Coaching and Care of Athletes

COACHING AND CARE OF ATHLETES produced in the competitors from certain countries by the train– ing programmes which they have followed. The Japanese athletes showed a dogged tenacity in all the events in which they took part, and a d~eply religious feeling was in evidence among all those Japanese victors who stood upon the dais with their olive-crowned heads reverently- bowed while their National Anthem was played. They had trained themselves never to relinquish the struggle until it was over, and were quite clearly competing far more for the honour of their country than for personal glory. The dour Finns showed a grim, unsmiling determination to succeed, and exhibited a standard of physical stamina which was astounding. It was the hallmark of a strenuous system of trainipg which perhaps no other people in the world could have survived. The merit of American coaching was shown in the abounding confidence in themselves of the American athletes in all the events in which they participated. Scientific training and scientific investigation of track and field athletics seemed to give them' the feeling that nothing on earth could prevent them from giving of their best at just the right moment on the day of com– petition. Another notable feature about the Americans was the meticulous attention they paid even to the smallest detaii in preparation for their events. A great deal of good coaching lay behind that routine. The Germans, on the other hand, were vastly different in I 932 and I936. At Los Angeles they had still worn that air of diffidence and 'rather-like-lost-children' look that had characterized the re-entry of Germany into the Olympic Games in I928. At Berlin in I 936, backed up by the enthusiasm of the major German proportion of the I2o,ooo spectators who filled every place in the stadium daily, the German athletes showed a proud aspect and clear indication of the regimented training which had marked their preparation for successful participation in the XIth Olympic Games. British runners, in the main, have always shown self-confidence in the biggest kind of competition, for many of them have been trained as well as the American runners. British field-events men, on the other hand, having lacked both encouragement and coaching for long generations, have been like lost sheep when– -ever they have had to face the big issue. At Berlin in I936 the form 72