Coaching and Care of Athletes

COACHING AND CARE OF ATHLETES it was necessary to limit the number of students in Course I to approximately 150. All of them were housed in Rutland Hall at Loughborough College (Plate XII, Fig. 39) and in hostels in the immediate neighbourhood. That, perhaps, was one drawback to the scheme, as it is far better in running a coaching school to have all the students under one roof or in hostels so close that there can be constant intermingling. It is not only whq.t the men learn during the hours of instruction, but the private discussion which takes place between them out of working hours, that is so valuable. The year 1937 brought developments and some changes. It seems necessary to me, therefore, to describe the scheme in some detail as it was -carried out in the years 1935 and 1936. As I have said, the initial year, 1934, was more or less in the nature of an experiment, during which we were beginning to find out things. The years 1935 and 1936 saw stabilized plans of instruction. The subjects taught consisted of nine field events-the high jump, long jump, hop, step, and jump, pole vault, hurdles, javelin, discus, hammer, and shot-putting. For some reason the A.A.A. set its face strenuously against any instruction being given in- the track events . None the less permission was obtained in 1935 and 1936 for J. E. Lovelock to visit the School for the purpose of giving a lecture on running and a demonstration of his own middle– distance form. Needless to say, and especially was this the case in r 936, after Lovelock had won the Olympic championship, his lecture and demonstration proved very popular. Meantime the nine field events were dealt -with in detail, and such general sub– jects -as the theory of coaching, organization, judging, the medical aspect of athletics, diet, training schedules, and so on were treated by means of lectures. The first week of Course I, which was for schoolmasters, sports officers, and others desiring to learn how to coach, _consisted of instruction by progressive stages by all the coaches in the detailed technique of the nine events. The fuRdamental principles and the theory and practice of all the events were dealt with by demon– strations and lectures, supplemented by explanatory cinemato– graph films . Each student was given two periods of instruction in each of the nine events during the first week, in addition to the special demonstrations by the head coaches and first-class athletes and the very valuable revision periods. The first week, therefore, consisted of actual coaching of the coaches, or teaching the teachers. During the' second week of Course I the students, under the super- 40