Coaching and Care of Athletes

COACHlNG AND CARE OF ATHLETES discovered a new fundamental principle of high jumping for the style he was using. This does not, however, explode the previous theory that for a man using the Scissors or the Eastern Cut-off style the fundamentaLprinciple is to take off from the outside foot. It appears, therefore, and is, indeed, the fact, that there may well be quite a number of different styles for the same event, and that each of these different styles may have entirely different principles. This is, perhaps, a dangerous doctrine to advance, because, generally speaking, there are basic fundamental principies in each event, and where various styles are involved there may be additional incidental fundamental principles to be taken into account. _From what has been. said already it follows logically that the first-class coach must add open-mindedness to his other qualities. Patience, perseverance, and kindly reasonableness are absolute essentials. No coach ever got anywhere by bullying his charges. Athletes, as I have known them, can easily be led, but are terribly hard. to drive. On the other hand, a certain amount of firmness is equally important, for it is an accepted fact that the athlete who will not punish himself in training or in trials on the advice -----.._ of his coach is not likely to punish himself even when the only way in which he can win an important contest is by so doing. Incidentally, it is a mistake-to think that a man must of necessity have been a great athlete if he is to be a great coach. Great athletes with a natural gift for imparting their own knowledge to others are very rare people. By means of studying text-books and observing the actions and training methods of first-class athletes a man begins to acquire the ability for coaching. In this way he secures the basis of the necessary knowledge, and can by practice build up the technique of teaching. It should not be thought, therefore, that because a man has not himself achieved world-record honours he cannot be a first-rate coach. Rather is it true to say that some of the world's greatest all-round coaches have either themselves attained major success in only one event, or have been good stylists, if mediocre performers, in practically · the whole gamut of the events which make up the athletic programme. The coach, of course, must always be studying and learning. Although athletic lore is well established, its rami– fications are almost limitless.