Coaching and Care of Athletes

THE ENGLISH SUMMER SCHOOL METHOD vision of the coaches at the School, were taught to instruct one another and to detect and correct faults . In I 936 a very valuable suggestion was made by G. M. Moll, who has been one of the most valued and efficient amateur coaches at the School since its inception, that there should be recruited from the Loughborough schools a class of boys who would come up to the College grounds daily and act as subjects for in– struction by the students under the supervision of the -coaches. This scheme worked excellently, and the boys themselves no doubt derived great benefit in the improvement of their own athletic ability. Every third day throughout the whole fortnight of Course I was devoted to revision of subjects under the chief coaches, who also organized a practical demonstration in a particular event during the first working hour of each day. On most evenings there was a lecture, or an athletic film was shown. · · Perhaps a wo~d may be said about some of the subjects covered in the lectures, to show how comprehensive is the course of in– struction. Among the subjects were "The Principles of Athletic Instruction," "The Co-ordination of Mental and Physical Effort," "Athletic Balance and Timing," "The Preparation of Training Schedules for Field Events and the Principles of Training," "The Technique and Fundamental Requirements of All Field Events and the Creation of Style," "The Development of Muscle Groups for Particular Events," "The Physical Culture of Athletics," ''The Organization of Sports Meetings," and "The Principles ofjudging Field Events." Apart from the above _type of lecture, given by the coaches at the School, outside lecturers dealt with such subjects as "Cross– country Running," a most interesting lecture on which was given by Mr E. J. Holt, the Hon. Treasurer of the Amateur Athletic Association; "Tlte Judging of Field Events," by Mr Dennis Lyons (Plate XII, >Fig. 38), who usually acts as a field-events referee at international matches; and "Team Management," discussed by Mr A. "S. Turk, for many years Hon. Manager of Great Britain's international team. We have also been privileged to welcome Mr Harry Rottenburg, of Cambridge Univ~rsity, who~ has given us some most interesting details of the higher science and mechanics of athletics. One point that emerged clearly from the holding of the ini– tial experimental School was that the number of people under 4l