Coaching and Care of Athletes

COACHING AND CARE OF ATHLETES (3) In the throw: Perhaps the worst fault of all is lack of suffi– cient snap in the rotation of the hips from right to left. Other faults are in allowing the body to get ahead of the centre of gravity; failure to swing the right arm in behind the shoulder; failure to make the elbow lead the throw, and failing to release the javelin when the throwing hand is directly above the shoulder. It is a very bad fault to throw with the left leg bent at the knee, and nearly as bad to break away to the left and to drop the left shoulder in making the throw. The trunk should be upright when the javelin leaves the hand. Here are suggested schedules for one week in each of four seasons of progressive training: PRELIMINARY-SEASON TRAINING Javelin-throwing calls for a long and steady course ofpreliminary preparation and, thereafter, the most carefully balanc-ed and perfectly controlled system of work in training. In this respect too much work is just as bad as, if not worse than, too little. I wonder if I may be forgiven for relating two incidents in the foregoing connection? I crave indulgence in this respect, since one of the two stories is essentially p ersopal. J ames Dalrymple, whose physical characteristics have been ~ mentioned already, was a strong, lissom fellow before the Great War, through which he served in France as a gunner. He was invalided out of the Army as something like an So per cent. dis-.. ability case, but having, apparently, a limitless supply of that essential quality euphemistically styled 'guts,' he proceeded to rebuild himself into a perfect pocket Hercules. Weight-lifting, wrestling, and physical culture courses all entered into his scheme of things, and then, having developed a perfect passion for javelin– throwing, he took to running anything over 8 miles each morn- ing before breakfast and?a similar distance each evening after a hard day's work. His actual javelin-j:hrowing technique was built up subsequently during dinner hours and other available 'rest' periods. . He found his reward in one English, many Midland, and several Scottish Championships and records. I think his best throw was I8S ft. rt ins. He also represented Great Britain at the Olympic Games in I 924. In my own case I regard my pre-War Championship, won in 396