Great post Coach And Father Who Knows.
You don't have to tell me though: I experienced it all firsthand! The standard of coaching in most of the UK is pretty poor. There are some good set-ups like they have at AFD but generally speaking there is not so much national coordination.
AFD will just put miles into you, it will make you good but it will never make you a great athlete.
don't get me wrong AFD is a great place if you wanna win regional titles and even national titles. But if you wanna be an international athlete stay away from there. You can't be coached by someone who coaches more than 5 athletes. Because coaches got to go on tour with there athletes.
Agreed! it is also important to realize that many runners don't progress to the next level because they either get out of the game or get more involved with life's callings....
Grice was born in 1993. The same as Mudd and all the other freshman at US universities. In Canada and the US, the cutoff date for school is dec 31. 1993s are in Freshman year. 1994s like Brandon McBride who just ran 1:46.07) just graduated from HS.
A Coach And Father Who Knows wrote:
Explaining young phenoms in our sport.
There are 5 major components involved:
1) Natural Talent
2) Anaerobic Development
3) Aerobic Development
4) Quality Coaching
5) Other (lifestyle, nutrition, habits, etc)
The current Junior systems in the U.S. and Britian (and many other countries as well) take athletes with #1 (Talent) and seek to quickly develop them with #2 (Anaerobic Development) and if #3 and # 4 are sufficient enough they have some early success (see your list of 15-16 yr old for 1500).
But the faster you get the more important it is to have all 5 things squared away.
From what I have seen the problem with the Junior systems is not with #1 or #2, we have plenty of #1 and know how to do #2. The problems with the Junior system is the lack of #3 at an early age, the lack of #4 to realize that #3 is lacking and #5 is lacking because of our modern lifestyle and the lack of discipline we show as a society.
I have seen #3, #4 and #5 kill off or stagnate countless talented American young phenoms.
Just having a deficieny in any 1 of those 5 areas can seriously set a young runner back, a deficieny in 2 makes it nearly impossible to make a world class level. But by having a lot of #1 and doing #2 you can show alot of promise early (and be proclaimed "The next big thing") only for your progress to be derailed by #3, #4 or #5. (Only 4 on your list make it to bette rthan 3:38).
There are those who have sufficient enough #1 that they can perform remarkably well despite weakness in other areas but they never make it all the way to the top.
Read this and think about it. Young phenoms and their parents, don't ignore any of these areas or be so blinded by your abundance of #1 and early success that you begin to believe that all 5 components don't apply to you and your ultimate success.
I quoted all of this so anyone reading this thread can go through it again.
The 'talent' mentioned, and I notice this because I'm also the father of a talented junior, is the common situation that the early achievers are 'beasts', or 'bosses' as Americans say. Either that, or they are 'whippets' who just zip along. For a variety of reasons, they stand out at a young age, and, as mentioned, are hammered with high-end aerobic, and then anaerobic workouts. Base is virtually ignored, even disdained. This is a fatal mistake.
These guys, eg Alex Rowe in Oz, can get really, really fast. But, ultimately, they fail because coaches have foolishly ignored the bedrock running that you put the fast stuff on top of. As my mate would say, you are sharpening a pencil with too little lead.
In US and Canada the cutoff date is Dec 31. 1993s are done their freshman year in university. 1994s (like McBride who just ran 1:46.07), just graduated from HS
A Coach And Father Who Knows wrote:
Explaining young phenoms in our sport.
There are 5 major components involved:
1) Natural Talent
2) Anaerobic Development
3) Aerobic Development
4) Quality Coaching
5) Other (lifestyle, nutrition, habits, etc)
The current Junior systems in the U.S. and Britian (and many other countries as well) take athletes with #1 (Talent) and seek to quickly develop them with #2 (Anaerobic Development) and if #3 and # 4 are sufficient enough they have some early success (see your list of 15-16 yr old for 1500).
But the faster you get the more important it is to have all 5 things squared away.
From what I have seen the problem with the Junior systems is not with #1 or #2, we have plenty of #1 and know how to do #2. The problems with the Junior system is the lack of #3 at an early age, the lack of #4 to realize that #3 is lacking and #5 is lacking because of our modern lifestyle and the lack of discipline we show as a society.
I have seen #3, #4 and #5 kill off or stagnate countless talented American young phenoms.
Just having a deficieny in any 1 of those 5 areas can seriously set a young runner back, a deficieny in 2 makes it nearly impossible to make a world class level. But by having a lot of #1 and doing #2 you can show alot of promise early (and be proclaimed "The next big thing") only for your progress to be derailed by #3, #4 or #5. (Only 4 on your list make it to bette rthan 3:38).
There are those who have sufficient enough #1 that they can perform remarkably well despite weakness in other areas but they never make it all the way to the top.
Read this and think about it. Young phenoms and their parents, don't ignore any of these areas or be so blinded by your abundance of #1 and early success that you begin to believe that all 5 components don't apply to you and your ultimate success.
^Probably the best post in the history of letsrun.com.
Thank you.
Ripyoutours wrote:
In US and Canada the cutoff date is Dec 31. 1993s are done their freshman year in university. 1994s (like McBride who just ran 1:46.07), just graduated from HS
not true--many kids with late '93 b'days, like grice with a november b'day, start a year later, so it's entirely possible that if grice were raised in the u.s. he'd just be finishing high school.
impressive marks either way...
Grice displaying his speed tonight 1:47.3
Grice will be going to Florida State with fellow countryman Zak Seddon. Long lineage of English horses in Bob Braman's stable...
I can tell you for a fact he wont be!!!
A Coach And Father Who Knows wrote:
Explaining young phenoms in our sport.
.
I wonder whether this is Centro Sr.
FSU will be the last place he ends up ! Wouldn't be surprised if he ended up at Oregon
He'll stay home, as he's coached by his father & they are happy with the set up.
Had to search on the guy after realizing that a 21 year old Brit had qualified for the finals at the 2015 WC. Did he stay home? I'm guessing yes as I'd never heard of him running for a university in America.
watcherdude wrote:
Had to search on the guy after realizing that a 21 year old Brit had qualified for the finals at the 2015 WC. Did he stay home? I'm guessing yes as I'd never heard of him running for a university in America.
Power of 10 profile
http://www.thepowerof10.info/athletes/profile.aspx?athleteid=18026