Coaching and Care of Athletes

CHAPTER II THE GENESIS OF COACHING CoACHING, even as practised to-day, is no new thing, for we know that men and boys wishing to take part in the Olympic Games of ancient Greece had, on presenting themselves 'to the hellanodicte, to make oath and prove that they were of pure Hellenic blood, were free, and had not been guilty of sacrilege or branded with atimia. These athletes were further required tQ make oath that they had been in constant and diligent training for a period of not less than ten months. When the oath had been taken and the necessary proof given the names, parentage, and countries of the would-be contestants were recorded, and they underwent a further thirty days of final training in the gymnasium at Elis under the direction and control of the umpires, who were, in fact, the trainers and coaches of those ancient times. It seems obvious also that such famous men as Captain Barclay, Harry Hutchens, and W. G. George must, in their time, have had coaches to build them up for the performance of the phenomenal feats in athletics which they achieved, or must them– selves have been masters of the art they practised. After the palmy days of the great pedestrians, however, the art of coaching seems to have been lost for a while, and it is probably true to say that Michael Murphy, an American of Irish birth, was the first of the great modem coaches. Murphy, who entered athletics as a sprinter-and a good one at tha-t-before he was twenty-one years of age, died on June 5, IgI3, having devoted thirty years to the development of track and field athletics as an exact science. During those thirty years he .. enjoyed phenomenal success in the production of inter-collegiate, Olympic, and world champions. He was, in fact, recognized even by his rival coaches as the doyen of his profession. When Murphy came into the athletic game the development of track and field events in America was still in its infancy, and although Murphy was himself a good athlete it was not long before he turned his attention from active participation in the sport to a comprehensive study of how to produce champions 26