Coaching and Care of Athletes

DISTANCE AND MARATHON RUNNING E. H. Flack, who had won the 8oo and 1500 metres, Arthur Blake, U.S.A., and Lemursiaux, of France, who had run second and third respectively to Flack in the r 500 metres, and a Hungarian. Lemursiaux had something of a reputation as a long-distance runner, but neither Flack nor Blake, who was willing to run any distance to beat the Britisher, had ever before tackled anything approaching a Marathon race. The foreigners, however, put up a remarkable performance, for although Spiridon Loues, who had fasted and prayed for two days, won the race for Greece, Blake was actually in the lead when he dropped exhausted after covering r8 miles, while Flack was ahead of Loues when he too fell out almost within sight of the stadium. The other exception to the generally accepted rule is the English– man A. G. Hill. He started his sporting career at fifteen years of age as a swimmer and cyclist, but in rgro took the North of the Thames Cross-country Championship against a field ·of three hundred runners, and won also the English 4 miles title. Instead of going on to greater long-distance triumphs after the War, Hill turned himself into a record-breaker and Olympic champion at the half-mile and mile. Thus he reversed what athletic coaches have come to regard as the normal process of nature. To the long-distance game athletes certainly do not come in all shapes and sizes. I can, indeed, think ofno distinguished Marathon man who has stood more than 5 ft. 8 ins. in height, and of very few first-class three milers who have been anywhere near the 6-ft. mark. S.o far as style is concerned, coach and distance-running athlete alike are recommended to make a close study of Arthur F. H. Newton's book Running. Normally the action is not difficult to acquire, since short striding, co-ordinated breathing, and full muscular relaxation are the main requisites. Generally speaking, a distance runner should adopt the arm action that suits him best, because by so doing he will balance his striding naturally. If you watch a young boy or an uncivilized native who is a natural long-distance runner trotting along effortlessly you will observe in both cases that the stride is short, and that the hands, loosely closed so that the arm muscles are relaxed, work in and out, or even in a circular move– ment across the stomach. Such action is smooth and unforced, while the relaxation of the neck and shoulder muscles gets the shoulders swinging to the cadence of the swaying hips at each stride. Concerning stride-length, if the coach needs convincing as to R 257 ' .