Sha'Carri making a switch to Stephen Francis?

Her current coach is Dennis Mitchell, correct?

sham carri wrote:

Her current coach is Dennis Mitchell, correct?

Yes. For Sha'Carri it's a no brainer to make the switch if that change is available, although she would certainly have to eat some crow for the shade she threw at Jamaicans. But Francis has a lot of lose taking her on. Nike will pay him well, which is why I think he says he is considering it. But don't discount how his friends, family, colleagues and athletes will feel if he does take her on. That might be enough to have him turn Sha'Carri away.

To date, only Jamaicans have flourished under Francis. He as coached a lot of great Jamaican athletes, naturally other athletes around the world have elected to train under him, but to date, everyone else but Jamaicans have had only modest success. Not saying Francis is not a good coach, but no American athlete needs to move to another country to get good coaching.

TrackCoach wrote:

To date, only Jamaicans have flourished under Francis. He as coached a lot of great Jamaican athletes, naturally other athletes around the world have elected to train under him, but to date, everyone else but Jamaicans have had only modest success. Not saying Francis is not a good coach, but no American athlete needs to move to another country to get good coaching.

How many other non-Jamaican athletes has Francis actually trained though? I can only think of two, 100m sprinter Darrel Brown who flopped way back when due to multiple injury plagued seasons, and Sada Williams this year, who has improved her PB in the 400m by over a second and placed 3rd in the Diamond League. Small sample size with inconclusive results.

Something important to consider is that, besides Brown, Francis has never worked with a truly world class junior talent. His most notable products are ETH, SAFP, Powell and distance hurdler Melaine Walker, of whom only SAFP maybe suggested a hit of early natural talent, but nothing special. But for some reason, his athletes keep leaving, it’s long been said that he is autocratic, has poor interpersonal skills and can’t deal with egos, so that begs the question how he’d deal with someone like Sha’Carri Richardson.

He says that he likes to work with diamonds in the rough, but I wouldn’t be surprised that he’s itching to see what he can do with some truly exceptional talent. He took ETH from 11.1 to 10.5, imagine what he could do for Richardson who is already running 10.7 at a much younger age, with massive room for improvement in her start and drive phase?

Sha’carris coach isn’t to blame for how her season went this year.

Yet another coping mechanism used to make her feel like her blowup wasn’t her fault this season.

BigPimpin1969 wrote:

Sha’carris coach isn’t to blame for how her season went this year.

Yet another coping mechanism used to make her feel like her blowup wasn’t her fault this season.

It doesn’t matter whose fault it is, if the current setup isn’t working, you change it, especially when you’ve essentially made an athlete the face of your brand.

There are many in the track and field community who believe that Richardson was mismanaged by her team this year. You can blame her for her missteps, but it would be malpractice not to question whether she would have avoided the same mistakes under another coach with a different approach. This may be Nike’s way of taking the kid gloves off.

Dennis Mitchell’s reputation as a good coach seems to be entirely built on Gatlin’s success, and now Kenny Bednarek. He hasn’t produced much else outside of those two, and very few female athletes of any note. Stephen Francis on the other hand has a solid argument for being the greatest female sprint coach ever.

The Clown Show wrote:

sham carri wrote:

Her current coach is Dennis Mitchell, correct?

Yes. For Sha'Carri it's a no brainer to make the switch if that change is available, although she would certainly have to eat some crow for the shade she threw at Jamaicans. But Francis has a lot of lose taking her on. Nike will pay him well, which is why I think he says he is considering it. But don't discount how his friends, family, colleagues and athletes will feel if he does take her on. That might be enough to have him turn Sha'Carri away.

Francis has nothing to lose, really.

If Richardson succeeds under his watch, it further cements his reputation as a coach who gets results, even out of “difficult” athletes with ego issues. He will still be attractive to Jamaican athletes with a desire to excel, but it also makes him appealing to foreign athletes who may not have previously considered working with a Jamaican coach.

