Coaching and Care of Athletes

CARE OF THE ATHLETE IN TRAINING the English team, quartered by Victoria Station, were disturbed by railway noises throughout most of the night. They were again out of luck when the Empire Games were held at Sydney, Aus– tralia, in r938. Bands practised from morning to night, and accommodation in the Empire Village left a great deal to be desired. On the other hand, the British Universities team which went to Darmstadt, Germany, to take part in the World Students' Cham– pionships of 1930 was exceptionally well accommodated at the Marienhoe, high up in the forest. The feeding was excellent, and the place was admirably quiet. When teams are segregated, as they were at the Marienhoe and as they are in the Olympic Villages, discipline is so much more easy to maintain. This has a special bearing upon the sleep prob– lem. With teams housed in hotels in the centres of large towns it is very difficult to ensure that every one comes in at the right time and goes to bed. Even.at the Marienhoe there were difficulties, which, however, did not prove insurmountable. The men repre- .-- senting England at the World Students' Championships had gone to Germany ai: their own expense, and it needed a little tact to persuade some of them that it was vital to their own interests, and to those of others, that they should conform to the rule that all athletes must be in the hostel by ro o'clock and in bed by ro.3o. There was, of course, a natural tendency for a man, after he had finished his own event, to make a holiday of the rest of the trip, but a little persuasion provided that those who had finished com– peting would, for the sake of those who had yet to compete, observe the simple rules which were laid down. Sleep represents nature's great restorative process, for while the athlete is sleeping quietly all his body-tissues are being rebuilt. It is necessary that athletes should have at least eight hours of undisturbed sleep each night, but if a man can sleep for ten hours, so much the better. Regularity of sleep, as in all other matters connected with athletic training, is absolutely essential. A man should go to bed at a definite time each evening, a!ld should follow a definite process of preparation for sleep. It is equally important that he should wake and rise at the same time each morning. The preparation for sleep involves a process of what one may term progressive relaxation. During the hour immediately preceding going to bed a man should relax his body .and, gradually, his mental faculties. Then, when he goes to his room, he should perform the ordinary toilet I4I