Coaching and Care of Athletes

THE GENESIS OF COACHING the status, of the professional coach is very different in England from what it is in America. In England the coach says 'sir' to his pupils; in America, if the truth be told, the coach is all-powerful. I cannot vouch for the veracity of the yarn, but I have heard a good story of a well-endowed young man who went to an American university with an idea of gaining his 'Letter' in athletics. In due course he reported to the head coach as an aspirant to the track and field squad. A week passed, and according to my informant it was a week of very hard work. At the end of that time the young man went to the head coach and said, "Say, do I have to come here and work-out every afternoon?" To which the head coach replied, "No, you don't have to come here at all, so get to hell out of this!" The tale may well be an exaggeration of the true facts, but it is typical of the great authority which is wielded by American coaches. Competition for a place in a track or field squad at any of the American schools or universities is exception– ally keen, and those who thus aspire are well accustomed to discipline and equally ready to follow the coach's advice and ·orders. In England, on the other hand, young athletes are very apt to follow their own sweet wills, and when this state of affairs obtains there is simply nothing that the coach can do about it. Youths who are wise and really keen about gaining a Blue follow the coach's advice very closely, but there is c;~.lways a percentage of dilettante young men who think they know best, or who will not su mit themselves to the somewhat rigorous regimen of proper training. Yet others, whom I have known, prefer the collection of a number of college colours in various branches of sport to the major distinction of a Blue awarded for one particular event. In the foregoing connection I remember once, when I was acting as honorary coach at Leeds University, having the wind completely taken out of my sails, when I was coaching a squad of shot-putters, by a hefty youth's walking up and calmly removing the shot. I remarked quietly that if he would wait for his turn I would show him the best way to get real distance. To this he replied that he preferred his own method, and, walking away, left not only me, but the whole squad of young hopefuls who were seeking instruction, absolutely flat. He had annexed the only shot! Reverting for the moment to 'what has been achieved by the coaches at our senior British universities with men who have come to them in many instances athl~tically uneducated, and who in any 3I