Coaching and Care of Athletes

THE ENGLISH SUMMER SCHOOL METHOD opportunity for a man to train harder than he can do in other countries, where his attention is confined solely to cinder tracks. From the coaching point of view, however, grass has its dis– advantages, as it is impossible for coach or student to study spike– marks, which give such a valuable indication of what a performer is doing and where, probably, he is going wrong. One morning during the 1936 School Dr Schofield, the Principal of Loughborough College, making his round of inspection, asked me if we had everything we required for the efficient working of the Summer School. I answered jokingly that we should be much better off if Loughborough College possessed a proper stadium. That evening Dr Schofield asked me if I would get out plans and specifications for the building of a stadium, as he would like to see what space it would take up and how much such an undertaking was likely to cost. As the outcome of this conversation, and based upon the plans and specifications I prepared more or less to amuse myself in my spare time some weeks later, what is probably the best stadium in England was laid out at Loughborough College after additional land had been bought for that purpose. A photo– graph of the stadium appears in this book as Plate XVII, Fig. 5L The stadium is so designed that there is an excellent quarter– mile cinder track, with a I oo yds. path, and also a 1.20 yds. hurdle track which leaves ample room for easing up. Within a grass verge there are two large cinder fans at either end, which serve for the purpose of throwing the discus, javelin, and hammer and putting the weight, and also provide two take-offs and two pits for the high j ump. There is in addition a smaller fan and an excel– l~nt pit for actual high jump competition. On the other side of the ground there are two pits, each with two runways, for those taking part in the hop, step, and jump and the long jump. The ·pole-vaulters also are supplied with two pits, and each pit has two runways, so that wind and weather conditions need not affect practice or competition. The whole stadium is provided with the Cantabria:n equipment, designed by Mr Harry Rottenburg, of Cambridge University, for the London Instrument Company, of 5 Bridge Street, Cambridge. I mention this especially, as this equipment is by far the best obtainable in any part of the world, and also, incidentally, is the cheapest that can be secured. The actual field-events impedimenta, such as javelins and discoi, have been obtained from Sportarticles 45