Arthur Lydiard and his statements

Teemu or whatever your name is.

Go drink your Elk Milk warm, have a nap in the midnight sun and come back on when you have come to your senses.

Now your English is much better than my Finnish, but your English is still not quite right. You are confusing everyone on here.

I used to admire the Finish people as a group, but now I will have to lump you in with those Pesky Russions, now look what you have done for your country. You should be ashamed. Go apologize to Esa Tikkannen, he is one of my heroes.

Are you dishing out any truth? Hearsay is not truth.

When you call "exaggeration" "lies", and split hairs about the meaning of "coach", aren't you being literal?

I think no one, Lydiard lovers included, really disputes "Lydiard was an exaggerator", or "In Finland, Lydiard coached coaches".

Here's an English test: assuming "coach" is simply the wrong word, what is the most appropriate word to describe Lydiard's role in Viren's training, if any?

Maybe you too should try some english lessons, if you think that I´m really "confusing everyone on here". I can´t write english too well but I´ve made my point several times already.

Try to behave, there´s no war going here, you just think that there is. I have nothing against Lydiard, but I feel the same than Vasala that Arthur is an exaggerator.

Yes, read the post again where I quoted Pekka Vasala several times. Maybe english lessons for you too?

Also the training Viren did, which I posted before, it isn´t similar with Arthur´s training system. So he didn´t coach Viren, only gave some lessons to finnish coaches.

Correction; Arthur WAS an exaggerator. RIP.

Truth,

I think your definition of the term "coach" may be to restrictive, or mine to open. But, that said, when Arthur was in Finland, shortly there after the Finnish runners ran extremely well. They have not approached that level since in the same large numbers. Yes, it could be that his coaching of coaches was the key. But Arthur, besides being an innovator, had that "artistic eye" of the great coaches. He could watch a runner run and make some suggestions about thier training that would take them to the next level. That could be world beater or just able to set a new PR. I saw that first hand in Venezuela. He took a 2:35 marathoner and in 4 weeks had him run a 3:42 1500.

But to your point, I would guess that Arthur was not involved with Viren and others on a day-to-day basis during his time in Finland. But in the larger sense of, did he make suggestions about his training, I would say definitely. So, I say we are both correct, he was not Viren, or other Finns, day-to-day coach, but at the same time his presence in Finland added to the coaching they received bringing them to the '72 Games which was arguably the best Finnish Games distance running performance.

It´s not a secret that Lydiard was the starter of the running hype in Finland, he inspired our runners to not to afraid hard voluminous training. There was an interval training boom going in Finland before Arthur came. Lydiard changed that totally and the (base)training system changed completely. He was great inspirer/speaker and thanks to him we finns didn´t afraid voluminous training anymore. Before Lydiard if a finnish runner did a 20miles running session, people thought automically that he was a marathoner. After Lydiard even half milers ran that far and more.

My inspirer for this thread was only to clear the delusion that Lydiard coached Viren because I noticed that even the interviewer here claimed so:

http://www.roadsmillslaps.com/RML/Marius_Bakken.html

RML: Now to the second part of your program: You talk about Italian periodization. Why do you talk about periodization specific to a country? I thought Lydiard mastered periodization and used it to with great success for the athletes he coached—-athletes like [Lasse] Viren and of course New Zealanders. Why did you choose the term “Italian periodization?” Is that different than Lydiard-esque periodization?

Vassala probably can't spell my name either. The quote is in English, not Finnish.

It's pretty much your delusion that Arthur claimed to have directly coached Viren. Nothing in Bakken's quote says Lydiard directly coached Viren either but he strongly influenced Viren. Correcting others for your own mistake is a bit odd and certainly provocative.

Please supply details of Lydiard verbal or written "statements" that he coached Viren.

As an avid admirer and reader of the great coach

and his writings I cannot find one such "statement" by him.

Please refer to his 1978 edition of RUN-The Lydiard Way and pages 24-33 of that book.He defines his relationships with the Finnish athletic authorities,coaches and a few individuals such as Viren.Not once in this extensive description of his role in Finland does he ever suggest that he personally coached Viren,in fact he pays great tribute to Viren's personal coach.

So when Vasala actually saw and heard Lydiard speaking crap in television, it was a dream or something? Lydiard gave the impression in that television interview that all the watchers thought then that Lydiard coached Finnish best runners.

Pekka Vasala wrote also that after that interview, he didn´t respect Lydiard anymore. Think that and don´t claime crap like Lydiard did. Well, maybe it´s the nature of people like you.

Read Pekka Vasala´s book. Maybe get some finnish classes first.

All you american priks can go to hell, while you're at it.

You don't know finnish, so suck it.

Satansmouf wrote:

the truth: wrote:

Everywhere, he tried to take all glory he could take by claiming that "I coached this and that" after he only gave some lessons or advices. That´s not coaching.

he claimed Brain Sell was running 200 mile weeks too. I think that's BS as well. Some times things get cloudy with age.

What's the saying "The older I get the better I was."

You mean Peter Snell?

I lived just down the road from Arthur for 20 years and he helped me with my training. Over that period we had many disussions and I never once heard him say that he was the direct coach of any Finnish athlete. He said that he went to Finland and coached the coaches. He received an award from the Finnish Government in recognition. If you also have the chance to visit their sports museum you will see a section on Arthur again recongnizing his contribution to their success.

If you´re talking to me, I´m from Finland. So I know some Finnish.

hey man, you are fighting a losing battle with the Lydiard crowd.

Just say this and the Lydiard people will leave you a alone:

' Any runner whoever became great did so because of Lydiard's influence. If Lydiard was not born, no runner in the last 50 years would have achieved anything worthwhile.'

Just say that and they will forgive your sins of questioning his influence.

Or he could have an actual quote from Lydiard where he actually claims to have coached Viren. None of the "Lydiard crowd" knows of any and believe it or not, we'd be interested if one existed.

I haven´t been questioning his influence, I have only tried to make it clear that the coach of Lasse Viren was not Arthur Lydiard.

Sir Lance, that's not fair.

If truth's only point is to say that Lydiard was neither Viren's nor Vasala's coach, he's made that point. It's more accurate to call Lydiard something else, like a coach's coach, a lecturer, presenterer, exaggerator, etc. (I need an English course to find the best word).

No one here has argued that Lydiard was indeed their coach, in the strictest sense of the word, like he was for Snell, Halberg, etc., and no one who has read Lydiard's books can misunderstand the role he played in Finland.