Coaching and Care of Athletes

COACHING AND CARE OF ATHLETES coaches to obtain new points of view and to check his own opinions. Since those days he has gone from strength to strength as a coach, and in every case has proved his brilliant ability. I think that Comstock owes much of his success to the fact that he is always willing to share his knowledge with other coaches, never loses an opportunity of taking a hint from others, and is a good deal more than ready to discuss athletics as a science, at all times of the day and night and in any place he may find himself, with both athletes and professional or amateur coaches. That is the way to attain success as a coach. You must pick the other fellow's brain, but, in common fairness, you must also be willing to express your own point of view and to share the knowledge you have gained with those who seek your advice. It is only by pooling our knowledge of athletics that a sensible advance in the science of track and field events can be brought about. Needless to say, not everything that one is told is sound, and in some cases, I am afraid, it is not altogether true, for there is a type of coach who will hide his knowledge, and an even worse type who will deliberately give false information to a rival coach ~ or to a member of a team opposed to his own. A good coach, therefore, must be a person of singular dis– cernment and possessing a nice taste in discrimination. In other words, one must analyse for oneself, right down to bedrock funda– mentals, all that one is told and all that one sees in active track and field athletics. In the foregoing connection nothing can be more misleading than what one may term the 'freak mannerisms' of world– beaters. The champion is so often a law unto himself. A man like MattiJarvinen may throw the javelin a world's record distance in a manner which is admirable for him, but might not suit any other javelin-thrower. Similarly, hurdlers like Percy Beard, U.S.A., over the high fences, and Glen Hardin, U .S.A. (Plate V, Fig. 13), over the 440 yds. intermediate 3-ft. barriers, by reason of their build, must use a style of quick chop-down after clearance, or they would not get to the next hurdle in a comfortable posi~ion for the take-off. That does not mean, however, that they are setting a fashion which coaches should teach to all their pupils. Again, giant shot-putters like the late Ralph Rose, U.S.A., and Jack Torrance, U.S.A., who holds the present world's record of 57ft. r in., can handle the r6-lb. shot almost as though it were a tennis-ball in their mighty hands. The weight, bulk, arid stature 54