Coaching and Care of Athletes

' COACHING AND CARE OF ATHLETES that has taken place during training. It is that wastage which must be made good during the tapering-off period of training. As the date of the competition approaches, despite the fact that the athlete has built up his technique and, through training and a proper diet, has acquired speed, strength, and stamina, he must now be allowed to recuperate a little, and to store up reserve strength. This is best done by reducing his physical work slight_ly, and -at the same time watching both his diet and his weight. His last day of heavy work should be at least ten days to a fortnight before the event for which he has been training takes place. Finally, the athlete's schedule of physical work in training tapers off to zero at least three days before the important compt tition. The tapering-off process is not necessary only towards the end of the training period. When a man is undergoing a five months' schedule of training the1irst week of the third month should always be a very light one, and where the field-events men and hurdlers are concerned, it is better to keep them right away from the practice of their actual event for that particular week. Now let us see if we cannot subdivide the schedule for the total period of training into four parts of a definite nature. First of all, I think, there must be a definite preliminary period in which, if the coach is training a team, the whole of that team must work as a group. If this plan is adopted it should not be difficult to give the team a detailed schedule of practice, which will be applicable to the whole of the team. In the next sta,ge, which includes testing, the athletes can be separated and grouped in accordance with the events which they are going to follow. Then, of course, the daily training schedules will of necessity vary according to the event each man is practising. Let us take first a preliminary season of from three weeks to a month and a half. This is the conditioning period, during which the basic physical condition will be established and the ,athlete will acquire his balance and timing, besides the building up of the symmetry of his body while his agility is developed. Effort distribution must also be carefully ·prescribed. At this stage of his training a man will work a good deal in the gymnasium, and should also do form exercises and general callisthenics. During this preliminary season the athlete will not be very much bothered by his coach concerning the mysteries of the event for which he is training in the sense of attempting to perform the 124