Coaching and Care of Athletes

COACHING AND CARE OF ATHLETES When the athlete can accelerate no longer he can, at the best, but hope to maintain his speed untq he is within measurable distance of the tape. When that stage is reached he will again accelerate. His striding should be uniform in length. The re– covery phase in striding is very important, and, as will be seen from Plate XIX, Fig. 57, ofFoy Draper, the sprinter who captained the University of Southern California track and field team in 1937, if an economical recovery is to be made the athlete's knee must be so flexed when the leg is brought forward that the heel is carried high up beneath the buttock. In teaching his athletes to finish a race the coach should warn · them against spectacular antics in breasting the tape. He should tell each man that his job is to build up top speed, and to maintain that speed right through to a point some yards beyond the winning– post. A good sprinter, running at full speed, needs to make no change in his body position for the purpose of breasting the tape. Neither a jump, lunge, nor turn of the shoulders will increase his. momentum. Equally any action which interferes with the rhythm of the run or the harmony of the leg and arm action is to be depre– cated, because it is bound to detract from the power of the driving leg, and will therefore reduce the athlete's speed. Some athletes naturally throw back their heads and, by picking up their knees, shorten their strides as they approach the tape. This is usually a sign of bad training or the. early appearance of fatigue. Others cast their arms wildly above their heads, or twist their shoulders, in an attempt to reach the tape first. They gain no advantage by so doing. Yet others-and Paddock was the chief exponent of this style– make a ·tremendous jump for the worsted as they approach the finishing-line. Paddock, however, rarely showed this form in a tight finish. A friend of mine once twitted him upon this point, and suggested that, while Paddock could afford to make his spectacular jump for the benefit of the onlookers when he had the race well inhand, he did not seem to dare to use this trick when hard pressed. Paddock, who was always a little on the dour side, simply smiled. He did not contradict the soft impeachment. There is another point upon which the coach will do well to advise his pupils. It is in connection with the coast period, which they may be able to introduce even into the I oo yds. length of the shortest sprint. What the coach must tell them is that when they do learn to manage this coast for a few yards they·will inevitably 184 1