Parker’s lack of a kick means she will never win on the track

budddddwhadddddabbboutttt? 🤡 durrrrrrrrrrrr!

Anyway, Valby will be fine. That was her first professional race and she’s working with a professional coach. Any coach worth their salt knows what needs to be worked on and works on it. That was a solid pro debut and I expect her to get better.

Really? That’s where you’re going after one professional race? Tell us you know nothing about the sport without telling us you know nothing about the sport. Either that or get better at trolling.

I agree, her not having a kick and getting a 7 second PB in what I would describe as her shortest event she will race(I doubt we see many mile races from her) she did well. I would compare her to Schweitzer in terms of her type or racing range. And to me at this stage she is far ahead of Karissa.

She doesn't need to win to provide value to her sponsors. Just keep blowing me kisses on Instagram.

In her first race as a pro (and first in 6 months), she ran a 6 sec PR, and the fastest 3000 ever for an American at her age. And your suggestion is she switch to the trails? Good stuff.

I think based on her post race interview, her fitness isn’t quite where she wants it to be (or needs to be). Her goal was top 3, and based on the way she went out, I suspect she was gunning for sub 8:30. Obviously, she ran out of gas and couldn’t quite pull that off. I’m not saying she can’t improve her kick, but the issue with her last two laps had more to do with fitness in this case. If she ran the same race a couple months from now, she might be able to pull off the sub 8:30.

ALMAZ AYANA no kick dominated by injection of pace no one would follow= multiple Championship Gold and lesser medals.

LETESENBET GIDAY no quick but developed one to out sprint several fierce kickers in Championship 10000m.

Parker Valby could emulate either or both...

Parker will run 8:20/14:10/29:30 during her career.

It takes double amount of effort as she is doing that indoors for every lap.

exasperated ???

Serious question: what do we think she could run all out for 400m? 58? Maaaaaaybe 57? That's a big problem for her on the world stage. She can grind out collegians but not being able to close races crazy fast will be her professional achilles heel.

Darn. She will really be embarrassed at all of those global championships.

Ayana and Giday have great mechanics. When you have good mechanics, you can improve speed. Valby's mechanics are not great, and while they could be improved, I don't see it happening in her current environment. To me, she is Karisa S 2.0. Huge engine but horrible mechanics that will always limit her top end speed, and thus ability to close well enough to be in contention for any medals on the track at the world level. Even with her huge engine, I don't think her mechanics will even allow her to run sub 30. She might get close though, but I also fear when they start ramping up her milage to get there, she will have a tough time staying healthy because of those mechanical issues.

regarding a lack of kick:

Kara Goucher didn't have much of a kick either and she did pretty well.

Silver at WCs in a drug era, podiums at two world majors.

You dabble in some truth, and then go way out of line with gross error to come off as a troll that can’t be taken serious.

Firstly, you compare her with Schweizer. Valby’s form in college looked better than Schweizer’s collegiate form. (Valby obviously got some form coaching in college because it improved over her collegiate years. Someone mentioned it looked like her form yesterday regressed from her collegiate form; to that I would say maybe, but hard to make such an assessment from one race in which she went out a bit faster than her fitness from the go.)

But Schweizer did greatly improve her form, as her strength improved with BTC. Then Schweizer developed Achilles issues. However, coming back from those injuries last year, she also seemed to be working with, at least for some amount of time, with a form coach (Galen did as well.) So by then end of last season, Karissa blew away a bunch of miler-types (including Mackay) at 5th Avenue Mile!

So yes, form can be improved, even by that of a seasoned pro, and Schweizer appears to be evidence of that.

We know Battocletti can close out a 30:43 race in 60 seconds, but I’m not convinced she can close out a sub30 race in 60 seconds.

Valby’s “foot speed” and your mention of “force production” are being bandied about too emphatically by you. Valby has a gliding form that may suit her well over long distances. But if she can actually get in sub30 shape, then she will be faster at the end of 30:40 races than she was in Paris.

The track will be an issue for her with her big stride, that she will need to get figured out, just like Elish McColgan has had to. At the fast International level, the pack bunches, accelerates, bunches, accelerates…and it takes learned skill to best maneuver in that scenario.

This is exactly right. Nobody has a kick at their limit. Cheptegei has closed a 5k in 53, but when he ran his WR, he ran 59 (slower than the last lap of my own 5k PR, back in the day).

Yes. Kickers are just weaker than others because they don't push to their limit throughout the race.

Why didn't all the faster kickers behind her outkick her then?

Such as, 1:56 athlete Georgia Bell, for example.