Hobbs Kessler fired his dad as one of his coaches, then he promptly set a 2k world record

I am a Michigander so I obviously am a fan of H. Kessler. I think this young man made the correct decision which was to turn pro immediately after high school. He also showed exceptional maturity during the developmental years meaning the first couple of seasons when things got tough some athletes just become stagnant or frustrated which he did not. I do hope he is working on a college degree during his free time to make sure he is well rounded and marketable post running career. I do however, disagree with athletes using their parents most notably fathers as a coach I think psychologically it seriously damages a family relationship. It destroyed the Ingebrigtsen family because it is almost as if the element of coach and athlete never subsided even within the home.

Growing up during the ages in which you are trying to determine if you have any sort of athletic ability and trying to find out which direction that ability was within sporting wise a good friend of mine was coached by his father in football. My friend was not a football player and his father would not allow him to do other sports just football and he rode the bench, his father would also consistently have him play RB in practice which meant he was basically getting the crap beat out of him all practice. He eventually found track and field was a solid runner 4:25/9:05 type 1600/3200. His father never went to any of his races at state his father did not go. In college he ran solid 13:35/28:15 type. I thought he would pursue athletics post college which he did not he hated sports and just wanted to be done with it. He and his father have zero relationship today, he talks to his mom and his parents are still married but will not talk to his father. For example his father is not super old around 68 or so but he had surgery and my friend did not show up or attend anything required for the recovery.

Counterpoint: Mondo Duplantis is still coached by his father. It's worked out for him.

Wightman did the same and it worked

What? Your season opener was more important to you than the state meet? When did you wake thinking that you could have been a world champ with just a little more speed work?

The father coach relationship almost never works long term. The kid becomes a product and the relationship rides on outcomes/results. That's not healthy for anyone.

For every Mondo Duplantis, there are 1,000 Todd Marinovich's.

Dads should be dads. Let someone else be coach.

I do not fault Hobbs for looking for some separation with (Mike) Dad. I do however believe that his separation with Ronnie will come back to haunt him. He is now working with the ultimate opportunist who doesn’t care about Hobbs as a person. Mike will always be there for him. He has burnt a bridge with Ronnie who is the ultimate loyalty guy.

this is BS, well intended assumed.

a ton of son father combinations worked out at the goat level.

coe with peter coe

jacob with dad

tiger woods with dad

mayweather with dad

mma kabib with dad.

many etc.

you part ways sometimes,

dad or coach

the perfect dad steps aside at the right time ...

the athlete needs to step in if dad is getting in the way or needs a change, which is what being mature is all about.

snell was annoyed with lydiard perhaps dad style, elliot annoyed with cerutti, in the moment.

later i think both snell and elliot saw the light, with love.

so at the elite level, elite dads are fantastic, and sometimes need to part ways.

at the lower levels, some dads , too many, need to exit sooner than later.

it is case by case.

maybe a perfect one is magnus carlsen, chess goat , his dad got him going, and calsen, lovely guy, set doen the law at maybe 12 years old, not in conflict, but a solid soul following intuition, and rightfully so.

youvhave to study this yourself daddyo.

Serena and Venus Williams
Max Verstappen
Kylian Mbappe
Ken Griffey Jr
Barry Bonds
Michelle Carter
Vashti Cunningham
Austin Rivers
Shedeur and Shilo Sanders

Lots of prominent examples.

Many high school coaches will coach their kids at some point. Very common at the college level as well.

Do you really think he "burnt" that bridge, as if there was some kind of big fallout? Warhurst was looking to step away from coaching at that point anyway. He was nearly retired by the time Hobbs was finishing HS. Hobbs seems to be learning from guys like Ingebrigtsen and Fisher who have found more success learning their own personal strengths, embracing flexibility, and building training around that.

Hobbs became a disciple of the Norwegian double T method. That's why him changing coaches won't impact him.

Once you're in that training philosophy, the coach is more a manager of the smaller details. The weekly structure barely changes.

It's the same reason Jakob succeeded after leaving his father—training barely changes, just the team around him.

I think Hobbs means ' beneficiary' not 'benefactor'

It’s not that the opener was more important, it’s that after the opener I could dream about winning states. After I got third at states (even though that was still a great race!), the dream was closed off. It’s about infinite possibilities turning into one actuality.

The world champ thing was obvious hyperbole to drive the point home.

The Warhurst/Nick Willis group in Michigan did an awesome job identifying Kessler and guiding his early development. But as people have said, Warhurst was already pretty old when he first started working with Hobbs, that was never going to be the setup for his entire career.

I don't know anything about Pat Henner, but the returns this indoor season are very promising. Too bad he strained that calf, his 2k race looked like he had leveled up, especially on the strength side.

You listed 5 people three of which didn’t reach their full potential until they left their dad.

Jacob and his dad? How did that work out. Mayweather left his dad. Tiger left his dad. They didn’t step aside.

I’m guessing based on your response you coach your own kid.

The only thing their dads did was provide the genetics.
Any other competent coach would have made them into champions.

So many butthurt dads on this site.

You ignore the deeper bonding that often occurs from fathers coaching their kids. Seems like you're just bitter because you don't have a good relationship with your own father.

Warhurst is 83 and will be 84 yrs old this summer. Not involved with HK the last two years but helped develop him. Previously trained Hoppel as well though I believe that is no longer the case. A long record of success.

Counter counter point : mondo is not Hobbs, mondo’s da is not Hobbs’ dad

How long has Ron Warhurst not been coaching Hobbs?