Why? The Science of Athletics

ATHLETIC PSYCHOLOGY g6r Burke that day found himself up against a hot number named Brown, who covered the first quarter in 52 secs. to Burke's 54· Despite that, Burke shouted as he flashed past, "Don't you snap that picture, Bernie, until I holler 'Now !' " And "Now !" was what he shouted when he caught Brown in the home stretch. He was more con– cerned, apparently, about the picture than about the result of the race, but his very lack of anxiety no doubt helped him to win >it. Coaches who Inspire Confidence Athletes do not seem to worry them– selves over much about the real amount of knowledge possessed by their coach ; that he does have the necessary knowledge they no doubt take for granted, and so the thing that really counts is the ability of the coach to inspire confidence in the boys and to get them to confide in him. Wefers, again, is illuminating in this connection, and I am going to quote from the lecture he delivered in the Wingate Memorial series of lectures, 193I-1932. "Victor Burke," said Wefers, "is an example of what a boy can do, and will do, if you can make him believe that he can do it. If he has confidence in you he will do it for you. Burke is a boy at Georgetown. "I took him up to Travers Island before he went out to Lincoln last year and trained him for the quarter of a mile hurdles. He said, 'I never jumped a hurdle in my life.' " 'You have to begin some time, don't you ?' "'Yes.' " 'You won't get that trip out otherwise, except perhaps as a relay man, and you won't get a chance to beat this fellow Williams.' " 'All right, I'll do as you say.' "So we started in at the quarter-mile hurdles. He always came out in the morning at ro o'clock. I would give him speed work then. In the afternoon he would run and jump and so on over the hurdles. Then he would run about a fifth of a mile on the track we have up there.