Woldemar Gerschler

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Woldemar Gerschler (born June 14, 1904 in Meißen , † June 28, 1982 in Freiburg im Breisgau ) was a German athletics coach . As national coach , he looked after the German athletes in the middle distance in 1936, 1952, 1956 and 1960 .

Life

After graduating from high school in Meißen, he studied German, history and sport at the University of Leipzig (among others with Hermann Altrock ). After completing his studies, he taught at a grammar school for a few years before becoming a full-time trainer. In Dresden he discovered Rudolf Harbig , who was still completely unknown at the time , and became his trainer. During the 800-meter run in Harbig on July 21, 1937 in Chemnitz, Gerschler was hit by a hammer. He was then taken to a hospital with internal injuries and struggled with death for weeks. It took months for him to recover. Gerschler led Harbig to several world records (1939), which led him to become Reich trainer. His textbooks on long and triple jump also come from this time. After thisDuring the Second World War Gerschler also worked as a football coach , for example in the spring series of the 1947/48 season at FC St. Pauli and then in 1948/49 at Eintracht Braunschweig . In Braunschweig, Gerschler also looked after the club's track and field athletes, who were among the top German athletes in the late 1940s and early 1950s , especially when walking , and who won numerous German championship titles. Rudi Lüttge , trained by Gerschler, set an (unofficial) world record in Braunschweig in 1948. From 1948 on, Gerschler also acted as an instructor for the German Athletics Committee, the forerunner of the German Athletics Association .

On December 1, 1949, at the instigation of Herbert Reindell , Gerschler was appointed director of the Institute for Physical Exercise at the Albert Ludwig University of Freiburg . Since he did not have a doctorate, he was only paid as an academic senior counselor. Only shortly before his retirement he was appointed professor, so that he retired in 1971. Gerschler received the Baden-Württemberg Medal of Merit for his achievements in sport .

Training methods

Woldemar Gerschler discovered Rudolf Harbig , whom he led to the top of the world on the 800 m course at the end of the 1930s using the then new training method of interval training . Gerschler, who now works in Freiburg, experimented with a theory of short training distances during training by demanding that the athletes "run so fast during training that the pace demands made by the competition seem moderate and quite achievable." The Freiburg-style interval training was essentially physiologically oriented, as it was based on the pulse values. He also attached more importance to the previously neglected training during the winter months by stating that "a long-distance runner should not stray too far from the type of his summer training". He also trained the 1936 Olympian Käthe Krauss .

Fonts

  • Long and triple jump . Limpert, Berlin 1937. (3rd edition. 1943)
  • Harbig's rise to the world record . Verlag Hermann Püschel, Dresden 1939.
  • The interval training: Physiological basics, practical applications and damage possibilities ( e.g. with Herbert Reindell ). Verlag JA Barth, Munich 1962.

literature

  • Medicine man the world record holder - Olympic trainer Woldemar Gerschler . In: Der Spiegel . No. 47 , 1956 ( online - cover story).
  • Arnd Krüger : Many roads lead to the Olympics. The changes in training systems for medium and long distance runners (1850–1997). In: N. Gissel (Hrsg.): Sporting performance in change. Czwalina, Hamburg 1998, pp. 41-56.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Woldemar Gerschler: Harbig's rise to the world record. Püschel, Dresden 1939.
  2. ↑ Eintracht relay almost overslept their start in title fights: Former Braunschweiger athlete Willi Leberkühne remembers 1948. from: braunschweiger-zeitung.de , accessed on August 8, 2013.
  3. ↑ Relaxed on the street: Those who are not fit for sport. In: Der Spiegel . October 9, 1948, accessed August 8, 2013 .
  4. ↑ Kurt Hoffmeister : Time travel through Braunschweig's sports history: 180 years of gymnastics and sports in Braunschweig. Braunschweig 2010, p. 77. ( online )
  5. ↑ Kristina Jost-Hardt: The reorganization of North German athletics after the Second World War. In: Wolfgang Buss , Arnd Krüger (Hrsg.): Sports history: maintaining tradition and changing values. Festschrift for Wilhelm Henze . NISH, Duderstadt 1985, ISBN 3-923453-03-5 , pp. 213-221.
  6. ↑ wvf.uni-freiburg.de
  7. ↑ On the history of running training (PDF, 287 kB)
personal data
SURNAME Gerschler, Woldemar
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German athletics trainer
DATE OF BIRTH June 14, 1904
PLACE OF BIRTH Meissen
DATE OF DEATH June 28, 1982
Place of death Freiburg in Breisgau