Coaching and Care of Athletes

COACHING AND CARE OF ATHLETES forget that the higher the hip elevation in the set position the shorter will be the range of vision. Once the race is on the sprinter should gaze straight ahead. A glance to right or left is likely to lead to loss of balance, and also will diminish the runner's stride– length. I think the next point for coaches to concentrate on in building up the technique of their athletes is the creation of the habit of attention. When the athlete is told that his race is about to begin he should have mapped out, and should follow, a definite pro– cedure. One of the most important things is to dig the holes early enough, and then to spend a minute or two in deep-breathing and · forcefu} breathing exercises, so as to decrease the amount of carbon dioxide in the blood and proportionately increase the supply of oxygen. Meanwhile the athlete must voluntarily build up his attention to the task in hand, and that attention should be at its peak at the instant when the starter fires his gun. The coach should tell his athletes to concentrate their attention, after going to their marks, on body adjustment for the race, and should warn them that they will have plenty of time to do this, as any good starter will give them at least r o secs. before issuing his second order-" Get set." Upon this order being given the sprinter takes his final normal inspiration, and then holds his breath. At the same time he tenses the driving muscles of his legs, and, by the process of inhibition, should be able to shl).t out all extraneous stimuli. In other words, the athlete should have so arranged things that he will be at the peak of attentiveness at the moment the actuating stimulus-i.e., the firing of the starter's gun-is applied. Next, I think, the coach should explain to the athlete that the thing for him to aim at is to get a powerful drive from both legs when the gun is fired. The coach must qualify this by explaining that the distribution of the driving-force depends largely on the spacing of the feet-i.e., on the nature of the starting position which has been chosen. He should tell his athlete that if he is using the Bullet Start, then he may expect the main portion of the initial drive to come from the front foot. If the normal, medium foot– spread starting position is used, then the distribution of driving– power will be more or less equalized, while with the wide foot– spread position the main drive will come from the rear foot. There is one phase of starting on which the coach will have to spend a great deal of time in training his athletes. He must make 182