Look guys my point is Ritz wasn't even aware of how to train for 1500 or mile. It was never his event. At least Tiger Woods's coach was probably decent at golf
He's been around running most of his life and was coached by professionals. He even trained with top milers (e.g. Webb). There's no reason to think he doesn't know how to train for the 1500.
To expand on that, I think we have talked a lot recently in other threads that there is no secret formula. Everyone is doing the same thing and a different thing from HS to pros. Wightman vs Jacob, Rudisha ran 130 MPW, ....blah blah blah
Get some talent, see what sticks/ works for your runner. But the workouts are nothing new.
Ritz is a prime example of those that can't do teach.
3:42, 7:39, 12:56, 27:22, 60:00
2x Footlocker champ, NCAA XC champ
What credentials do you have Dougy?
You must be a really, really bad teacher??
Not to mention when he busted out his huge 12:56 pr, he probably was in sub 4 shape and def better than 7:39 3k shape. It shocked everyone when he dropped his 5k so far after switching from Hudson and marathon training.
Coaches often develop athletes in events that they either did do themselves but not as successfully as they wanted or in events they never did when they were athletes. Coaches often attend clinics, research training techniques and pick the brains of other coaches. I was a walk on distance runner in college. As a high school coach, I was fortunate enough to coach state champions in several events that I never did at all or never did well as a high school or college athlete. I coached multiple state champions in the 400 and 4x400. I coached single state champions in the 200, 4x200, long jump and triple jump. I have seen plenty of my coaching peers do what I did and more.
It's not weird at all considering he was a professional runner with knowledge and confidence. It's more weird that Serena Williams won the 1999 US Open in tennis coached by her father who never played tennis. Not to mention the success Venus had under his coaching tutelage..
He is very knowledgeable. He was an assistant at Grand Valley for the last few years of his pro career plus he has learned a lot from some of the greatest coaches out there hat he ran for
Do you really think the coach should be faster than his athletes to be a great coach? C'mon.
From an article on an executive coaching site (TXGltd.com):
Insight brought by outsiders can be priceless. Who says so? Spitz’s coach Sherm Chavoor took his stable of swimmers to a total of 21 Olympic Gold medals. And he couldn’t swim. What Chavoor could do was coax his team to be their best. He instilled in his swimmers the drive to excel – to swim harder, longer and faster than ever before thought possible.
I can't find the clip, but in the movie "The Games", Ryan O'Neal is a marathoner who dopes with (I think) amphetamines. His coach orders him to try and run a sub-2 hour marathon in hot weather. As O'Neal is fading, his coach (who has a very bad limp) is taunting O'Neal, saying "I can run faster than you can!" as the coach hobbles on the side of the road. Not a good movie as I recall.
Dathan was a pure distance runner, not mid d. This is like the running equivalent of Ted Lasso.
How many sub 3:30 runners have been coached by a sub 3:30 coach?
This adds clarity to some of your other poorly thought out posts.
If you think his post is poorly thought out than why do you bother to reply? Do you realize how much energy you are putting in to put someone else down?
Dathan was a pure distance runner, not mid d. This is like the running equivalent of Ted Lasso.
There's so much wrong with this but this mindset runs deep in T&F at all levels. There would be zero coaches in the US if running sub-3:30 was a prerequisite. You can coach & be a great coach even if you don't have the fastest PBs. Ritz was a strength runner, who competed at the highest level at the 5k/10k, and up to the marathon.
Ted Lasso coached a completely different sport. He wasn't a top domestic soccer player. It would be like a coach from a different sport moving over to T&F.
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