Coaching and Care of Athletes

BUILDING TRAINING SCHEDULES advance of fatigue. An athlete in good physical condition can, of course, carry on for much longer than a man who is untrained. One of the effects of training is to increase the size of the muscles, and in this way the athlete's total strength is also increased. That, however, is not the whole of the story, because training increases th~ amount of glycogen which is available for the supply of muscular energy. Lung capacity is also increased, so that a better supply of oxygen comes to the blood-stream for the removal of the waste products of exhaustion and the rebuilding of the tissues through a cardio-respiratory adjustment. The cause of a better supply of oxygen being made available for the blood– stream is that regular activity increases the number of red blood– corpuscles. Next there is a point for the coach to consider in designing the work his athletes are going to do. The athlete's groups of muscles, which he will employ in the practice of track and field events, are arranged in pairs which, generally speaking, ar~e antagonistic to each other. It follows, therefore, that while one group is being contracted the other must of necessity be relaxed. Unfortunately, perhaps, it is scientifically true that when the activity of a muscle is altered the relaxation is affected more pronouncedly than is the contraction. It follows also that a muscle made warm by the process of limbering up may be in a better condition to contract than to relax, and this, I think, accounts for the reason why sprinters so often pull muscles. They do so particularly if they have not limbered up properly or are insuffi– ciently trained. The injury usually occurs in the early stages of a race, and, moreover, it is usually the relaxing muscle, and not the contracting one, which is pulled. Let us for a moment give some consideration to the items of the daily schedule of training. In the first place, for what pur– pose should the schedule be designed? Surely the answer is that one should design it for the development of the athlete's physical condition and mental poise? If this is to be done efficiently, then the coach must work upon a series of graded exercises, which will lead the athlete up to proficiency in his event, while at the same time building up his strength, speed, and stamina and stabilizing in his mind a correct mental outlook. Already we have progressed quite a long way upon the road we have set out to follow, but it still remains for the coach I 129