Coaching and Care of Athletes

COACHING ORGANIZATION AND ROUTINE self, nor should he allow his pupils to become haphazard. He should insist upon a proper period of limbering up prior to both training and competition. Another point for him to watch is that his athletes go through the proper routine of preparation, even to the small details of seeing that their spikes are clean, that the laces in thdr shoes are not likely to break, and so on. One should. be veri firm about having one's team turn out smartly for competition. The same applies to training too, up to a certain point. If a young athlete gets into the habit of turning up for training in dirty singlet and shorts, a worn-out, shabby track suit, and dirty shoes the next thing will be that the shoes will become so worn that they will probably let him down, with the possibility of an accident, and he will neglect the washing of his supporter, which will mean an irritating rash between the legs, probably resulting in a period ofbeing out of training through loss of sleep. There is another point in connection with preparation for com– petition. The coach himself, for a time at any rate, should check the packing of the athlete's bag. Nothing is more upsetting to the athlete or annoying to the coach than to find that one of his men has arrived at a sports ground with some essential part of his equipment missing from his bag. Personally I encourage my ath– letes to write out a list of everything they will require at a meeting, and to stick it in the lid of their track bag, so that they can check off each item as it is packed. Before each training session the coach himself should make sure that the ground has- been properly prepared, and that all the impedimenta which will be required are available in the right place. E>o not be afraid of the groundsman. An athletic ground should be for the use of athletes, and despite the fact that a 16-lb. hammer undoubtedly does make a nasty dent in the turf, the coach, if he wants his pupils to practise hammer-throwing, should not be shooed away to a rough field for the sake of saving the 'pretty' appearance of the stadium. This point is important, because it is not fair to athletes in training to put them on rough ground, where they cannot possibly produce their proper form, and may, indeed, sustain serious injury through performing their evolutions at maximum speed or effort on an unsuitable surface. Within the stadium, however, it is advisable to move the sites of instruction fairly often. Worn cinder circles and battered take- 79