Coaching and Care of Athletes

THE QUALITIES OF A COACH athletes who are committed, or who commit themselves, to his care. Self-confidence, however, is a very different thing from a vain– glorious spirit of boastfulness and an apparent incapacity to learn from others. Very few of the coaches I have named suffer from this defect, but I have .met men whose opinion of their fellow– coaches is of an exceedingly low order. I can, in fact, tell one tale which is not entirely without its humorous side. One evening I was sitting with a very fam0us coach, and the conversation turned upon coaches and coaching. I mentioned the name of one man after another whom I regard as outstand– ing in the coaching world. Each name I put forward was dis– missed with a contemptuous snort or scathing criticism. At last the coach to whom I was talking said, "Well, I'll tell you a fine coach. That is So-and-so." The name mentioned was one that I had not heard before, and I hastened to inquire where he was now employed. "Oh," was the reply, "he died about five years ago, poor fellow!" The personal belief among coaches that no man is quite so knowledgeable or quite so efficient as themselves is one which is perhaps more prevalent than it need be. One must, I think, draw a distinction between professional and amateur coaches in this connection. The professional coach, of course, depends for his living on his ability to keep his end up, and there must at times come a serious temptation to 'crab' the other fellow when one's own interests are in jeopardy. The amateur, on the other hand, makes coaching his hobby, and so is in that independent position of being able to seek another outlet for his talent if people do not like his methods. No matter whether the coach is a professional or an amateur, he must have certain attributes. The first qualification of a good coach is an all-embracing interest in the subject of track and field events. If one is not an out-and-out enthusiast right down to the bone it is better: to ieave the game alone. One must have also the will to learn. In this connection I would quote Boyd Comstock as an outstanding example of the attitude a coach should adopt, both to athletic science and to his fellow-coaches . When Comstock was entrusted with the important task of editing "Spalding's Athletic Library," publishe9. by the American Sports Publishing Company, 45 Rose Street, New York, U.S.A., he sent out letters far and wide to athletes and professional 53