Coaching and Care of Athletes

COACHING AND CARE OF ATHLETES activities. 1 These should serve to develop both the right type of musculature and the proper balance, together with a sense of rhythm and timing. Involved in the question of training, and overtraining-i.e., 'staleness'-are the problems of diet, sleep, relaxation and rest, work, and personal hygiene. · Not every coach, of course, has sufficient medical knowledge to diagnose physiologically the cause of a particular athlete's going stale, but he can at least watch the athlete's weight, which always acts as a good guide to the man's condition. He should insist that all injuries or ailments, no matter how slight they may be, must be reported to him. Another essential point is that all athletes should be medically examined at the beginning and at the end of each season, and often, in addition, before and after important contests. Many untutored athletes waste years of their athletic lives in trying in vain to discover which is really their best event. An efficient coach should be able to decide, subject to subsequent proof, which type of event in the track and field programme will best suit a particular pupil. The general build of a man and his personal appearance sometimes provide a good guide. Sprinters, however, cannot be judged by such standards, for first-class sprinters have been of all shapes and sizes, from tiny 'top-notchers,' like Applegarth, of England, and Walker, of South Mrica, to the big, rangy American Tex Ramsdell, who was a world power in pre-War days. If the coach is well educated athletically he will, no doubt, have memorized the measurements of Dr Tait McKenzie's ideal sprinter. To arrive at this ideal Dr Paul C. Phillips, of Amherst College, U.S.A., took the measurements of seventy-four sprinters, none without an authentic record of 10·4 secs. for , 100· yds. or 23 secs., or less, for 220 yds. His subjects included such well– known men of their era as Baker, Wendell, Sherrill, Long, Duffy, Molson, and Morrow. The average age was twenty-one years, height 5 ft. 8! ins., and weight 145 lb. The lengths of shin and thigh were normal, but it should be noted that the average of these seventy-four sprinters was an inch taller and some 6 lb. heavier than the ordinary student of his own age. Individually the extremes were far apart. Some twenty-four of 1 Leading-up activities usually take the form of organized games designed for the subconscious inculcation of athletic technique. 68