Coaching and Care of Athletes

SPRINTING them gun-conscious. That is to say, the athlete must be trained to respond automatically to the bang of the starter's pistol. When the athlete .is capaQ_le of starting automatically it proves that he is already motor-minded, but if he has to add thought to his response, then he is still only sensory-minded, and his training as a sprinter is incomplete. The athlete having been taught how to start and given practice in that phase of his training, the coach has next to consider whether he will teach the man to come gradually, over a distance of from 15 to 25 yds., up to the normal body angle of 75°, or whether he will follow Boyd Comstock's new principle of getting his man into the running angle as quickly as possible. Whichever system is adopted, after the initial driving phase has been passed the running of a sprint race must depend mainly upon the forward propulsion coming from the pushing action of the rear leg, but this must be combin.ed with an expeditious recovery of the leg to get into position for the next drive forward . The arms act as balancers, but also aid in the propulsion. In principle I think that Dr Ayres' theory of running a sprint race is correct, in that the whole sprint must be divided into three parts- that is to say, the starting-stride period, the transitional period, and the final top-speed dash for the tape. In leaving the holes the commencement of the back-leg drive must be followed very rapidly by the front leg taking up the driving action. Simul– taneously with this initial drive the shoulders should come higher than the hips and the hands leave the track. One would naturally suppose that the powerful drive from the rear leg would tend to throw the athlete's body to one side, but this is compensated for by the swing of the arm on the opposite side of the body. The force of the arm-swing must be in proportion to the power of the leg-drive; but normally speaking the hands, in turn, usually come up to just about shoulder-level. An all-important point to remember is that the maximum amount of drive must be put into the first two strides out of the holes. This powerful acceleration is carried on for a distance of 12 to 15 yds., or a maximum of about nine strides. Then the char– acter of the athlete's striding begins to change, and there is a progressive lengthening of the stride, as the proper body-angle for sprinting is attained, throughout the transitional period. The foot, when it makes contact with the track, should be moving backward strongly during the t:r:ansitional-stride period. 183