Coaching and Care of Athletes

THE HALF-MILE AND 8oo METRES up run him 66o yds. for a time trial at seven-eighths effort, con– centrating on level-pace running. Final Week Monday. Limber up with the usual 88o yds. jog; then send the man 100 yds. twice at about seven-eighths effort to brighten him up. Let him finish off with an easy jog of I mile. Tuesday. Let the limbering-up process on this day be not more than a jog of 66o yds. Then send your man for 88o yds. at thr.ee– quarte.r effort, paying particular attention to level-pace running, timed over each 220 yds. with the stop-watch. After a rest give him three dashes of 30 yds. each at seven-eighths effort, and finally cool him down with a 220 yds. striding run at half effort. Wednesday. Let him jog an easy 440 yds. Thursday. Rest. Friday. Rest. Saturday. Special competition for which the man has been trained. N.B. The coach should be careful on each day to give the man · about 5 mins. of special exercises after the limbering-up process, and, for the rest, he should read the chapter on quarter-miling, to get a line on the sort of encouragement talk and routine before competition which must be adhered to. Now let us consider how the coach will handle the training schedules of the half-milers in the team he is preparing. The weight chart must, ofcowse, be carefully kept up, and revisions in training schedules and dietary made in accordance with what the weight chart shows. As regards the training of the half-milers in a team, I think that if the coach reads the chapter on quarter-miling and studies the schedules given above for the individual half-miler he should be able to prepare a training schedule which will form the basis for all his half-milers, and can be varied to suit the requirements of particular individuals. '237