I was talking to a friend about Roger Bannister and his training for the 4 minute mile. This got us talking about famous coaches from the past and their training methods. Could anyone here at Letsrun.com shed some light on the training methods used by Franz Stampfl? I do know it was largely based on interval training. What kind of volume did his runners run? Length of repeat? recovery interval? Any info would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks
I wasn't a huge fan, but even I would damit that franz's contribution to coaching was on a par with lydiard, cerutty and Bowerman. He was the father of interval training.
Gerschler was using it at about the same time in the late 30's, but stampfl's efforts went unnoticed due to the war. I believe he was more of an advisor to Bannister and a coach to Chataway and Brasher. His realy strong efforts came with Merv Lincoln, Ralph doubell and later, Peter Bourke.
His athletes did both distance and intervals with 7-10 mile runs the norm during the season. He had a base period of distance like most, butfelt that the body was like a fine car, "you need to open up the throttle so that you can test the motor."
Doubell did workouts like:
50 x 200m 100 x 100m and 30 x 300m All with short intervals
for a 4 minute miler he suggested:
10 x 400 @70sec during the base period with 3 min recovery
6 x 800 @ 2:15 with 5 min recovery
4 x 1200 @3:35 with 10 min recovery
He would also use sprints (100-150) during the build-up and some fartlek work
As the athlete approached racing season, the 400's got down to 60 the 800 2:05 and the 1200 3:15
Final prep period saw the 400's under 60 and everything else at 4:00 pace.
He included weights right up to the major comp week
If you get the chance you must read of Lincoln's series of races with Elliott.
Hope this helps
After Gerschler, who coached Rudolf Harbig, Franz Stampfl adopted interval training.
In the 1950s and 1960s, my coaches, Canadian Coach Fred Foot and Hungarian Coach Mihaly Igloi, used interval training with success. Igloi's athletes set all track world records above 800 meters.
I looked at it once a while ago in a (his?) book. I don't remember the details, but thought it looked crazy with intereval workouts 5-6 times per week. I should probably look at it again to learn a little more about it.
Who is Fritz Stamples
Sample of R. Doubel training week
1.) 20x400m
2.) 30x200m (in 26-27sec.)
3.) 10x800m
4.) 50x100m
5.) rest
6.) race or test
7.) race or test
result = World record 1:44 on Olympic Games, pretty hard
Stampfl also famously coached international-class field-eventers. His great quote was something to the effect of "what's wrong with knowing about all the events?"
Orville, that's exactly my problem with Franz. He always seemed to take credit for things only to have someone else dispute it. He claims he was the "father of interval training." He later clarified it to state"in the English world." Bannister claimed he was self-coached on several occasions and Franz said he was Roger's coach.
A former cyclist and javelin thrower, who had some great success with Brasher and Chattaway. In the late70's or early 80's he was paralyzed from the neck down and continued to coach. It was at this time that he got Bourke to run 1:43 nad win Commonwealth gold.
ray,
I only know wht I read in books and on the enternet concerning who was the "father" of whatever.
What I do know is that in the 1950s the East York Track Club was a sprint Club. Coach Fred Foot's sprinters made up the whole 1956 Canadian Olympic sprint relay team.
Upon returning from Melbourne Coach Foot began train more middle distance and distance runners.
In addition, during the last half of the 1950s, Franz Stampfl was a guest speaker at the annual Canadian Olymmpic Training Plan. It was probably during the winter indoor season of 1957 that the East York Track Club began interval training.
I joined the club in the fall of 1959. In the 1960s the club then developed many Canadian Internationalists including 800 meter Olympic silver medalist Bill Crothers and teenage distance star Bruce Kidd.
Peter Bourke won the 1982 Commonwealth Games Gold Medal in the 800m, beating the Kenyans amongst others in 1:45.3. He won the Australian Championship which was the selection trial for the Commonwealth Games in 1:44.78, which ended up being Bourkie's lifetime pb.
Stampfl also had great success with a number of other Australian 800m runners including Bill Hooker, father of Steve Hooker the Australian 6.00m Pole Vaulter. Bill Hooker ran 1:45.3. Stampfl also coached John Higham who ran 1:45.6 and was selected to run in the Moscow Olympics but chose to boycott for political reasons.