Coaching and Care of Athletes

COACHING AND CARE OF ATHLETES Saturday. This will be the day of special competition for which training has been undertaken, and, of course, all the necessary routine must be gone through upon both the Friday and the Satur– day, especially in the matter of dietary, by both coach and quarter– miler. During the final tapering-off period of training the coach will, of course, have a great deal more time at his disposal than in the earlier season's training. I think that each day's work, whether the coach is handling an individual or a team, should open with some discussion between the coach and the athlete, or athletes. There are many points in technique which can be reviewed, and a good deal of criticism will be needed concerning the style that has been shown and the way that races have been run. In this con– nection the coach must never forget that his criticism should be kindly and spiced always with encouragement. The daily recording of body-weight and the noting of fluctuations, besides the interpretation of their meaning, are very necessary. With the athlete approaching peak performances much consideration should be given to the question of limbering up, which is quite likely to need revision from the practice of the earlier periods of training. During this final part of the training it is most helpful to have good photographs, but even better to have good cinematograph pic– tures, which one can criticize and also use for the purpose of showing the athletes their faults. Another important matter for the coach is the taking of stop-watch readings and definite per– centages of his athletes' trials and races. With this information available he can assess the way the distribution of effort is being made, and also find out weak points in the running of his pupils which need strengthening. The tapering-off period of training must, of course, be carefully managed. This being so, the coach should keep all the work in the training schedule well within the ability of his athletes. He must watch for the approach of peak performances and assess the ability of athletes to produce their maximum effort when required to do so. On the other hand, it is very necessary that, while the ability to produce a peak performance must be latent in the athlete, it should not be produced too soon. In this connection the coach should impress upon his athletes that they must use the pre– liminary races during their training to build up towards the prin– cipal event of the season. · Whenever a peak performance is produced too soon, and this is 224