Georgia has screwed up Matt Boling's mechanics

Good post, doc. I think when he learns to trust his speed and not devolve into his grimacing, trunk twisting, fist clenched when challenged, we will see that he has significant head room. Geez, 10.15 is way faster than Borzov ran at age 20

Yeah BUT that is the whole point of coaching. Boling was already a good, fast athlete in HS. An athlete will naturally increase the levelnof their potential as they mature and strengthen, but an advanced coach needs to take that raw ability and remove barriers to achieve that potential. In this, they have failed.

He has been marginally faster on occasions when it didn’t really matter. Every hack exhibits this same pattern. Well-coached and well-trained athletes, otoh, exhibit precisely the opposite pattern. The list is too long to get into, but even extends to Boling analogs like Lemaitre.

Not only is he not developing a winning championship pattern, it actually appears that he has either stood still while others develop a winning pattern (100), or actually developing a losing pattern (200).This is a disaster. How were his hs champs times vs his other times in the season? How were his final NCAA times relative to his others this season? They are either disastrous like the 200, or only marginal like the 100 (10.21 basic, twice), with the final being no better than the semi.

Some coaches just suck, and are stuck on things like struggling with basic mechanics. Among coaches who are any good, the important thing is to successfully match the coach to the athlete’s needs. Either his coaches just plain suck, or there is a bad mismatch. The only improvement he has shown has been natural improvement from physical maturation—and even at that, they might have actually held him back.

From where I sit, they have done him, at best, no good whatsoever.

Those 2 years are a huge 2 years, he will never get them back. Life’s too short, make the switch now. Find a better match.

Here’s the final thing: he doesn’t pass the smell test.

Even though he’s faster than I was, I wouldn’t worry about him when the race lined up. Right now, he doesn’t have “it”. No, it’s not because he’s white—it’s because as a sprinter you can sense the difference between the kick-azz confidence of going for the win, and the fear of losing.

Boling exuded the latter at the NCAA’s. Total desperation. I would beat him, even as a slower sprinter. He’s a psyche job. He needs to grow up, get harder, make his own decisions, for real. I get the feeling he has been “handled” his whole life.

At this time, not a threat—and that is fatal.

Did not have great day yesterday.

He did make it into the finals of the 100m, 200m, and 4 x 100m.

His 4 x 100m final -- tough to tell. Did he lose ground to Laird and the guy who finished 3rd? Hard to say. It looked solid.

100m 6th in 10.18. Expected bit more. Had he run 10.10 would have been good.

200m 5ht in 20.48 a disappointment. Ran 20.19 indoors and 20.28 in the semis here. Was expecting sub 20.19

[quote]Sprintgeezer wrote:

" I would beat him, even as a slower sprinter. "

This tells us much about your judgement and credibility.

He ran 10.19 yesterday. How many times have you run faster than that?

Get back to me when you can regularly beat guys “faster than you”.

If you can’t, then you are in Boling’s class.

There’s no evidence that there is any such thing as “correct” sprinting mechanics or than you can meaningfully change your mechanics. Maybe he just got overhyped as a high schooler and isn’t as otherworldly talented as hoped. I will also point out that the only reason he gets THIS much attention here is because he is white. There are college athletes as fast as him every year and none of them get this much critique.

Smooth man, really? Hard to believe you posted this far-out idea about technique and mechanics.

White and therefore hyped? Totally agree.

Correct mechanics? Maybe not correct, but some are inarguably better than others, for all sprinters. And at the very top of history, their mechanics are all very similar in certain respects.

Meaningfully change your mechanics? This is totally possible, and we see real-world examples of it all the time: witness SAFP this year. I myself can do 5 or 6 distinctly different starts, and can execute a few different sprint techniques, and execution is the key.

But yeah the attention that he gets bothers me. In my circles he was getting hyped by black friends! I was losing it which was why I wrote on here that he wouldn’t even medal in anything.

We need to can the Boling stuff and focus more on other guys. Heck, he’s not even the best or most interesting freshman! And tbh a guy like Fahnbulleh is way more interesting in both style, results, and attitude.

Jackie Joyner-Kersee fouled out in the NCAA long jump while at UCLA. She turned out pretty good.

I changed my gait 3 years ago: still working through dysfunctional movement. It's awful.

geezer, would you say that sprinting technique is an unnatural motion for most people and that some people just do it naturally, like some people can wiggle their ears? And that some people can get as smooth as laird if they drill relentlessly?

it does seem like the modern tracks favor the "pounders" with relatively long strides and not the "floaters" like Jesse Owens, who i am sure would have been successful on any surface

DrGator wrote:

SOMEWHAT LENGTHY POST - but contains stats.

Let’s look at the two sprints…in the 100m in HS, he was consistently a 10.2-10.5 sprinter. He peaked at USATF Junior Nationals 2019 and ran a 10.13 windy. But that was the exception.

…

In the 200m, the improvement is even more significant. He was a 20.5-21.0 sprinter in High School. Peaking in the 2019 Junior Nationals at 20.36s.

Great post, I just want to correct. Boling’s HS PRs we’re run at Pan-Am Juniors in 2019.

10.11 (0.5)

20.31 (-0.8)

He’s obliterated the 200, but been a far cry from the 100m.

Javman wrote:

Matt needs to transfer out of that program. They've screwed him up.

Please leave this kid alone. He finished 4th and 5th as a frosh - not shabby at all. Maybe he can't handle the pressure of living up to all the expectations people have of him to be the next great white sprinter.

poor kid wrote:

Javman wrote:

Matt needs to transfer out of that program. They've screwed him up.

Please leave this kid alone. He finished 4th and 5th as a frosh - not shabby at all. Maybe he can't handle the pressure of living up to all the expectations people have of him to be the next great white sprinter.

learn how to read. we are criticizing the coaching, not the athlete.

What if he’s better off being a 200/400 guy? Or would that be pointless?

He doesn't have his signature high knee lifts that we saw in HS. His knees lifts used to be so high that it seemed like his body couldn't keep up.

why stop there? 800 m!!!!!!!

aztec the moronic wrote:

poor kid wrote:

Please leave this kid alone. He finished 4th and 5th as a frosh - not shabby at all. Maybe he can't handle the pressure of living up to all the expectations people have of him to be the next great white sprinter.

learn how to read. we are criticizing the coaching, not the athlete.

Correct—but in addition to that, even had we been talking about Boling, your comment would be ridiculous. He is not a fragile child, he is a young man.

How about this: maybe he CAN handle the pressure, but has been ill-served by those in whom he placed his faith.

He may actually be doing very well given his environment.

Sprintgeezer wrote:

aztec the moronic wrote:

learn how to read. we are criticizing the coaching, not the athlete.

Correct—but in addition to that, even had we been talking about Boling, your comment would be ridiculous. He is not a fragile child, he is a young man.

How about this: maybe he CAN handle the pressure, but has been ill-served by those in whom he placed his faith.

He may actually be doing very well given his environment.

Not to mention Boling was under more pressure in high school and he handled it perfectly.