Martin Smith's System

His system is based on throwing chairs, screaming at kids and humiliating them for their weaknesses.

CRAP wrote:

His system is based on throwing chairs, screaming at kids and humiliating them for their weaknesses.

Really?? Never heard anything about it in all these years.

I have met him., but do not "know him" personally. I have never seen the alleged bad side to him. One must consider that few have had success at SO MANY levels.

Class of '79 fastest HS male in the country in the 2mile, and right up there in the mile -- Jim Hill. Coached by Smith.

Then a short stint at George Mason. Don't know anything about that.

Then he coaches WOMEN at Virginia. NCAA indiv. XC Champion and team Champs after just 2 years.

Then coaches at UW ... NCAA Team Champs and indiv. champ with Tim Hacker after just two years.

I cannot comment on what he did at Oregon, many others might be able to. I guess some could say that he could have inherited talent in each of these situations, but that is true of every good coach --- they get the best talent at the best schools. I don't know if he has coached any pros either, but to me to coach the absolute best HS'er and females (that is a balancing act) and then the top males in the country ... that deserves some serious respect.

Again, never been around the guy for more than a meet-and-greet at NCAA's and watched his teams at some big meets.

Martin can take any group of kids, inspire them, and get them to get the job done.

Well, to compete obviuosly you need some talent and numbers. But his success rate in the 5000, 10,000 and steeple numerous times is second to none with the 9:00 to 9:10 American high school runner.

He likes to have control of everything and he can have difficulties with prima donna superstars. He doesn't want any second guessing. Or outside interference.

I saw a group he had at USATF Juniors in 2007 and thought, yep, he's going to be back.

I don't know how effecive of a coach he would be with a Webb or Rupp. He's all about the team and he won't treat anyone differently (unless you're just not into the program. He can sense that and make you want to leave).

Thanks to those who have responded with valuable insights.

I am interested in what kind of mileage load he requires; what the quality days look like; if he is more interval or threshold based, what paces he has his guys run. I couldn't find anything on the internet. He seems to be pretty secretive with it...that is what made me wonder if Jerry's system is similar, since he is very secretive about his system (beyond the ancillary work he has his guys do.)

Curious if anyone knows...

Smith did not coach Jeff Nelson in 1979, so you have no credibility.

punky bowles wrote:

since he is very secretive about his system (beyond the ancillary work he has his guys do.)

.

This is simply not true, and I'm curious where this misconception has come from. Jerry himself does avoid the camera - even to the extent of just smiling in silence and trying to get out of view when the Flotrack guys catch him on camera. He clearly does NOT like to be on camera.

But ALL of his guys have talked openly about their training. Go on the Kimbia website and look at all the old posts by Teg and "So-So-Solinsky", and even by Bairu. They all have laid out training under Jerry. Sure, you'll have to piece-meal it together, but it is all there. And there is no big secret to it.

Jerry’s training philosophies are very similar to Martin’s. Jerry was an assistant coach form Martin, and the “Badger Miles” that you hear Jerry’s boys refer to are actually Martin’s way of counting mileage. Most of the athletes that Martin has coached over the years either love him or hate him. The ones who love him are the ones who are willing to buy into his system and allow him to be in control. The athletes who believe in Martin usually end up running very fast. Martin has his guys do a lot of long intervals with short recovery, and long progressive tempo runs. He is patient in developing his younger athletes, but his upperclassmen typically run 70-80 “Badger Miles” a week which in actuality means somewhere around 100 miles. Martin doesn’t do anything training wise different than the other top coaches in the country. The thing that really makes Martin successful is his ability to motivate his athletes. I’ve never met anyone coach who knows his athletes and reads them as well as Martin. He knows exactly what motivates each individual, which enables him to get the best out of them.

Thank you, Great Dane.

No, but he DID coach Jim Hill, who was the fastest HS'er in the 2M in 1978. I was off by one year.All of these things can be checked, in fact they are all on his current school's website. How do I lose all credibility on things that are objective?He coached Jim Hill. He coached Lesley Welch who won NCAA's, and that team won women's NCAA's in XC. He coached Tim Hacker and Wisconsin and they won the Indiv. and team titles.I will let you fill in the years, I know them already. They are all out there to find.

Martin's best coaching asset is he rarely ever makes mistakes. He had some great talent at Virginia on the women's side but other programs out there like Stanford and Oregon had better. At Wisconsin he did inherit a great team but did a tremendous job keeping oft-injured Hacker healthy but trained enough to win. The true hero that season for them however was probably Scott Jenkins who came back from a stress fracture to place 25th at NCAA's, his only race.

He won it again with his recruits in 1988 and with a team that placed no one in the top 16, yet had a 33 second split from 1-5 over 10k.

After that at Wisconsin he was second numerous times, and should have won at least another with probably his greatest collection of talent, so he underperformed a little there, but to be fair they were going up against Arkansas' greatest teams.

Give him 10-15 guys with near-top national class high school talent and he will be back in the top three at NCAA's consistently. I wasn't sure he could do that at Oklahoma but it looks like I might have been wrong.

He could probably do it 5-6 9:00 recruits and a few extra 9:10-9:15 walkons. 2nd or 3rd. Winning will be tough.

[quote]newname wrote:

No, but he DID coach Jim Hill, who was the fastest HS'er in the 2M in 1978. I was off by one year.

__________________________________________________________

Alan Sharsu had the fastest high school two mile time in 1978.

Smith did in fact coach Jim Hill. However, Jim Hill was not the fastest HS 2 miler in 1978 - not even close @ 9:06. Hill's big year was 1979 with a 8:47 and win at the GW Invite - second best that year behind Nelson's record setting 8:36. For sure, Hill was a great HS talent and went on to good things at UO. http://www.cs.uml.edu/~phoffman/nats/gods.htm

bump

Both of you are right. I have a book "How They Train: Long Distances" that profiles Hill in it (in 1981). It said he ran 8:47.8y in 1979 and somehow I got it in my head that he was the fastest that year (he graduated in 1979). I guess there were so few sub-8:45.0 times that I thought I knew them all. But of course he was not the fastest, that was the year that Nelson ran the all-time HS record. I also knew about The Schark, who I think held the junior class record? But I will probably just make another mistake as I think Hulst still holds most of the class outdoor records.

Anyway, the thread is about Martin Smith, who did coach Jim Hill in HS, who DID run 8:47.8y in 1979. Hill says this in the book:

"Philosophy: He began track because his brother and sister already were involved in the sport, and he points to his coach at Oakton HS, Martin Smith , as one of the main sources of his inspiration for his running."

For those of you not familiar with Hill, he ran at Oregon, graduating around 1984. Running 13:48 as a freshman, he ran in the 1980 OT. While still a student at Oregon he had PRs of 3:56y, 13:19, 27:55 heading into the '84 Olympic Trials. The NCAA was so tough back then, and U of O did not do the indoor season, I don't think Hill ever won an NCAA Title. From 1974-1983 there were 8 foreign winners of the NCAA XC out of 10. Craig Virgin and Salazar were the only American winners during that stretch in XC.

newname wrote:

For those of you not familiar with Hill, he ran at Oregon, graduating around 1984. Running 13:48 as a freshman, he ran in the 1980 OT. While still a student at Oregon he had PRs of 3:56y, 13:19, 27:55.

_______________________________________________________________________________

While still a student at the U of O, Jim Hill did not run a 13:19 5K, or a 27.55 10K. Jim did run for Addidas after the U of O. Jim's high school coach was Martin Smith, but it was Bill Dellinger at the U of O.

lets keep it current.. and on topic with oklahoma.

with that said, does coach smith have any volunteer assistants, whats the situation there?

[quote]wanting to get in coaching.... wrote:

lets keep it current.. and on topic with oklahoma.

[/quote

Knowing one's past can provide a window into their future.