ATHLETIC CHAMPIONSHIPS AT NEWMARKET

New Zealand Listener, Volume 32, Issue 814, 4 March 1955, Page 6

ATHLETIC CHAMPIONSHIPS AT NEWMARKET

M C.C. or no M.C.C., the New Zea"land Amateur Athletic Association’s national track and field championships (which this year will be held at Newmarket, Auckland) will be a major sporting highlight next week, and 1YA has arranged to give the meeting full coverage. On Friday and Saturday, March 11 and 12, 1YA will broadcast results and commentaries throughout the day, and at 7.0 p.m. a summary of the results will be given over all YA and YZ stations. Following this summary, 1YA will broadcast a review of the day’s events by the athletic coach, J. C. Bellwood, best known to sportsmen as the trainer of Yvette Williams. The running commentaries will be given by E. M. Horan, president of the Auckland Centre of the Association, from the stadium at Newmarket. ‘ One reason for the quickened public interest in athletics has been the headlining of recent record-breaking performances. Whether followers’ of the sport or not, most New Zealanders took

a keen interest in Roger Bannister’s epoch-making mile run last year, and the subsequent lowering of the time to 3 min. 58 sec. by Australia’s John Landy. Froth the headlines in the sports pages several questions emerge: Is there an ultimate speed which an athlete can attain? And does the breaking of socalled "all-time" records mean that, physically at least, mankind is improving? According to Jim Bellwood, the ultimate in human endurance and speed will only be reached when athletes are prepared to train-like ballet and _iceskating stars-for periods of up to eight hours a day. Athletics is like a bank account, he says; you can only get out of it what you put in. But to train in this way makes athletics much less of a pleasurable activity than it has been. A means of overcoming the monotony of track training was evolved during the

early war years by the Swedish coach Gosta Holmer. He observed a direct relationship between the activity of children and the great range of their physical. development.. When children play they rush about helter-skelter in a very energetic manner. They are fatigued very little by these strenuous bursts, which they alternate with short "goslow" periods. Environment was important, Holmer decided. He therefore trained his men by, having them run through the forests and glades of their native land, up hill and down dale; pausing when necessary to avoid strain, then. bursting into an all-out effort. The result of Holmer’s method was a crop of outstanding athletes of whom Gunder Haegg is the best known. There were also Arne Andersson, Ingvar Eriksson, Rune Persson, Gustavsson, and Lennart Strand, all of whom were breaking 4 min. 5 sec. for the mile. Emil .Zatopek uses a similar (continued on next page)

(continued from previous page) training system to Holmer’s-a stereotyped form known as interval running -and this method has also been adopted widely in New. Zealand. A’ further contribution to coaching theory has been made by Dr. Herbert Reindell, professor of physiology at the University of Freiberg in Germany. Reindell found that an athlete’s training must be such that he can successfully break through what he calls the oxygen-debt barrier. PhySiologically the human body is like a submarine. It can work for a time at high pressure on its reserves of oxygen, but .that time is short. Only by accustoming the body to running a given distance in a given time can the oxygen barrier be passed and the time achieved. But pace is not consistent, especially in middle distance and long distance running. Changes of pace make successive demands on the bloodstréam, and ‘with each change a fresh .oxygen = barrier must be passed. When a runner pulls out, labours or even collapses on the track it is not because he is unfit or has a bad physique. It is because he has not trained at the racing pace. Human performances are steadily improving with these and similar scien-

tific discoveries. Psychology, too, plays a part. There is no such thing as over-training, Jim Bellwood claims. Staleness. is a mental, not a physical attribute. Form is simply the particular staze of his training which an athlete may have attained. Many New Zealand athletes have adopted the new training methods and have found their performances improving as a_ result. They have been able to put in more time at training throughout the year without / tiring. either physically or mentally, and their performances at the British Empire and Olympic Games have caught and held the imagination of the New Zealand public. The coming national hampionships will prove a testing ground for’ more of them,