FAM Webster & Other Books

After the 1945 War the Olympics were held in London in 1948.   Britain wanted to well and in 1945 FAM Webster was appointed by the AAA in England to develop and oversee coaching.   As one consequence of this, Webster appointed Geoff Dyson who brought other very good coaches such as John Le Masurier on board.   Webster had written the classic coaching book (see here) and then during this period produced smaller books dealing with the training and development of athletics.   Three of these are below.   They are reproduced with thanks to Chris Holloway.

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After the War (’39/’45) there was a great thirst for coaching and technical  information) that the athlete could use on their own or as part ot an athletic club’s training programme.   The official handbooks as well as booklets and articles in magazines such as Athletics Weekly, Athletics World, Scots Athlete and others were well perused and there were many books on the topic.   Older books were reprinted or resurrected from the attic.Just some of these books are here below.

Runners were always anxious to do the right thing books about running were about something they were familiar with but books on circuit training, yes and even ballet exercises were bought and used or attempted.   It was hard after 20 or so years of running to get into some of the positions suggested in the books.   One such book was the following, sent by Joe Small (as was the one above).