Coaching and Care of Athletes

COACHING AND CARE OF ATHLETES is also of the opinion that no athlete can maintain the maximum energy he should put into the first 40 yds. over the whole 100 yds. of a race. He says that the runner should have reached his maxi– mum speed at the 40 yds. mark, and must find a means of holding that speed over the remaining 6o yds. He recommends that this should be done by changing the leg action from a high knee-lift to a lower sweep of the knee in the forward stride, with a slightly longer reach of the foot. In changing again from the relaxed coasting 1 form to the drive, which must take the runner over the final I o yds. of the race, Ayres suggests that the shoulders be brought forward and the arm action raised higher correspondingly with a .higher knee-lift. There is a good deal to be said for Dr Ayres' theory, since it was recognized and conformed to by Charlie Paddock, one of the world's greatest sprinters, in the heyday of his successful career. On general principles American coaches usually teach their sprinters a style in which the first stride out of the holes is from 2! to 3 ft. in length, and is followed by a series of short, rapid strides during the first 10 yds. of the race, after which the stride is lengthened out. They also require their sprinters to raise the knee straight forward with a good lift, and to allow the lower leg and foot to swing through naturally, so that the foot comes down at the full length of the stride. The arms must come obliquely upward and forward, with each hand in turn rising, with a sort of upper-cut punch, to a point in front of the opposite shoulder or the middle of the chest. The hands are not checked at the hips, but swing the whole way back, and may be allowed to go as much as two or three inches behind the hips. There is, however, another school of thought which follows the principle enunciated by that great British coach the late Sam Mussabini, the maker of W. R. Applegarth, H. F. V. Edward, Jack London, and that brilliant miler A. G. Hill. Mussabini based his conception and teaching on the theory that a man, to produce a fast time in sprinting, should make the fullest use of his shoulders to 'shrug' himself along. This involved a low carriage of the feet and knees and a peculiar cross-arm action. This action was shown to perfection by Willie Applegarth. It can, perhaps, best be learned by the sprinter's holding in his hands a short ~ length of wood- for example, a baton-while the palms of the 1 Coasting is the technical definition for that part of the race when the athlete rests himself by running with full relaxation at, or just under, his optimum speed. 178