Coaching and Care of Athletes

THE ENGLISH SUMMER SCHOOL METHOD were throwing the tiny discus, putting stones as if they had be.en I 6-lb. weights, jumping and running, and doing all sorts of things. The result was that we taught the youngsters quite a lot of athletic technique, and towards the end of the holidays held a sports meeting in a field belonging to the late Mr Cubitt, whose son, a great hurdler, fell on active service with the Gunners during the Great War. At that meeting we had the help of all the sportsmen from Bacton and the surrounding villages. They included Lieut.– Colonel Waltonjennings, D.S.O., who had recently taken up his re– sidence in Bacton. When the sports took place events were held, such as throwing the discus, pole-vaulting, and putting the stone, which had surely never before been undertaken by quite small children. In the following year most of the same families were located in the old places, and it so happened that Waiter Henderson and I were training for the English Native Championships. We went to Manchester in due course, and, Waiter having won the discus– throwing title, in which I was runner-up, and I having won the javelin-throwing championship, we returned to Bacton with visible haloes shining round our heads. The children were no longer content with training on the sands, and we were constrained to find a field in which to give them proper instruction. I think we both learned a great deal more of athletic technique than we had ever known before in the course of teaching those young hopefuls. Again there was a sports meeting, with the most amazing results recorded, and those Bacton miniature Olympiads went on for quite a number of years. Somewhere about the year I930 or I93I I happened to be showing a cuttings-book one Sunday to Lieut.-Colonel George Painton, R.A.M.C., a great athlete in his day, who in I909 had won the Army hurdles in I 6·6 secs. He was also a great Association football player, at which sport he represented both the Army and England. Colonel Painton was greatly interested-in the accounts I showed him of the "Bacton Children's Sports," and made the suggestion that we should start a training camp at which all athletes who really wanted to improve their technique would be welcome. As a result of this conversation I wrote to numerous people, and the response was tremendously enthusiastic. As things turned out, however, I had not the time to take on the rup.ning of this camp, but in I933 was invited to take charge of a number of games masters attending the Summer School at Loughborough College who were interested to know something about athletics. 37