Coaching and Care of Athletes

COACHING AND CARE OF ATHLETES Thornton, placed fifth in the I IO metres hurdles final, might almost be regarded as a veteran, for he had in I932 established the present Oxford and Cambridge I20 yds. high hurdles record of I4·9 secs. There were many people who doubted the time, and this may account for the fact that Thornton was not included in the British Olympic team for Los Angeles. None the less he has since fully justified the record that he made at the Inter-Varsity Sports. Of the newcomers to Olympic competition A. Pennington, Oxford, had received already a liberal education as -_ a sprinter, and A. G. Pilbrow had been well taught hurdling by Thomas. Nelson had a great bunch of Cambridge men in A. G. K. Brown, formerly Public Schools half-mile champion, F. R. Webster, already English record-holder in the pole vault,]. St L. Thornton, P. D. Ward, who was subsequently to prove the best three-miler Great Britain has so far produced, and R. K. I. Kennedy, who was turned into a 6ft. 3 ins. high jumper purely by the genius of Nelson. Webster, incidentally, achieved the distinction of being the first British athlete to attain a place in an Olympic pole vault final, which he did, as we have seen, by sharing sixth place with other athletes at I3 ft. It ins. He was also the first British athlete ever to beat I3 ft. in this event. A. G. K. Brown was runner-up in the Olympic 400 metres and a member of the British 4 X 400 metres relay team which won the Olympic title. To emphasize further the difference which exists between the systems of coaching in Great Britain and America in particular and the other nations of the world in general it may be said that first-class coaching has been in vogue in America since long before the first international match between Great Britain, as repre– sented by the London Athletic Club, and America, repre– sented by the New York Athletic Club, took place in I895, and on the Continent since the reinstauration of the Olympic Games at Athens in I896. Where England is concerned, coaching may be said to date from the Mussabini era, which produced Applegarth and many other famous athletes who were running for the Polytechnic Harriers in the years I9I3 and I9I4· It was about this time also that Nelson began his work at Cambridge University. I do not think that Oxford University had a coach until after the War. Coaching at the Public Schools was done purely by games masters until, I think, I first took on the coaching of Bedford School in an honorary capacity in I9IO. Shrewsbury, however, had the services of 34