Coaching and Care of Athletes

CHAPTER XI TESTING THE ABILITY OF ATHLETES THE work of the coach in testing and grading his athletes does not represent quite the same problem as that which faces the physical education expert. Under the educational system it is necessary for the athlete who is being tested to be good all round, whereas the athletic coach, while requiring a certain degree of all-round ability in his charges, will look far more for specialized effect in perhaps one particular event. The athletic coach will probably find it better to divide his pupils into athletically homogeneous groups, and then to test them and grade them in groups of events applicable to their own best event. For example, if a coach is training an athlete whose best event appears to be the pole vault he will not grade him only as a pole-vaulter, but also by his sprinting, jumping, and rope-climbing ability, · since these are subsidiary exercises which contribute considerably to the success of the athlete as a pole-vaulter. The next question for the coach to consider is whether he is going to classify his athletes in accord– ance with the arrangement of height and weight or by age. There are two good systems-'-that which is followed in the Cali– fornian schools, which ,have adopted a table that gives different standards for combinations of age, height, and weight, and that known as the Rilley System, which takes account of age, height, weight, and grade, the latter being divided into junior and senior sections. Four problems present themselves to the coach when he sets out to create an adequate set of standard tests in track and field athletics. The constitu~nts of the four problems are interrelated. In the first place the ,coach must find an acceptable system of scoring for events which vary considerably in their nature, in the records which have been established in them, and in their range. Next he will have to plan the battery of tests, and must therefore determine how many events are to be included. Thirdly the method of handicapping, or allowing for differences in age, size, and strength, must be decided on a scientific basis, which, while 131