Coaching and Care of Athletes

COACHING AND CARE OF ATHLETES up to the true sprinting angle within 8 or IO yds. after driving out of the starting-holes. (See Plate XXVIII, Fig. 8o, of A. Tolmich, U .S.A.) The successive flights of hurdles are placed IO yds. apart. The winning-posts are set up I5 yds. beyond the last flight in a I 20 yds . race and 14·02 metres (46ft.) beyond the last flight when the race is at IIO metres ( I20 yds. I0 ·7 ins.) . Tall men, with long rather than bulky muscles, make the best high hurdlers, and the man who weighs between I 2 and I3 stone is preferable to an athlete of IO stone or under. The first things a coach should look for in picking his high hurdlers are long legs, general suppleness, and extreme hip mobility. Even a short man with long legs is to be preferred to a tall man with short legs. Keen eyesight is a very necessary attribute . The style to be adopted will be governed to some extent by the build of the particular athlete. It is seldom a great deal of use to look for a world-beater of much under 6ft. in height. Lord Burghley is perhaps the outstanding exception, for in his racing days he gave one the impression of being a little finely drawn and on. the frail side, and was certainly something under the ideal stature of 72 ins. Actually his height was 5 ft. Io! ins., and his weight IO stone 6 lb. He was certainly a world-beater at 400 metres, as his Ig28 Olympic title, won in record time, proved. I should not, however, assess Burghley's greatness on his Olympic victory, his English hurdling records of I4·8 secs. for I20 yds., 24·7 secs. for 220 yds., and 53 ·8 secs. for 440 yds ., nor even on his six Oxford and Cambridge and eight English Championship titles, but rather on the great spirit of the man himself. . It was in I930 that fifty thousand spectators turned up to see how Lord Burghley would fare against the Italian champion and the rising British generation in the I 20 yds . and 440 yds. English hurdles championships. There were two rounds ·of the 440 yds. hurdles on Friday evening, and on Sa~urday heats and finals of the I 20 yds. and 440 yds. hurdles. That is to say, five races in two days, with three on the Saturday- I20 yds. hurdles heat and final and the 440 yds. hurdles final. The strain of running one 440 yds. hurdle race in an afternoon is quite enough for most athletes. For an athlete to tackle four such contests, as Burghley was contemplating, must have seemed like sheer madness to those wondering foreigners who were present. Anyhow, L. Facelli, the Italian ace, having qualified for 282