Coaching and Care of Athletes

COACHING AND CARE OF ATHLETES as are--available to him at schools like the English Summer School for Athletes, which offers instruction in periods of from one to three weeks. Books, as I have said, must play an important part in the educa– tion of the athletic coach. He must, however, read with dis– crimination, and train himself to weigh what he reads and to assess what is written at its proper value. Although he is primarily a student of athletics, the coach in embryo, and the coach in fact, must not confine his attention to mere treatises on track and field athletics. So many men fall far short of real coaching efficiency because they do not try to assimilate knowledge of what can only be regarded as essential kindred subjects. When I appreciated this point I at once divided my own text– books into phases of the main subject-Athletes in Action, to cover actual technique; Exercises for Athletes, which sets out the funda– mental exercise-training which is a basis of success; and Athletic Training for Men and Boys, which contains actual schedules of training and tables of effort to grade the amount and type of work an athlete should do, first, to safeguard himself against staleness and, secondly, to ensure the production at a chosen time of the best performance of which he is both mentally and physically capable, in accordance with the progressive improve– ment of that organism with which nature has endowed him. Finally, I wrote Why ?-The Science ofAthletics to explain not .only the science of athletics, but also how science as a whole may be applied to athletics for the imprQvement of performances. On general principles the "Spalding's Athletic Library," edited by Boyd Comstock and gradually being brought up to date by him, provides numerous sound guides to technique. Other excellent books that I would mention are Illustrated Text– book of Athletics, by C. Silfverstrand and M. Rasmussen '(Link House Publications), and Athletics, by D. G. A. Lowe and A. E. Porritt (Longmans). There are also many excellent American publications. Of those published by Scribner's I regard Modern Athletics, by Lawson Robertson, as being too slight to represent the real knowledge of the United States c,hief Olympic coach. Track and Field, by T. E. Jones, Physical Director at the University of Wisconsin, is, however, a really valuable little manual. Besides being well illustrated and giving good advice on technique, it sets out brief training schedules, which are of great value as the basis for more 6o