Coaching and Care of Athletes

COACHING AND CARE OF ATHLETES may involve the preparation of a number of personal schedules; hence I am giving a specimen of a schedule only for an individual athlete. Mm-SEASON TRAINING (For the individual athlete) Monday. Jog an easy 440 yds. in the sweat suit, and then do 5 mins. of bending and stretching exercises. Dig the starting-holes and space the feet very carefully. Then take two starts without the gun. Mter a brief rest and the correction of faults by the coach the athlete should have three, or possibly four, starts with the gun at three-quarter effort. Finish off this day with an easy 220 yds., swinging through with a nice, free stride. Then get the athlete into the dressing-room, and see that he has a shower and fairly light massage. Tuesday. Limber up by trotting up and down the roo yds. path three times, wearing the sweat suit, and occasionally breaking into a burst of speed with short, pattering steps for about ro yds. follow up the trotting with some light, quick agility exercises. Take a couple of starts without the gun. Then run a 50 yds. time trial. Mter the 50 yds. time trial let the athlete rest for 15 mins. while he manipulates his own muscles. Then warm him up again with a couple of jogs up and down the sprint path, and give him a couple of starts without the gun at just under full effort. Then let him run a 75 yds. time trial. Finish off the day's work with an easy jog in the sweat suit of from 200 to 300 yds., according to how the man himself cools do-wn. Let him have his shower-bath and, again, some light massage. Wednesday. Open up the day's work with the athlete jogging 400 yds. to limber up and doing 5 mins. of bending and stretching exercises. Add to these exercises some inverted bicycling exercise, as described for sprinters. Finish off the day's work by having the athlete jog 8oo yds. in his sweat suit. Then get him to his dressing– room for a shower and long and rather deeper massage than on the previous day. Thursday. Start with a light jog of about 200 to 300 yds., followea by 3 mins. of agility exercises. Let the athlete run four roo yds., varying from half to three-quarter effort and back again, to get him accustomed to pace-changing. Rest him for ro mins., and then send him for 300 yds. at about half effort, concentrating on a long, free stride. Mter another rest for ro mins. set the athlete to run 75 yds., the first 25 yds. fast, the middle 25 yds. coasting, and the final 25 yds. fast. Finish off with an easy jog of about 200 yds. and some bending and stretching exercises, and, after the shower-bath, see that the athlete gets some quick, light massage. 220