"When the season for the Olympic Games arrives, the Eleans train the athletes for thirty days in Elis; and when they have gathered them together (and trained them and examined their general condition), they say to them: if you have trained as much as is necessary for the Olympic Games, and have not done anything base or mean, go and compete with courage, but if you are not well-trained, as we have said, then depart from here wherever you wish" Philostratos, Life of Apollonios, ca. 3rd century AD
Upon their arrival at Elis, and for one month before the beginning of the
games, the athletes continued training at various places. Elis had
two gymnasiums that athletes from various places could use for training
purposes prior to the games: the Xystos, for runners and pentathlon contestants,
the Tetragonon, for wrestlers and boxers. Another gymnasium called Maltho was for the
youths. There was also a Palaistra.
This kind of preliminary or trial training was held under the supervision of the umpires, the so-called Hellanodikai (literally meaning "the judges of the Greeks").