Coaching and Care of Athletes

THE HIGH JUMP check mark, and four more strides should bring him to his take-off. These last four strides are made in (a) the Back Lay– out style at five-eighths speed, (b) the Eastern style at three– quarter speed, and (c) the Western and (d) the Straddle styles at two-thirds speed. To get his take-off mark properly sited the athlete should stand in front of the bar with his take-off foot placed at the angle of his approach run. He then kicks his right foot straight up to the bar, which it should miss touching by a margin of 3 ins. if the left foot is in the correct take-off mark when the standing kick is made. In each case the jumper gets his foot directly under his body for the take-off, and has the left knee partly flexed. The heel is put down firmly but lightly, and from the heel there is a rock– . up-on-to-the-toes action. If the athlete jumps from his right foot read 'right' for 'left' in all the foregoing instructions. It is not unusual to find that a coach has a preference for one particular style, and will teach no other to his athletes. This seems to me to represent a shortsighted policy. Coaches and athletes alike must make experiments. If Horine had stuck to his original 'Scissors' style, in which he had reached his limit at 5 ft. I in., he certainly would neither have discovered the Western Roll method nor have carried the world's record up to 6ft. 7 ins. At the English Summer School for Athletes, and also at the new School of Athletics, Games, and Physical Education, at Loughborough College we teach all four styles, and finally allow the individual athlete to adopt the style he prefers, or persuade him to try the one which we believe suits him best. The objection that may be advanced against teaching the Western or Straddle style is that the jumper may go suspiciously near to diving over the bar, which is illegal. Some coaches dis– like teaching the Eastern Cut-off on the grounds that only very supple men succeed in this style, added to which it calls for great control of the limbs and perfect timing, while the technique is not easy to master. The Back Lay-out jump, as used by Larson, Kotkas, and Weinkotz (Plate XLII, Fig. 129), is not universally favoured, because the athlete, if he does not fully master the technique of landing, falls on h!s back in the sand-pit, suffering a series of shocks which quickly exhaust him. Since the Back Lay-out style, which is a modification of the 349