Coaching and Care of Athletes

SPRINTING Do not on any account overstrain your athletes in the .mid– season period of training. I know that this is the period at which the heaviest work of the whole season is done; but, at the same time, training is essentially a building-up process, and you must never give your athletes so much work that you take the edge off their keenness, or get them to a peak too soon, or the virtue of the tapering-off process, which comes later, will be completely lost. We come next to the late, or full-competition, season of train– ing. This represents the tapering-off process, of which I have already spoken. It is at this time that all subsidiary events should be taken out of the schedule of the athlete who is training for a particular event of an important nature. With an important competition in view, and no certain knowledge ofwhat the weather will be like when the big day comes, the coach should make a practice in this period of training of seeing that his athletes do not shirk their trials in wet weather, and he should also take ad– vantage ofsuch opportunities as may occur ofrunning them against head-winds and on heavy tracks. Not only will he, in this way, prepare them to face any conditions that may prevail, but he will also, quite probably, s.ave them the danger of strains, which are sometimes caused by a man who is used to a fast, dry ·path sud– denly striking a wet patch ori an indifferent cinder track. Racing sense, which should have been built up gradually through the mid~season period, should now be well established. In the final of a race a sprinter must always, of course, go flat out, because one never knows what on~'s opponents may have been holding in reserve. The mere fact that they may have been holding something-back should be a guide to other athletes. The athlete must go all out in the final, as I have said, but it certainly is wise to conserve as much energy as possible in eliminating trials. That is to say, if three men in each heat are to go through to the final there is no point in tearing your heart out to . get first to the tape when you can qualify equally safely in second position. I particularly do not say third position, as there is always a chance of being pipped on the post. If, however, you can make quite sure of being second, while still saving a reserve of energy, then surely it is wise not to expend all that you have in getting first past the post? Sprinters cannot risk oonserving their energy at the start of the race, and must be careful not to ease down so much over the last stagt that there is any possibility of their being caught napping. rgg