The real talent of Hobbs Kessler

That post was super long and I didn’t read it, but: (1) he started running late and (2) COVID meant he showed two years of training and improvement after he picked up the sport so we didn’t see various other checkpoints we would have seen if he has been racing in 2020

Yea sorry but no. Kessler is enormously, unfathomably, historically talented. Physically, physiologically. That is what accounts for his performances. Sure, having a background in another competitive, mentally stressful sport might have helped his transition to elite competition in running, and been a small factor in his meteoric rise. But ultimately, he's a kid who's run 3:34 seemingly within a year or two of picking up the sport. That has essentially nothing to do with `mental strength'. I mean yes, he does seem tactically savvy (for a high schooler) thus far, and I wouldn't doubt that he's a gritty kid. But focusing on this `mental' aspect elides the much huger issue that he would seemingly be able to break 4 with or without mental strength.

Ask yourself about the many american high schoolers throughout the years to have run 4:0x, 8:50ish in the 1600/3200. Is it really reasonable to imagine that none of them are mentally tough? That rock climbing has afforded Kessler a magical and qualitatively different kind of mental toughness than anything that can be achieved in distance running, and so allowed him to outperform his contemporaries and predecessors by leaps and bounds? I don't think so. His background in rock climbing is completely incidental to him being a generational talent in middle distance running.

Kessler has an uncanny resemblance to the top U.S. climber of the early '90s, Jim Karn

https://ontarioclimbing.com/News/JimKarn/files/jimkarncover1.jpg

The main advantage I see is that climbing provides an intense emphasis on pre-visualization. I can recall in great detail every rock feature of my harder climbs, yet at my best I can improvise well if things go a little sideways. I think many climbers are too perfectionistic and don't roll well with things like jostling or pace changes. Being able to couple that mental focus and flexibility with obviously ridiculous running genetics is a magic mixture.

Please understand that the shoes are playing an important role here. Kessler is not even close to the most talented young runner I have seen. Not even close. The kid will NEVER break 3:30.

The biggest act of self-belief an American or British or Australian kid needs is to ignore the weirdo racists who insist that only East Africans are natural born runners.

And you're right - that is a huge amount of self-belief that's required.

I love how most of the dozens of posters here shouting about what an extraordinary talent Kessler is have probably been assuming, supporting, and validating the 'Rift Valley gene' nonsense here for the last 20 years.

Non African kids with exceptional talent will be the new normal, and it's primarily because they have belief now. Nick Willis and Henry and Fillip kept the sport alive outside of Africa, and Jakob has blown the doors wide open.

And it's not just super shoes. If that was the case you would be having one or two of those Rift Valley natural born runners breaking 1:40 by now instead of their best guy running a couple of tenths faster than an 18 year old British kid.

There's a big misconception that Hobbs Kessler has ony been running for a year. Both of his parents are high school track coaches. They had him running in races before high school. His parents made him run cross country as a freshman and he's continued with it and track since.

Another misconception is that he doesn't train that much because that's what Strava says. He does additional training on top of what his school team does. He has the talent and had put in the work.

From the article:

SSSSSS

“I don’t want him to be the cool kid who’s doing secret workouts, but he’s in a different place, obviously, than the rest of the team.”

Reminded that his son is now in a different place than anyone in history, Mike laughs. “Oh yeah. Good point.” He adds, “As far as who’s coaching him, I would have been leery to do the workouts that Hobbs did. I’m way more conservative-minded. But Ron’s more experienced and knows what people can take and what they need to do. And Hobbs and Ron have a great rapport.

“Nick has been super awesome at including him and bringing him along. I keep thanking him and he’s like, ‘No, it’s helping me too.’”

The training was intense. Hobbs notes that people have already been looking at his Strava account and mimicking some of the runs that he’s posted there. “A neighbor gave me a GPS watch because he got a new one. And sometimes I’ll put runs on Strava. But it’s not a good indicator. I’m pretty sporadic about it.”

He explains that he doesn’t track mileage very much. “We don’t use it as a gauge. It’s an afterthought.” A typical week this past winter, he says, might see him hit around 50M. The emphasis is on the workouts themselves. Lots of hills. Lots of paced running. SSSSS

I don't think climbing has added much to his performance physically or mentally other than some upper body strength and giving him something else to occupy his mind. But climbing gives an idea of his mental makeup, including what you've mentioned.

In addition he has the willingness to move forward and take what the situation gives you and the ability to deal with pain (mentioned in the article). There was a goofball on my high school track team who never worked hard or did much. In the third meet of the season he ran an amazing time for him. Everyone was shocked including runner himself. The coach who was't impressed said it wouldn't happen again because this goofball had just found out that running that fast meant a lot of pain.

Salvitore Stitchmo wrote:

Webb was a great talent - but this is different and I would not anticipate the same rollercoaster ride from Kessler. Webb was an insane physical talent but mentally so incredibly fragile. Kessler right now may just have the perfect mental makeup/approach to be a runner, that we have never seen before and the physical development will almost come easily if he can maintain it.

