Coaching and Care of Athletes

THE QUARTER-MILE AND 400 METRES off with light agility exercises, followed by a shower-bath and massage. Thursday. Light work in the gymnasium. Friday. Rest. Saturday. Limber up by trotting up and down the 100 yds. path two or three times. 5 mins. of body-bending and stretching exercises. Swing through 440 yds. with a loose, free stride, and try to judge the pace at which you are running. Rest for I o mins. Starting practice over 30 yds. at under full effort: four starts without the gun. Rest for 10 mins. Sprint 50 yds. twice at just under full power. Jog 300 yds. easily in sweat suit, followed by light agility exercises, bath, and massage. In designing the work for the quarter-milers in the team which he is handling I think _the coach might schedule their work for one week in the early season on somewhat the following lines: EARLY..:SEASON TRAJNING (For quarter-milers of a team) Monday. Limber up with an easy 300 yds. jog, and do 5 mins. of body-bending and stretching exercises. Experimental work follows, and the coach should watch very carefully to see that his athletes are gefting the correct body-angle, sufficient knee pick-up, and parallel foot-placing at the end of each stride. This can be done either by getting the men to stride easily through about 300 or 400 yds. or sending each man the full quarter-mile at a fairly easy pace, with the coach watching and criticizing his action. Two or three speed bursts of 50 yds. can be run. Finish with a slow jog of 300 to 400 yds. in the sweat suit to cool down; then get the men to the dressing-room and let them have a shower-bath and some light, quick massage. Tuesday. Limber up as for Monday. Give the men four or five starts at under full speed without the gun. Note carefully the faults each man shows, correcting them afterwards. Put the men on to 5 mins. of quick agility exercises. Let them cool down for a minute or so. Give two or three starts with the gun, letting the men travel approximately 30 yds. at almost top speed. Watch the athletes carefully, to see whether they are under- or over-striding and how soon they are getting into their proper running angle after coming out of the holes. Run the furlong men for that distance around the curves of the track, having first instructed them in cornering. While they are running you must note the faults they show in this particular phase of their work. Finish off with a jog of 300 yds. in the sweat suit, 217