Coaching and Care of Athletes

COACHING AND CARE OF ATHLETES Theoretically it should be possible to avoid the soreness and stiffness of the muscles of which I have spoken, but practically, even in these days of advanced science, I think that is too much to hope for. Much discomfort, however, can be avoided if the approach to the maximum effort is gradual. That is to say, the coach must design a building-up schedule of training which will enable his athletes to accustom their muscles gradually to stand strain of an ever-increasing nature which will be placed upon them during the period of training. As training goes on the tendons attaching the muscles to the bones will become stronger, the muscles themselves will be of greater amplitude and more flexible, while the blood-stream, being improved by training, will more quickly remove from the muscle substance the waste products of exhaustion. The coach should be able to distinguish between soreness, even when it includes slight injury to minor muscle fibres, and actual injury to muscle substance. Muscular injury calls for complete rest, whereas sore muscles, apart from massage treatment, will recover their tone more quickly by exercise which alternates contraction and relaxation. In this connection possibly the best cure is the continuance of the exercise for the particular event for which the man is training, but in a milder form. This applies to the soreness which attacks muscles during training. Where the after-training soreness is in evidence the coach ~hould exercise more judgment in allowing the athlete to continue exercise by means of practising the event for which he is training. Assuming that the after-training soreness is due to injury of muscle fibres, then it may be found that the application of heat will hasten the process of recovery. Pulled muscles and other major injuries beyond the normal degree of stiffness or soreness must definitely be treated by a medical man. Care, rather than cure, should be the coach's watchword in relation to most of the other ' minor ailments from which his athletes are likely to suffer. In the foregoing connection a prevalent form of trouble is to be found in the infection of the athlete's feet. 'Athlete's foot' is, inde~d, almost as much feared to-day a_s was that bugbear of a previous generation 'athlete's heart,' a mysterious ailment the exaggerated danger of which has largely been exploded nowadays. Thick skin on the soles of the athlete's feet, and, incidentally, on 148