Coaching and Care of Athletes

COACHING AND CARE OF ATHLETES necessity for limbering up properly before training and limbering down directly afterwards. It is not a bad idea during the preliminary season to acquaint the athlete with the rules governing athletic competition in general and his own event in particular. The next phase of training, lasting from one to one and a half months, should be mainly educational. It is during this stage that the competitor ml\lst begin to attain proficiency in his own particular event. · The coach should be patient, at the same time laying particular stress on the building up of skill in the event. He must also develop the athlete's ability to stand the continued repetition which alone, in the long run, will bring to light a successful technique. In the third stage of training, lasting about one month, the athlete, having got into condition and also acquired a reasonable amount of skill in the execution of his event, should begin to stabilize his form under the guidance of his coach. While the coach is perfecting the athlete's technique he should be develop– ing unobtrusively his mental attitude towards competition in general and his own event in particular. In other words, it is at this stage of training that the coach must be concerned with developing the athlete's will to win. This third phase of training is always difficult, because the coach must see to it that the physical condition of his pupils is main– tained while their form is improving. He has also the task of developing the self-confidence of his boys, at the same time giving them the competition outlook, which includes respect for, but never fear of, the opponents one will have to meet. Finally, in this third stage of training the coach must be laying the foundations for some possible changes in the technique of his various athletes, which will enable them to go on to the achievement. of those peak performances for which they are being trained. While he is doing this the coach must see to it that by increasing the athlete's powers to resist fatigue the foundations for greater effort, both mental and physical, are laid. In this way the athlete is carried safely to the advanced stage in his training. Meanwhile there are two details to which the coach must have paid particular attention in training the athletic mentality of his pupils. A prime factor of success in this connection is something which 126