Coaching and Care of Athletes

HANDLING THE ATHLETE for all forms of sport,' and, despite his great natural ability, did not rank track athletics higher than any other pastime. On one occasion when he was due to represent his side in a big relay meeting Locke suddenly conceived a burning desire to go and play baseball. With the greatest difficulty he was persuaded from so doing, and therefore accompanied his team on their journey. On arriving at the sports ground one day prior to the meeting Locke found himself vastly intrigued by the antics of a group of heavily built 56-lb.-weight throwers. He not only tried his hand at heaving the half-hundredweight, but continued to enjoy this new form of amusement throughout practically the whole of that day. His coach was horrified, and yet Locke, according to my informant, ran a very fast leg in the relay upon the following afternoon. This little anecdote brings us to another important matter connected with coaching. Locke-obviously was a man who needed handling in a special way. -So do hundreds of other athletes. As a general principle the coach should induce that frame ·of mind among his pupils which will give them the feeling that they are just as much bound in honour to obey the coach's orders as the soldier is to obey those of his superior officer. The difference between athletes and soldiers lies in the fact that Army discipline is designed for the mass and to produce a mass result from a cohesive whole. The athlete's performances, on the other hand, are mainly individual, and although the coach must insist upon the athlete's leading a clean life and the observa– tion of, say, the first three rules set out in the Yale booklet, he has to study the individual characteristics of each of his pupils. He cannot submit all of them to the same routine. Slightly built, highly strung youngsters need a type of con– ditioning which would have little effect on the big, phlegmatic weight-throwers. Highly strung men do not need too much work, because they are apt to go stale very quickly if overtrained; whereas the strong, stolid individual will often thrive on the maxi– mum amount of work. Again, the coach must discriminate between athletes of vary– ing ages, as well as of different- types. Up to sixteen years of age boys should be allowed only to play at athletics. Growing boys and adolescent youths should · not be encouraged to train too seriously. It is the job of the coach to give the adolescent and the inexperienced athletes developmental exercises and leading-up 67 I I :.! j: