The secret behind Britain's young female distance prodigies (good read!)

thanks for the link, good read

The printed copy came out before Christmas and there is a lively thread of Brits discussing it here...

http://www.eightlane.com/forum.php?req=thread&id=3446&nocount=1&page=1

BTW before someone asks, Will Cockerell (the author) runs around 15:40 for 5k and 2:30 for Marathon, as well as writing hugely entertaining columns for AW...

Not Americans

These are juniors?! No wonder we don't hear anything from tthe Brits these days. They're all dead or retired.

ray wrote:

These are juniors?! No wonder we don't hear anything from tthe Brits these days. They're all dead or retired.

But when Africans train hard at a young age they're 'putting us all to shame'.

Warming up and cooling down at sub 6 pace?

ray wrote:

These are juniors?! No wonder we don't hear anything from tthe Brits these days. They're all dead or retired.

Complete mix of ages; that's the nice thing about our club system, all ages and sexes can train together which helps you get a group with a critical mass...

Steph Twell is our top senior (aged 22); Charlotte Purdue is 19 and was first non-African at Edinburgh, hung in with the leaders all the way (20:49, Linet Masai 20:24); Emilia Gorecka will be 17 in a couple of weeks.

I can't help wondering if they were having a bit of fun - if a journo came down, wouldn't you be tempted to say "this is one of our easy days..."?

quote]trollism wrote:

But when Africans train hard at a young age they're 'putting us all to shame'.[/quote]

No, huge difference in culture. And they don't do these workouts at a young age.

captainrobbo wrote:

Complete mix of ages; that's the nice thing about our club system, all ages and sexes can train together which helps you get a group with a critical mass...

Steph Twell is our top senior (aged 22); Charlotte Purdue is 19 and was first non-African at Edinburgh, hung in with the leaders all the way (20:49, Linet Masai 20:24); Emilia Gorecka will be 17 in a couple of weeks.

I can't help wondering if they were having a bit of fun - if a journo came down, wouldn't you be tempted to say "this is one of our easy days..."?

That would certainly explain things.

ray wrote:

No, huge difference in culture. And they don't do these workouts at a young age.

So European/American kids are not allowed to do a heavy training load young because it's not in their culture.

Explain to me the culture bit again please?

I guess all they do at a young age is run to and from school? The old classic.

If we are to believe that African kids are running sub 13 and 27 well before they come out of the junior ranks, I would imagine we have to expect that some of them are training pretty damn hard.

I hate reading stories like this. It's a good article, but these junior coaches tally up championships at the cost of their athlete's long-term development. Yes, some of the athletes get athletic scholarships that they otherwise would not have procured, but at the cost of realizing their actual potential in sport.

Warm ups at sub 6 minute pace... for the women? Absolutely stupid. These kids burn bright for a bit, then disaster and burnout. I have seen this happen with so many kids that are recruited from programs such as the Woodlands, who have times that lead the nation coming out of high school, then several years later are unable to even match those same junior feats under highly-regarded college programs.

Coaches look at the pre-workout race/warm-up and claim that their runners are simply "competitive" and "tough". Indeed they are, but you are a moronic coach who could be getting more out of them if they did not put themselves in the hole before the workout began. Sure, you will get lucky and find a Steph Twell as you sift through the corpses of many talented runners, but on the whole, you are taking some of the most talented, driven, and competitive kids in your nation, and failing to steer them towards their full potential.

They are coached by Mick Woods, who knows what he is doing. Some of these girls have been around a long time, and that alone is testament to the fact that he and his assistants are looking after the long term health of these girls.

Why wouldn't girls in 15.30 shape warm up at sub six mile pace before a hard work out?

You are absolutely correct sir. Most Kenyan kids spend the majority of their youth watching TV, playing video games, getting rides to the club, school, town, game, etc., eating crap food and texting their mates 18 hours a day. All at sea level in $150.00 shoes, I might add.

RRRR wrote:

I hate reading stories like this. It's a good article, but these junior coaches tally up championships at the cost of their athlete's long-term development. Yes, some of the athletes get athletic scholarships that they otherwise would not have procured, but at the cost of realizing their actual potential in sport.

That's one benefit of the British system, amongst a lot of negative things of course.

Mick Woods is not in a position where he knows he's going to lose his athletes once they go to university. Judging by the track record of girls like Purdue, Pallant and Twell, his younger girls will stick around to.

It means he doesn't necessarily have to rush to win as much with them in such a short period because his time with them is limited.

Why are you being nice all of a sudden? Most out of character. Have you had a long lunch break in the pub trolli?

ray wrote:

You are absolutely correct sir. Most Kenyan kids spend the majority of their youth watching TV, playing video games, getting rides to the club, school, town, game, etc., eating crap food and texting their mates 18 hours a day. All at sea level in $150.00 shoes, I might add.

I don't get what you're saying.

My issue with the whole culture thing was that you didn't think that these kids should be training so hard because it's not in their culture.

Are you suggesting that the AFD lot should spend more time watching TV and eating crap food because it's what British/American kids are supposed to do?

Their training is appropriate if you are a Kenyan who has 10 years of running at altitude.

Mo Farah trains in Kenya and the United States... maybe because the coaching in GRB isn't good?

If Chris Solinksy was under this coach's tutelage he would still be running 13:30 in the 5k.

Or maybe because GBR has pretty much zero altitude training sites and the weather in the US can be much better.

The Biggest Boss wrote:

Their training is appropriate if you are a Kenyan who has 10 years of running at altitude.

Mo Farah trains in Kenya and the United States... maybe because the coaching in GRB isn't good?

If Chris Solinksy was under this coach's tutelage he would still be running 13:30 in the 5k.

trollism wrote:

I don't get what you're saying.

My issue with the whole culture thing was that you didn't think that these kids should be training so hard because it's not in their culture.

Are you suggesting that the AFD lot should spend more time watching TV and eating crap food because it's what British/American kids are supposed to do?

Obviously they're dirty, systematic doping cheaters.