'LEARN THINGS FOR YOURSELF'

Roger Bannister

June 27, 1955

"The things a man learns for himself he never forgets, and can adapt to many different situations. The things a man does by himself, he does best. Franz Stampfl's greatness as a coach rests on his adaptability and patience. He watches and waits for the moment when the athlete really needs him. Franz once told me of setting a group of young boys the task of traversing a beam suspended above the floor. Some swung along with their hands, some walked upright, some crawled, but none of them fell off. In each method there was some peculiar grace derived from the boy's inventiveness. It would have been possible to show them how to cross the beam correctly. Some would have managed it easily, others would have stifled their natural inclination to do it differently, and might have come to grief."