If Richardson doesn’t succeed, he has a built in excuse which most will believe: she was too hard-headed and didn’t follow his instruction properly. In fact, he has already used this excuse in the past, with Melaine Walker who eventually left his camp and never reached the same heights she attained under his tutelage.

Par for the course for Francis. He's worked with another female 100m sprinter tied to adverse findings.

https://www.espn.com/olympics/trackandfield/news/story?id=5791397

In other words he doesn't take any cr@ p?

So she will have to shut up and work hard?

Nekked Baker wrote:

Par for the course for Francis. He's worked with another female 100m sprinter tied to adverse findings.

https://www.espn.com/olympics/trackandfield/news/story?id=5791397

Let’s be fair to both Richardson and SAFP here. THC and Oxycodone are not performance enhancing by any stretch of the imagination.

Wasn't Asafa Powell (doper) his athlete? SR's problem isn't her coach, it lies in the space between her ears.

Iron Bars wrote:

Wasn't Asafa Powell (doper) his athlete? SR's problem isn't her coach, it lies in the space between her ears.

Powell committed his doping violation after he left Francis. He was also later exonerated by proving that a mislabeled supplement was the cause of the violation.

Trainwreck watcher wrote:

Nekked Baker wrote:

Par for the course for Francis. He's worked with another female 100m sprinter tied to adverse findings.

https://www.espn.com/olympics/trackandfield/news/story?id=5791397

Let’s be fair to both Richardson and SAFP here. THC and Oxycodone are not performance enhancing by any stretch of the imagination.

Performance-enhancing, no. Adverse findings, yes. Both 100m sprinters.

In any event, Francis’ greatest transformation is not SAFP or ETH, but taking Melaine Walker from being a very average 54-second 400m hurdler, to becoming an Olympic and World Champion who was on course to break the WR before the two of them fell out.

Whether you think his methods are legitimate or not, the fact is that the man gets results.

Jamaica, including Francis, is nothing special. How many of you have trained sprints there? Or at all?

It’s the fact that she is under scrutiny here, and could be protected in Jam if Nike plays their cards right. Money is everything down there, the powers-that-be don’t care a whit for “national pride”.

It’s not about the training, etc—many coaches are great for that. It’s about the cycling and the protection, and the management/excuse machine.

If she goes, only time will tell if they can successfully shield a US athlete. International shielding is tougher, everyone has their own ideas. Look at the international sprinters “training” in the southern US. Okagbare, anyone?

ALL of pro sprinting (except a tiny handful of athletes) is a joke, never forget that.

Sprintgeezer wrote:

Jamaica, including Francis, is nothing special. How many of you have trained sprints there? Or at all?

It’s the fact that she is under scrutiny here, and could be protected in Jam if Nike plays their cards right. Money is everything down there, the powers-that-be don’t care a whit for “national pride”.

It’s not about the training, etc—many coaches are great for that. It’s about the cycling and the protection, and the management/excuse machine.

If she goes, only time will tell if they can successfully shield a US athlete. International shielding is tougher, everyone has their own ideas. Look at the international sprinters “training” in the southern US. Okagbare, anyone?

ALL of pro sprinting (except a tiny handful of athletes) is a joke, never forget that.

This doesn’t make sense to me. Regardless of where she trains, she’s a US athlete subject to USADA testing protocol. The Jamaican authorities have no control over USADA. Moving to Jamaica may even cause USADA to watch her more closely.

Besides that…Richardson training under ETH’s and SAFP’s former coach would be an absolutely massive story, to the extent that it would attract *more* scrutiny, not less. It could possibly create a media circus, which is one reason why Francis might not be willing to accept.

The food and climate in Jamaica is ideal for runners of all events. It's also in their culture to be fast so I expect some of this to rub off on SR. They also have many burrito trucks and unlike the US they do not castrate their hogs since there is no usda down there.