Coaching and Care of Athletes

CHAPTER XIV STARTING THE phase of the runner's training which deals with his educa– tion in the art of starting-and it certainly is an art-is very important. All other things being equal, it must be obvious that the man who is quickest off the mark is the most likely to win a sprint, and possibly a hurdle race. Much the same thing applies to the quarter-mile. The nature of the start varies with the build of the indiyidual, his personal preference, and the distance he is going to run. I spoke in an earlier chapter of the athlete's motor-mindedness and the development of his power of inhibition, and these two points are particularly important in relation to starting. May I remind you of what I said regarding the building up by practice of a reflex pattern, to which all points of technique should be reduced, and which represents the degree of the athlete's motor– mindedness and his readiness to react to any clear-cut stimulus? I pointed out also that a well-trained athlete, and this applies particularly to a man when he is starting, must be able to inhibit response to any distraction. Three other matters which are of vast importance to the sprinter, or to any man who is starti:qg in a race, are his reaction time, his reflex time, and what is termed his dominant. I will deal more fully with reaction time and reflex time in a moment. Meanwhile let us consider this question of the athlete's dominant and what it really is. We know that most people are born right-handed; there are a certain number of naturally left-handed people, and an even smaller number who are ambidextrous. This state of things applies equally to the legs. Athletes usually show a definite preference for taking up a starting position with the left leg in advance. As a rule these men are right-handed. That is because the athlete is really showing a preference for the right side of his body, since it is the right foot in the rear hole from which the initial drive in starting will be made. The right-dominant and the left-dominant athlete both show a 166