U.S. ATHLETIC COACH ARRIVES IN N.Z.

Northern Advocate, 27 November 1937, Page 7

U.S. ATHLETIC COACH ARRIVES IN N.Z.

[Per Press Association. Copyright.]

AUCKLAND, Friday

Tall, young, and quietly spoken. Alfred L. Fitch, the American athleteengaged as a coach by the Wellington Centre of the New Zealand Amateur Athletic Association, arrived in Auckland this morning by the Monterey. He was warmly welcomed by representatives of the athletic world. Mr Fitch is a New Yorker, but has spent many of his 24 years in California, graduating last year from the University of California, where he studied business administration and coaching methods. He said that in many American universities, physical education was a recognised lino of study. Football, basketball and baseball are the sports in which Mr Fitch has participated, in in adidlion to specialising in track and field athletics. “I think your countryman, Jack Lovelock is certainly the highest type of athlete one could expect to find,” said Fitch. “He is a real gentleman, and a real sportsman, and his running certainly seems effortless.” Fitch said that in America a definite running style was adopted for each different type of physique. In general, it was accepted that the body should be hold forward just beyond the centre of gravity, with the head up a little. New Zealand’s All Blacks, ho said, were by no means unknown in American sporting circles. Rugby was gaining in popularity in California. He declared that there was no reason why New Zealand should not produce athletes equal to any in the world,