Coaching and Care of Athletes

COACHING AND CARE OF ATHLETEs- the athlete is dressed he should sit down with the coach and talk over what they have been doing. Friday. This, in my opinion, should be a rest-day, on which it is unnecessary to talk about athletics at all. Saturday. The limbering up will depend upon what the athlete and his coach have discovered to be the right amount of work to produce the necessary staircase effect of which I have said a good deal in an earlier part of this book. It may be that the athlete will need to jog a furlong, or it may be sufficient for him to jog 100 yds., repeating the practice two or three times. He s):10uld certainly do some bending and stretching exercises, and some deep-breathing exercises also. Then he can try a couple of starts at just under full power, before running a 100 yds. time tria). He should then be given from 15 to 20 mins. rest, and some light massage before he goes out to the track again. He will then have to warm up, but not so much as previously. Perhaps 5 mins. of bending and stretching exercises or dancing on the toes will be enough before he runs a 220 yds. time trial to finish off the testing part of his day's work. He should finally ease down with a jog of perhaps 300 yds., followed by his shower-bath, massage, and a talk with his coach as to what the trials have shown. The week's work for a team in training may be slightly different. When one is handling a team it is usually calculated that each of the sprinters will undertake both the 100 yds. and the furlong, and will also figure in the relay team. In this connection one must know which kind of relay the particular man is going to take part in, because if it is the 4X 100 yds., then he will want more speed work in ~h~s schedule; but if, on the other hand, it is to be the 4 X 220 yds. relay, then obviously the man will need to have his endurance built up, and must do more distance work in his training. Furthermore, when one is handling a team it often sq happens that one or more of the sprinters will be taking part in a field event. Field events which fit in well with sprinting are the javelin, the running broad jump, and possibly the hurdles. The heavier type of sprinter, who is a big, well-set-up fellow, may also take part in the shot put or discus. When a sprinter is being trained also for one of the field events there will be special matters for the coach to consider. It will be noted that I have not included either the pole val).lt or the high jump in the recommended field events for the sprinters to take part in. My reason for making this omission is that the pole vault and high jump are usually protracted events, in which it is not 1 94