Q&A w Emma Coburn: Coburn talks about her decision to leave Wetmore/Burroughs, her goals for 2017 more

fastest in your town wrote:

lksjf;laskdjf;slkdfj wrote:

Yup.

Hard to imagine her fiancé actually believing he is the best coach for her Given that he likely knows there are better situations out there for her, he seems really selfish, or super egotistical, to act as her coach.

"Best coach"?

Coaching the steeple is easy as piss. Like the 5k.

It's almost irrelevant who her coach is.

Said no one ever. My goodness, I hope you're kidding.

Reminds me of when Wariner left Hart for Ford.

manage yourself wrote:

There is also Hudson who's right there in Boulder.

Hudson and Lee Troop both have been successful coaches, but have they coached anyone to steeple success?

Dkysjdjysjysjye wrote:

It's pretty clear. Her dopey fiancé couldn't get a real job and wasn't good enough to be a pro. Her contract probably has a coaching allowance so she wanted to keep it in the family.

She's lucky in that there are only 1 or 2 women who could even come close to her times. She won't get any faster under her fiance

Exactly. You see this with a lot of professional female runners. They get married to these kind of goofy type men who don't have serious jobs or they work at a running store. The guys focus in life tend to be their wives' running career.

that bad wrote:

Gags coached Cabral and Higginson.

Gary coaches Leslie, Garcia, and Forys (Huling before Jerry)

Franklin coached Freriches through Trials

There's 3 more quality coaches to go along with Wetmore who only coaches CU alums and Jerry Nike only.

And none of those coaches are in Boulder. I would rather have someone monitoring my training in person than via correspondence. If NB is happy, (you would think they would check with her sponsor) than more power to them. We will all get to pass judgement on the decision next fall after the first season under the Bosshard training.

None you guys have a clue what's going on. Joe can get a job anywhere and did have a job as an accountant before he quit his job to support her in the Diamond Leagues and the Olympics. He'll do fine with her and I'm sure they have had a system in place for awhile. Emma was tired of getting crap from spiteful Heather Burroughs and told her to take a hike.

Seems like a money thing.

Two scenarios:

1) stay with Wetmore, maybe improve a bit more, maybe earn a bit more than the recent past, but have to pay Wetmore/Borroughs a significant salary.

OR

2) go it alone with Joe, maybe not improve at all, but make pretty much what she has been making, PLUS what Joe picks up.

Seems like the latter strategy is actually a better bet, financially.

What is this beef you speak of that her and Heather have? I've seen that mentioned before and wondered what it's all about

ColoKid wrote:

None you guys have a clue what's going on. Joe can get a job anywhere and did have a job as an accountant before he quit his job to support her in the Diamond Leagues and the Olympics. He'll do fine with her and I'm sure they have had a system in place for awhile. Emma was tired of getting crap from spiteful Heather Burroughs and told her to take a hike.

Losing a fantastic training partner for workouts in Simpson and losing a genius coach in Wetmore, as well as Colorado facilities, is simply not worth saving 10%. Joe Bosshard's credentials sound similar to Wariner's coach after Hart. Familiarity with the system after those years does not mean he knows what Wetmore knows. They still have the altitude but that didn't work for Simpson when she left Wetmore before and it will likely not work for Coburn either, though the first year after Wetmore could still be a good one because she has all the base from his years and sometimes changing training stimuli can be effective for a year. I wish her the best and I want her to reconsider because Wetmore has gotten her to 9:07 and that is pretty incredible for someone who said she was running a 5:00 mile when she came to Colorado.

I'd also like to know what the specific grievance with Burroughs is. She never struck me as "spiteful."

Maybe Coburn just really wants to be back in Crested Butte. I think after awhile, staying in the town where you went to college might seem creepy.

The lower barriers make technique way less important. Hell, the higher barriers for men are no impediment to the Africans with zero technique.

Reminds me of the Jeremy wariner situation back in 2007/08. Fresh off a wc gold and 43.45 pr but decides to switch coaches. Unfortunately wariner was never the same. Hopefully coburn doesn't suffer the same fate.

So next is Shannon splitting off Alberto to be coached by Pablo, and Jenny with her hubby? Then there's Molly and Kurt, etc etc

B. Ummer wrote:

Bush wrote:

Seems to me she is a poor interviewee. So vague on all th questions about coaching. So what's the real scope? What's the real reason for coaching change? Why was it "definitely time to move on?"

The real scoop is the guy banging her wants to coach her and pad his resume as a coach of an Olympian.

You had to see this coming. Dudes always do this.

By current track and field standards the Coburn interview was an inquisition. In comparison to the major pro sports, T&F athletes have very thin skins. Maybe they feel they don't make enough money to have to cater to pesky journalists.

Bush wrote:

Seems to me she is a poor interviewee. So vague on all th questions about coaching. So what's the real scope? What's the real reason for coaching change? Why was it "definitely time to move on?"

notrump wrote:

By current track and field standards the Coburn interview was an inquisition. In comparison to the major pro sports, T&F athletes have very thin skins. Maybe they feel they don't make enough money to have to cater to pesky journalists.

Bush wrote:

Seems to me she is a poor interviewee. So vague on all th questions about coaching. So what's the real scope? What's the real reason for coaching change? Why was it "definitely time to move on?"

Very few athletes would bother talking with journalists if it was not mandated by their respective teams and sport associations, NFL, MLB, NBA etc....

No problem talking to news after a win but nobody wants to face the media after a loss or something bad happens. It just so happens that runners, outside of races, usually do not have this mandate.

That's what most pundits would call a good interviewee. It's bad for you (the reader) and me (the journalist) but a sign that she's actually what a PR person calls a good interviewer as she controls the message.

Why isn't Coogan in the mix? Because he lives in Boston. She lives in Colorado. End of discussion.

Maybe from a running standpoint in your mind but not from a financial standpoint. If she's paying someone 10-15% of her contract to coach he, tha'ts not insignificant. Remember, she's someone who doesn't have an agent.

So if her NB deal is automatically locked in with no reductions for say the next 4 years and she doens't plan on running after that, then there really is no downside. Sure, she might not be as good of a runner but financially it would barely touch her as she probably makes 95% of her salary from her NB deal. Appearance fees, etc are basically not worth talking about.

>No other steeplers in Boulder.

9:28 Shalaya Kipp 4th at 2016 Trials is still in Boulder but with Wetmore/Burroughs and Oiselle/adidas.

maybe New Balance should pay a real coach and set up a training group in Boulder or Crested Butte. they could buy a set of steeple barriers and pay a fee to Fairview high school for use of their track. or Western State in Gunnison CO (25 miles from CB).

I know nothing and have never met coburn or simpson, but what if simpson was ready to move back to the steeple? Now they are major competitors and that wouldn't work. My bet is the money issue.