Coaching and Care of Athletes

HURDLING be brief well-controlled relaxation in the actual clearance of each hurdle. The athlete who simply cannot hold to seven strides between flights throughout the whole race should be allowed to drop to nine strides after taking the sixth or seventh flight. On no account should a hurdler be allowed to alternate the legs in hurdle clearance. · The hurdler should have considerable practice in running at one hurdle from varying distances, so that he may learn to adjust his stride to his take-off. Allow the hurdler to follow his natural leading-leg preference. If a man does lead with hi~ left leg, so much the better. Low hurdle races are run around one bend of the track, left hand inside, everywhere except at the university grounds-Iffiey Road, Oxford, and Fenner's ground, Cambridge. The advantage of leading with the left leg when running left hand inside round a curve lies in the fact that the action of the right rear leg has a tendency to drive the hurdler inward towards the inner side of his lane, thus slightly reducing the distance to be run around the curve. With the right leg leading the action of the rear left leg tends to throw the hurdler out of his own lane to the right. Athletes should have much practice in running and hurdling round a ci.rrve, being taught to abbreviate the action of the inside arm ·aqd to make the outside arm describe a wider arc. The hurdler leading with the left leg should put his foot down with toes pointed straight ahead. The man who leads with the right leg should land with the toes turned in a little. The object is to hold as close as possible to the inside of the lane going round a bend. It is not suggested that the comparatively small athlete cannot become a good hurdler. For example, I believe that had the 220 yds. race over 30 ins. hl!lrdles been run elsewhere in England than at Oxford and Cambridge H. G. Dyson, standing 5 ft. 8t ins., would have been right in the top class. All things else being equal, however, the old adage holds good, and the 'good big 'un' usually beats the 'good little 'un.' Lord Burghley was a law unto himself, and I can remember no other athlete who has been in the world's top class in the high, low, and intermediate hurdles, unless it be R. M. N .' Tisdall, of Cambridge University and Ireland, of whom I shall have more to say when dealing with the intermediate hurdlers. 3°3