Salazar makes fun of HM WR holder Zersenay Tadese form compared to Rupp

oddgs wrote:

As you see in the video Tadese doesn't have a great form! He wastes energy for every stride, not much, but some. Look at his arms! They're stressed and not creating as much forward momentum as he would like. However, he is the most efficient runner of all time, i.e. he's the one athlete that uses least oxygen to get to point B from point A, and that's his advantage!

Rupp has excellent form! His feet land straight under his hip, every movement is creating forward momentum and his foot pendulum is great!

There are other factors contributing that Rupp has produced lesser times than Tadese in the 10k and up!

you have no clue about efficient running

PsychSal wrote:

This is easy ... Tadese >> Rupp

More range

Less Fear

Fewer DNFs

Fewer DNSes

Willing to actually lead in a race before the last few laps: no sitting and kicking

Doesn't need AlSal to massage his cuboid bone

Based on that logic Tadese is better than Coe and Ovett as well!

Fan of Alberto and Tadese wrote:

I'm generally a fan of Alberto, but thought it strange how he made fun of Tadese's form recently, saying how much better Rupp's form is.

What do you guys think? I think Tadese's form is awesome, and obviously his results make Rupp look almost unaccomplished in comparison.

You know full well he wasn't comparing their results, he was talking about form. Are you seriously suggesting that whoever has the best time must have the best form? Also, the direct comparison Salazar made was between Bekele and Tadese, saying that Bekele had better form and that was why he didn't get injured and outperformed Tadese after the 2009 WC. I'm not sure that's right, but Salazar was certainly not making the point that Rupp > Tadese. And if better time = better form, then Salazar was right since Bekele is faster than Tadese at every distance except the half. I would just add that Salazar fully acknowledged that someone with bad form could be faster and gave himself as an example. His point was that poor form would eventually degrade performance and lead to injury.

We can talk about the importance of form when they award medals for it.

Tadese was clearly on EPO and has had a lot of injuries because of his bad form. What Salazar said was common sense. Rupp has better form.

look at tadesse rocking back and forth in that video. that's not great form. but it obviously didn't hurt him all that much in running 58:23 hm. I'm surprised that was in Lisbon, because the city is all hills. It had them run over the bridge, then they'd come down to the shore and run flat along there maybe out toward the ocean and then back in. Anything other than hugging the shore in Lisbon and you have major, major hills and cobblestone streets.

I never quite understood why he seems so obsessed with the form of his runners. Either there is something to it or he is compensating for the fact that he had terrible form himself.

But, I've never thought Rupp's form was anything special. Sort of middle of the road.

Centro is the one whose form looks incredible to me.

we know that form is overrated and that other things outweigh it. indeed, trying to change people's form is often ineffective. it was pfitzinger, wasn't it, who ran 2:11 at nyc with terrible form and people said he'd run 3-4 minutes faster if they fixed his form and he never equalled that time again. spend more time on the running and you'll get faster than from form work in the distances. salazar's form and other tweaks with ritz sure didn't keep him healthy. ritz had one season with salazar healthy at the beginning, years of injury, and then one good solid healthy marathon at 2:07:47 and that was it.

haha wrote:

Rupp's form isn't even that great. He's not even top 10.

I did a proper measurement of their form, using real science that has long words in it and everything.

I can tell you that Rupp's form is currently the 5th best in the world and 12th all-time.

the thing about al sal is that he had the ugliest form of anyone - brutal and even a little hard to watch.

he has lived his whole life knowing this, and has developed some kind of reflex - some sort of 'catcher in the rye' complex that makes him want to save all his young athletes from having to live with awkward running form.

thus he obsesses on it - in a vain attempt to do nothing other than fix his adolescence.

I feel for the guy but wish he'd get over it.

I feel bad for tadese. As the races get shorter gis times get even worse and worse.

He's had so many times to silver medal or even gold at meets, Olympics, and world championships. His problem is he doesn't have a kick. He will front run the whole race then will get destroyed at the bell, usually settling for fourth or fifth.

Always had a bit of sympathy for the guy...

jjjjjjj wrote:

I'm surprised that was in Lisbon, because the city is all hills. It had them run over the bridge, then they'd come down to the shore and run flat along there maybe out toward the ocean and then back in. Anything other than hugging the shore in Lisbon and you have major, major hills and cobblestone streets.

I think the elites run a different course than the masses.

All this nonsense about form. All you folks know about form is what looks pretty - and this has nothing to do with what is the best running motion for a given body.

By the way it's pathetic how Salazar can't even tell who won a medal in a major championship or the guy who is the best half marathoner in history.

"Who's the guy who got silver in daegu, the good half marathoner guy"

Tadese never got a silver let alone a medal in daegu 2011. And galen has to remind him who the athlete was. Salazar trains world class athletes but barely knows the ones that he doesn't train. Pathetic.

Aopp wrote:

By the way it's pathetic how Salazar can't even tell who won a medal in a major championship or the guy who is the best half marathoner in history.

"Who's the guy who got silver in daegu, the good half marathoner guy"

Tadese never got a silver let alone a medal in daegu 2011. And galen has to remind him who the athlete was. Salazar trains world class athletes but barely knows the ones that he doesn't train. Pathetic.

That was a really dumb post. You would have been more honest and would have really gotten to the point much more directly if you had simply posted:

"I really hate Salazar."

Zersenay Tadese is the poster child for runners who appear to have terrible form, but are actually very efficient runners. Maybe his stride does limit him in sprinting ability, but it certainly doesn't limit him for sustained speed (as you can see from his 58:23 WR).

If you've read Matt Fitzgerald's books you would understand how this is possible.

Messing with peoples strides is not good for development and Tadese is a great example of that. I'm all for efficiency through drills and sprints, but messing with someones mechanics almost always makes them less efficient runners.

form critic wrote:

Zersenay Tadese is the poster child for runners who appear to have terrible form, but are actually very efficient runners. Maybe his stride does limit him in sprinting ability, but it certainly doesn't limit him for sustained speed (as you can see from his 58:23 WR).

If you've read Matt Fitzgerald's books you would understand how this is possible.

Messing with peoples strides is not good for development and Tadese is a great example of that. I'm all for efficiency through drills and sprints, but messing with someones mechanics almost always makes them less efficient runners.

+10

form critic wrote:

Zersenay Tadese is the poster child for runners who appear to have terrible form, but are actually very efficient runners. Maybe his stride does limit him in sprinting ability, but it certainly doesn't limit him for sustained speed (as you can see from his 58:23 WR).

If you've read Matt Fitzgerald's books you would understand how this is possible.

Messing with peoples strides is not good for development and Tadese is a great example of that. I'm all for efficiency through drills and sprints, but messing with someones mechanics almost always makes them less efficient runners.

What makes some of you think he appears to have terrible form? I watch him in slow motion and he looks brilliant. Rupp looks awesome in slow motion as well, but is a bit more mechanical.

And to the guy who feels bad for Tadese because he gets slower and slower in shorter races; don't forget he's got a 12:59 5000 to his credit! Like most Eritreans, his sweet spot seems to be in the 10K-HM distance. If he doesn't have the fastest 10K PR + HM PR, he must be 2nd or 3rd at worst.

"And most of those races you listed, nobody has heard of or cares about."

-world xc champs? world track champs? all Africa games? Olympic games? ummmmm, what? if you've never heard of these, then it's time to pack it in, ace. any and all of your statements from here on out are null and void.