Coaching and Care of Athletes

CARE OF THE ATHLETE IN TRAINING bath for about ten minutes, with the knowledge that the immersion is speeding up his bodily functions and increasing his heart-rate. None the less I do not think that a really hot bath should be indulged in more than once or twice a week, as it is distinctly fatiguing. On the other hand, a hot bath is conducive to relaxa– tion, and is also sometimes used as a leading-up process to sleep. The coach must be able to diagnose and care for what one may term minor athletic ailments. Possibly the first of these which he will be called upon to face is the soreness of the muscles and the stiffness which usually characterizes the commencement of the training season. Muscular soreness may be roughly divided into two categories. There is first of all the soreness which accompanies the actual training, and then the other soreness which follows after the train– ing period is finished. Let us deal first with the soreness of muscles while they are being used. The condition, having made its appear– ance during work, is likely to last for some hours after training, but is not to be co:hfused with post-exercise soreness. Muscular sore– ness which comes on during training is due to the accumulation in the muscle substance of the waste products of work. It is prob– ably a condition of over-fatigue, and therefore early-season training should be made light, to avoid the occurrence of this particular condition. The cure is to be found in the elimination from the muscle substa~ce of the waste products of exhaustion. In other words, the circulatory system must do its work, and this may be aided considerably by the appiication of proper massage. Massage of a general nature, with the hands stroking the surface of the flesh in the direction of the heart, is particularly useful, since it serves to relieve the pressure of the swollen muscle tissues on the sensory nerve-endings and counteracts the chemical over-stimulation which the waste products have placed upon those nerve-ends. The kind of muscular soreness which the athlete does not feel until some hours after the training period is over is of a rather more serious nature, because it is probably due to some injury of the muscle fibres, up<2n which an undue amount of strain has been placed. This breaking down of tissue is not really serious, but certainly gives the athlete quite a considerable amount of discom– fort. We are not .so sure about the cause of after-training soreness as of the normal soreness which the muscles experience during training, but again I think the remedy is to be found in the hands of an expert masseur. 1 47