Why? The Science of Athletics

CHAPTER XIV SUCCESS OR FAILURE Team Building- Graphs and Training Books- Modern Methods of Instruction in Sport-Misleading Photogr aphy _:_Epidiascope Displaces Lantern and Slides-Outstanding value of Cinematography- The H ead must set the Course. IN this chapter will be discussed a number of matters in relation to the science of athletics, which may be regarded as attributes of success or causes of failure. Not least among such matters is the art of team building, for the coach, according to his quality, can either make or mar a team, or an individual. Team Building The gradual building up and slow development of a really good athletic team provici'es a creative thrill that few things else can equal. One is not concerned with the knitting together of a conglomeration of individuals into a cohesive and interdependent whole, ' as is the case with football and hockey teams. In what may be termed "games-teams" the strong can, and often do, carry the weak, and one boy is not infrequently called upon to retrieve the general situation, by covering up the mistakes, or weaknesses, of a fellow– player. In track and field athletics this cannot be done. Here every man must stand on his own feet, winning or losing on his own merits, plus what the coach in charge of the team has been able to make of him. And so, while the coach must build up and maintain that all-important team spirit, which brings to each athlete the psychological comfort, both in training and on the day of competition, of feeling that he has the moral support of his comrades, the coach must still regard each pupil as a separate 208 f