Coaching and Care of Athletes

COACHING AND CARE OF ATHLETES School, and mastered the lessons they were taught. Webster subsequently won the World Students' pole vault championship, Duncan doing well at the same games in Paris, while Howland, during the Scandinavian tour, at least did not fall below the stand- ard of his previous performances. · Perhaps one of the most surprising of the principles enunciated by Comstock was the complete simplicity of the style he recom– mended. Hitherto field-events technique had been regarded in Great Britain as something of a holy mystery. Comstock 'was insistent that there is no mystery about any of these matters. He concentrated mainly upon naturalness. He emphasized the fact that it does not matter particularly which style a man employs provided that style suits him and does not contravene the funda– mental principles of the particular event in question. Quite a number of students who attended the School in 1937 had been there in previous years, and for a time one had the feeling that these particular people were not quite happy in having a number of styles in each event presented to them, instead of the one standard style which they could learn and teach easily upon returning to their units, schools, and clubs. Nevertheless it became obvious as time went on that Comstock had hit upon the proper principles of instruction, because the fact must remain that a coach who teaches only one style and is unable ~o answer ques– tions asked by a pupil about another style is not completely competent. Emphasis must be placed, moreover, upon the fact that any coach who considers himself efficient should be able to · assess the ability of a pupil and to decide which particular style will be best suited to that pupil's physique and mental ability. To summarize briefly the system of instruction which is in vogue in Course I of the English Summer School, it may be said that during the first week of this two weeks' course the students who have come to Loughborough to learn how to coach for field events are themselves taught the principles and technique by personal active performance. During the second week they act as instruc– tors under supervision, in order that they may fit themselves to teach that which they have learned actively during the first week. Course II at the Summer School lasts but one week, and is for active athletes only. In previous years we have endeavoured to group athletes in accordance with the events they have come to ~tudy. This policy, however, has not been altogether successful, 48