Coaching and Care of Athletes

COACHING AND CARE OF ATHLETES constant. With two such men one would select Roberts to run either the first or last stage, ii-J. accordance with one's preconceived policy, based upon the balance of his ability as a fast starter or a fast finisher, and would give to Rampling, the man who has always risen to the big occasion in relay racing, what one might anticipate would be the most dangerous and difficult stage of the race, in which the runner would be most likely to have to make up lost ground. Suppose, all else being equal, the coach numbers his best four available runners r, 2, 3, and 4, grading each man in accordance with his turn of speed. The usual plan is to use your fastest runner as the ' anchor' man of the team, and to make the order of running 2, 4, 3, r. The advantage ofthis plan is that the second fastest man in the team, provided he is a good starter, runs the first leg, and should at least hold his own, or may be able to hand the second runner a lead advantage with the baton. This is desirable, since the weakest man in the team is to run the second leg. The more lead advantage he is given- the. better it will be, because the less 'of that lead he loses the .less deficit there will be for the third runner and the 'anchor' man to make up. No. 3, running the third leg, should be good , enough, at the worst, to lose no ground, and you still have your best man to pull the fat out of the fire in the last stage if any of the other runners have not lived up to your expectations. The American team which won the Olympic 4 X roo metres relay in the world's record time of 39·8 secs. was run in the some– what unusual order r, 2, 4, 3-i.e., Owens, Metcalfe, Draper, and Wykoff. There is no doubt about classing Owens No. r and Met– calfe No. 2, and I suppose most experts would rank Wykoffslightly ahead of Draper. . It is hard to grade the British teamwhich won the 4 X 400 metres Olympic title in 3 mins . 9 secs., only t sec. outside the world's record, except that the slowest runner, F. F. Wolff, was set to run the first leg. This he did in 49·2 secs. He was followed by Rampling, 46·7 secs., Roberts, 46·4 secs., and · A. G. K. Brown, 46·7 secs.-the order, strangely enough, in which they had won their English quarter-mile titles in previous years. Despite the times actually returned, I should say that the British team ran in the order 4, r, 2, 3· This grading needs no explanation where Wolff is concerned. I grade Rampling No. r by reason of his British 440 yds. record of 48 secs., his relay-racing 272