Take a look at his interviews. He's a shy teenager right now not a tough guy, probably not much different than Webb at that age. The difference is that he's the type of kid that everyone wants to protect. Regardless, it's counterproductive to project all this budding guru stuff onto him when he's just doing what is fun for him.

How can anyone not like this kid? His innocence and laid back personality is really cool to see. Obviously he is very talented and I am sure he is training very hard. Being coached by Ron Warhurst and mentored by Nick Willis who knows what it takes to be one of the best in the world, will help him progress in the years to come. I wish him the best, his future is bright

Kessler has world class core muscles. Through climbing he prepared his abs, back, pelvic and many other muscles needed to withstand serious running training.

He probably has the best bodyweight x strength ratio amongst pro runners in the world.

Stop derailing threads, Coevett.

This is not about Kenya.

Oh but while you're at it, your clean white heroes have one huge stain in that Henrik (not Henry) was on the suspected dopers list.

It is really disgusting that you root for African kids to fail. Even worse, for you there are no African kids as they are all age cheats.

And calling other people racist is a very poor tactic to deflect attention from your racism, which is far too well documented on these boards.

If this was an African kid you, the "weirdo racist" here, would claim he is an age cheat and a doper just because he would be African.

And don't talk to me about doping culture when you have a sophisticated one going on in our western countries.

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To the OP, maybe you have watched this video. If you haven't, see what the "sports psychologist" says at 2:30

Kyiv Post wrote:

The biggest act of self-belief an American or British or Australian kid needs is to ignore the weirdo racists who insist that only East Africans are natural born runners.

You have eaten too much in the past and the present.

African needs their part and they are take it by hands and not by hopes.

This is the correct answer. His success isn't due to superior psychology it is due to superior physical talent.

Hobbs is coming to running with tremendous physical strength. That’s already huge.

The talent is out there in other sports, skateboarding, baseball, football, basketball, video games. We just never get to see these kids because they’re doing other things.

Haha.........wrote;

"Please understand that the shoes are playing an important role here. Kessler is not even close to the most talented young runner I have seen. Not even close. The kid will NEVER break 3:30."

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Negativists like you have made many mistakes here the last years! It is normal that youngsters like Hobbs improve until their mid twenties, especially when they have started late to run seriously.

And if they stick to a good trainings schedule: Not too much not too little; always follow a hard day with a recovery running day.

If Hobbs is training like that I will not be surprised at all if he breaks 3:30 within a year or two. That would be quite a normal improvement.

I remember when a "cousin" of you in early 2018 - after Jakob had beaten Centro, Chelimo, Engels and other American top milers - stated that if he was EXTREMELY GENEROUS Jakob would some day break 3:33 or 3:32 but never go faster.

That prediction didn´t age well since Jakob a few months later ran low 3:31 in DL Monaco (beating Centro once more in the process).

Hahahahahahahaha wrote:

Please understand that the shoes are playing an important role here. Kessler is not even close to the most talented young runner I have seen. Not even close. The kid will NEVER break 3:30.

Please understand that Jim Ryun ran in far inferior shoes and on inferior track surfaces:

And Alan Webb ran in spikes on tracks that are alien in comparison:

.....If you are to continue to use modern spikes as a reason to discount Kessler and others then at least acknowledge that much bigger technological advances were made 50 years ago

While I want to agree with all of this, I have questions if it's validity. If he's always living in the moment and rising up to meet the next challenge, why does he run so conservatively for the first 1200m of a race? Shouldn't he be sticking his nose in with the leaders and really pushing his limits?

looks like certain banned posters have figured out how to use a VPN lmao. question for you coevett, what is it like going through each and every day p!ssed off that east africans are unusually good at running? it sounds exhausting to me.

UltraDude wrote:

This is the correct answer. His success isn't due to superior psychology it is due to superior physical talent.

Everytime a new super star comes out, we like to attribute their success to one random thing they do different from age group swimming, working on a farm, cold weather, warm weather, gymnastics, and so on. It is all about the talent level and the training to get it out.

Mental Fortitude wrote:

Ask yourself about the many american high schoolers throughout the years to have run 4:0x, 8:50ish in the 1600/3200. Is it really reasonable to imagine that none of them are mentally tough? That rock climbing has afforded Kessler a magical and qualitatively different kind of mental toughness than anything that can be achieved in distance running, and so allowed him to outperform his contemporaries and predecessors by leaps and bounds? I don't think so. His background in rock climbing is completely incidental to him being a generational talent in middle distance running.

Then we can completely disagree and I think you really understand my post.

Never once did I suggest that any other elite HS'er we have seen doesn't have mental toughness and my post isn't even about mental toughness - it's about a mindset formed in another activity that I believe has incredible benefits to running. His background in rock climbing isn't incidental to this at all - I mean you had a two time Olympic medalist (and likely champion in Nick Willis specifically reference it but then again what would he know right?).

Neither did I say he doesn't have physical ability and it's "just a mental thing" - actually I'm realizing that if you can't read and comprehend beyond the first layer of what I wrote then there's no point to this. Just think what you want to think and have a good Tuesday brother.