Bill Squires Sounds Like A Raging Egomaniac

You sir, (the guy who started this thread) are an idiot. Sorry, but Squires is a legend.

Scott Douglas, well-known as a great suck-up to the elite, propbably worded worded it in such a way to give that impression.

Dave Miller wrote:

I think any rational person can look at the record that Squires had with characters who weren't HS/College stars and ultimately conclude that he understands the marathon as well as any American coach. He should be proud of that achievement.

Amen. In the words of Dizzy Dean: " It ain't braggin' if you can do it."

TDF wrote:

NobbyH wrote:

Everybody here should hear Dick Beardsley talk about his first Falmouth road race and the night before.

Always look forward to getting together with Coach at Boston Marathon.

What happened?

If it's the story I think it is, Bill slept in the bathtub on the night before the race when he saw there weren't enough beds for the guys who were running in the house they all were staying.

There's another Squires story about guys who try to win the workout. A guy ran one of the intervals far ahead of everyone else. Squires saw an empty Burger King bag blow by in the wind. He snatched it and fashioned a hat out of it and crowned the show-off as workout king.

Tom

I don't know what Douglass's Smarmy Rating is, and I take the word of anonymous posters with a grain of salt. I do know that he has a problem when it comes to reading comprehension and discerning facts that are put in front of him in black and white. I couldn't imagine how it would be possible for someone who lacks the ability to listen to be able to interview someone like Coach, who communicates like a Waring blender on high... make that two blenders on high ... no, make that three.

This guy said it perfectly:

Derderian wrote:

There's another Squires story about guys who try to win the workout. A guy ran one of the intervals far ahead of everyone else. Squires saw an empty Burger King bag blow by in the wind. He snatched it and fashioned a hat out of it and crowned the show-off as workout king.

Tom

It wa actually one of these that was blowing around the track:

HRE wrote:

TDF wrote:

What happened?

If it's the story I think it is, Bill slept in the bathtub on the night before the race when he saw there weren't enough beds for the guys who were running in the house they all were staying.

Specifically for Beards. Dickie found him sleeping in the bathtub in the a.m.

It wasn't the first bathtub Squires slept in. He could write a book about the best bathtubs or closets for sleeping in.

Yeah, an ego-maniac. But totally worth the entertainment.

Bill Bowerman didn't know squat???

Funny, because their philosophies were similar (leave the practice track invigorated, with something left.)

Dellinger was too stupid to follow *that* piece of Bowerman's method.

If he had, he would have "govenered" in Salazar's over training motor...and perhaps prevented Salazar from ruining his (Salazar's) health / athletic career...

Squires, and his athletes quotes, are however, totally worth the read.

MidTermGuppie wrote:

Coach is difficult enough to understand when he is speaking directly to you. His communication is a whirlwind of sounds, gestures, sound effects, emotion and spit. The first mistake anyone can make is to directly quote anything he says and expect it to make perfect sense like some orderly verse. His advice should be taken like a huge handful of vitamins you wash down with a glass of milk. All that needs to be said of him is the evidence he leaves in his wake. A completely unique, simple yet complex individual who is adored and respected by the world class athletes he has affected.

That's right guppie, you have had the experience. Reading an article cannot compare with having a beer with the man.

That said, I think Scott Douglas is sincere and did a good job in capturing the individual.

I like the photos quite a bit as well. The fact that someone would think that he came across as raging or angry is baffling.

The only "fair" way to quote someone is to precede the quote with the exact question. An interview as opposed to a freewheelin article.

jesse was a friend wrote:

Another moron chimes in. Nobody said he didn't coach well or get the most out of his athletes. Squires claims they weren't very talented. What a bunch of crap, and you're just stupid enough to swallow it hook, line and sinker.

Obviously they were talented, you have to be to run 2:10 for the marathon. But he did help these runners improve from 2:30-40 to become great and I think that says a lot.

And while his athletes may not have been the MOST talented runners he never says they were crap (though he did say that about his first HS team). He was telling a story of what he told his training group. Remember he was trying to motivate them and having your athletes think they are doing something special or secret training might give them a mental edge. Nothing wrong with that. And nothing wrong with a coach not wanting to share his workouts.

This is probably close to the greatest marathoning tv commentary in history.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FmzljrUrwKE

Any of you who are bashing Coach Squires don't know the man or have never had the opportunity to work with him! He was and is a genius and would give you he shirt off his back to help a person out! I would have never got to where I did without Coach! :-)

No one "bashing" him is saying they know (or have met) Squires. People aren't saying he wasn't a great coach.

But his quotations come across as arrogant, he criticized another coach and has generally gone out his way to talk himself up.

But what about his pants? Would he give his pants?

Probably.

Dick, I've never met you, but I hope you don't mind if I go right ahead and think of you as a friend anyways.

This is now a Bill Squires quote thread. Since I've never met him, I'll pick my obvious favorite from the article:

"Running is a simple sport. You don't need all the zoopy zoopy." -Bill Squires

It's not like Squires wrote the article himself. Someone asked him some questions and he answered the questions honestly. Not everyone is going to like an honest answer but it's more informative than an answer which is edited to make it more acceptable to a wider audience. I think a big part of his coaching success is that he told you what he thought and not what he thought you wanted to hear. Lydiard was exactly the same way and from all I've read or heard Bowerman was too.

Why do you think he is generally not well known?

runsalott wrote:

Why do you think he is generally not well known?

Great question and I hope a lot of people who worked with him chime in. They'd have better ideas than I would from knowing him better but here's what I think.

1.He is not much of a self-promoter. Compare him to Lydiard who wrote maybe a half dozen books, has loads of interviews on the record, did several international speaking tours, wrote a Runner's World column for a while, etc. Bill has ONE book, written decades after he was done coaching top level athletes. If you were to compare him to a successful Kiwi coach I'd see him more in the mold of Arch Jelly than of Lydiard.

2. He doesn't chase athletes as far as I can tell but works with those who seek him out. As his successes recede into the past fewer modern athletes know of him or bother to seek him out. The first time we talked, which was maybe 4-5 years ago, he said he was hoping to set up some sort of club for athletes who were serious and had shown some promise but hadn't hooked up with a shoe contract or other sort of support program. I don't think anything ever came of it because there were just not athletes interested in working with him.

3. He's never been able to offer anything but coaching, i.e., he can't give you a job in his shop, hook you into a network of employers who'll hire you part time and accommodate to your running schedule, or dribble you small salary from a shoe company.

That's just opinion and may be worth exactly what you paid for it.