Coaching and Care of Athletes

COACHING AND CARE OF ATHLETES position before the final bend of the track is reached. He can then run more or less relaxed, without decreasing his pace; but he must hold his lead round the curve and into the home stretch. This type of athlete should be taught to produce, on coming into the home stretch, a second burst of speed; which will preclude others from challenging him too strongly. Such men frequently finish in a relaxed fashion, without having to produce yet a third and final burst of speed. Yet another type ofhalf-miler does best by running practically the whole of the race within easy striking distance of the leader; but, in any case, he must be in a position to level his chaUenge as the leaders of the field approach the last curve. He does not, however, actually use his last burst ofsprinting speed until he reaches the top of the home stretch and begins to make his final drive for the winning-post. The coach, · in conjunction with his athletes, must make numerous experiments to determine the speed at which each run– ner may take the first lap, the final decision being based upon the athlete's ability to last through the second . lap. This obviously includes the necessity for building up the athlete's pace judgment. Having said something about strategy, let us look now at a few basic things a coach must teach his half-milers before we.say some- thing about tactics. , Here are fundamentals for the coach to teach his athletes . The first point, of course, is style; then we have pace variation and pace judgment, breathing, resting while running, and running to time schedule. Tactics may be taught in conjunction with pace varia– tion and pace judgment by means of training the athlete in striding and burst-running ts> pass an opponent quickly. The preliminary training should be long enough to build the athlete up sufficiently, and should be done largely in rubber shoes on grass te> begin with, and on cinders afterwards, before the spikes are put on. Limbering up is a very necessary process for the half– miler. He should also be taught to carry on for a whole lap, or . almost a whole lap, after his :r:un, to tone himself down. In the winter season he should do plenty of preliminary walking to establish deep, regular breathing. I have spoken several times of pace judgment, and in the fore– going connection the runner must be· taught that he cannot rely too much on strategy and tactics in his races, at the expense of sticking to his time schedule. The half-miler must not carry his body too upright, or lean too 232