KEYNOTE TO SUCCESS

Evening Star, Issue 23100, 28 October 1938, Page 5

KEYNOTE TO SUCCESS

LOVELOCK’S ADVICE TO ATHLETES UNDERLYING FACTORS IN PREPARATION Quiet and phlegmatic determination is a characteristic of the Finnish race, and nowhere has it been more strikingly exemplified than in their most famous member, the incomparable Nurmi, the greatest distance runner of all time (writes Jack Lovelock in an article in the ‘ American Amateur Athlete ’)• It requires specific mental properties to settle down to the long steady preparation, the careful, thoughtful concentration, and the, at times, painful, monotonous physical work entailed. Not till our runners realise the importance of these inherent underlying factors, face the hard work of track preparation. eschew the tempting ease of cross-country racing as a winter variant of the more severely mentally fatiguing cinder work, can we hope to take our place among the long-distance runners of the world. Whether the goal is worthy of the effort is a matter for debate, one for the individuual to decide, hut I and many others who have thought long and ' carefully over the_ matter are no more prepared to admit_ the _ physical inferiority of our nation in this respect and the 'inaccessibility of the Finnish accomplishment than I am to admit the physical and mental superiority of the negro athlete. That run of long-dis-tance success can and will he broken by any British athlete endowed with good average distance athletic qualities, provided he can realise what ho has to face, harness his resources correctly and organise himself for victory. But the ahilitv to sum no the situation, temporarily to ignore details in favour of fundamentals, later to return to the study of details, is the keynote to success.