higher than I2 ft. 6 ins. The day of the Olympic competition was August 5, when the rain was so bad that the competition had to be abandoned for a time on account of the flooding of the track. Dick was up very early that morning, and had breakfast before 8 o'clock. At 10 A.M. he limbered up at the stadium, and ma(ie all his preparations for the competition very carefully, just as we had planned the arrange– ments that were to be carried out. He commenced vaulting at II ft. 9! ins. (3·6o metres), cleared that height, and then I2 ft. I! ins. (3·70 metres). Then a deluge of rain flooded"the track, and the competition had to be stopped for nearly an hour. The con– test was resumed at I 2 noon, when every one who was going to get I03 ' '