J.R.
The individual character/temperament of one coach doesn´t say nothing at all about his training method. If you think that you can analyse Lydiard training method by what you name his eventual “arrogance” or every other trace of his character, you are in the wrong track. What Lydiard thinks about other coaches is irrelevant to training appreciation. What you say about Lydiard versus Bob Timmons is quite irrelevant for the training methodology appreciation.
The win of competitions, or the win of one runner with one training method over other runner that trains on other training method, and the judge and compare of both training methods by that kind of performance results is poor methodology either. Therefore Peter Snell “the champion of champions” or “Bob Schul that did best than every Lydiard runner”, all that kind of facts and results are poor to training methodology appreciation.
Best than what I can say about the meaning of wins, world records, major performances and so, attributes lead to the achievement, I quote Jack Daniels - jtuper from old thread. Might be you will understand that to appreciate one training method by the results it´s not one linear relate.
Jack Daniels, jtuper posts:
http://www.letsrun.com/forum/flat_read.php?thread=2515540&page=2
am not going to say what percentage of different attributes lead to the highest achievement, but I have always felt that it involves 4 variables (1) inherent ability; (2) intrinsic motivation; (3) opportunity; (4) Direction (coaching or a training plan you follow). It is quite simple to show that inherent characteristics are important -- how hard would Shaq have to train to race a 10k with many normal runners? Or maybe better to ask if a 5' 92-pound girl (make it a 5' 92-pound guy if you wish) could hold her/his own in the NBA. If inherent characteristics aren't important, why do we have weight classes in boxing, wrestling, judo, weight lifting, etc? Also, in some sports females are just as good as males, but not in others, and that must be major genetic factors at play. As far as motivation is concerned, it must be from within, not from some parent or coach yelling that "if you just had some desire, you could be so great;" how often do you hear coaches yell, "If you just had some ability, you could be so great;" maybe they should be. How about opportunity? How would you like to be an aspiring Olympic swimmer if you lived in a town that had no pool or no lake or no body of water; or not enough money to get to reasonable training facilities. And direction is the final factor. The question is how do you measure that -- a great college recruiter gets the best talent to start with and in some cases just hopes they run in college as well as they did in HS. Or, some great coach may never be in a position to start with great talent and improving from 20:00 in the 5k to 17:00 isn't seen as doing a very good job, but going from 16:00 to 15:30 may be seen quite differently. So let's face it there are various factors involved in achieving success, and the relative merit of each probably varies from one individual to another. Live it up trying to determine how much each one contributes.
#
To reach your potential
#1 Avoid injury
#2 Stress the body parts and functions that need improvement
#3 Know the purpose of every workout
#4 Be optimistic
#5 Learn from your mistakes and from your successes
#6 Be consistent
#7 Eat well
#8 Get adequate rest
#9 Enjoy the trip along the way
#10 Be honest
Who knows if anyone reaches his/her full potential, and certainly each season's potential is influenced by life's daily challenges
The rich training analysis of one particular training methodology isn´t done by coach temper or runner performance but investigate 2 main aspects: 1/ how the training method tries to cover the physiological factors associated with distance running performance variables at the present training knowledge 2/the training analysis of what´s the training schedule of the runners of that one particular training method, not just what was been the runner success under that training method and not to judge merely by success or results.
Renato Canova, by the way, one coach that contributes to with tons of information on LetsRun.com. Appreciate his training is done by the analysis what is his training methodology. Second, we try to look deeply what are the training schedules of the runners he let us know and the performance that runners did is just a referential not the main appreciation of Renato training.
Renato temper, Renato character, might be relate to judge the individual, coach ethics, but not Renato´s training method.