Coaching and Care of Athletes

THE GENESIS OF COACHING such as America at that time badly needed. To the champions– to-be whom he was soon handling he imparted the results of his experiments and observations . In his own words, he was a sprinter of a generation of men who were accustomed to training them– selves. Murphy, being of an observant disposition, endeavoured to learn all that was possible from watching the performances of men who were better than himself. He tried to avoid their mistakes and to adopt all that was good from the methods of training employed by his rivals. Mter Murphy gave up active competition he began to make an independent study of all forms of track and field athletics. He wanted to know which type of foods best suited the athlete, what amount of work each man should do to produce the maximum speed of which he was personally capable, if he was a runner, and how the throwing men and jumpers could add feet or inches to their personal records. As the first result of his early experiments, carried out upon himself and those athletes who had committed themselves to his care, Murphy quickly discovered what he considered to be an ideal diet for athletes. He also investigated the principles of massage, bathing, and training to a preconceived schedule. The experience he gained in the next quarter of a century enabled him to produce the system upon which he trained his successful Olympic and other teams. Perhaps, however, the main factors in Michael Murphy's success were his own rare understanding of human nature, which gave him a predominant influence over the athletes he trained, and his constant watchfulness to discover some new method or device which would add to the skill of his pupils. He was never hidebound or conventional, and therefore made much progress. As a hint to modern coaches, it may be remarked that when Murphy was appointed head coach at the University of Pennsyl– vania he voluntarily undertook a two years' course in medicine and surgery to increase his already considerable knowledge of the human body and its possibilities and needs. He was a great coach in every branch of athletics, but his main successes were obtained with sprinters, hurdlers, and jumpers. Where these ·even.ts were concerned, Murphy's ideas were many years in advance of those of other American coaches. He was the inventor of the now universally used crouch start, which he first taught to Charles H. Sherrill, of Yale University, who is now Brigadier- 27