What Are the Ethiopians Doing that Allows 12:37/26:39 Races?

The fact that most of them are born at or near an altitude environment and was walking or running as their primary mode of transportation early in their youth was very benenficial (creating a great base over a period of years). Ethopia also has a federation that seeks out their talented young athletes and houses them and train them so that their talent can be developed fully. Also for every successful athlete there are 10 more that don't reach the level for the federation to nuture them. The pride that the Ethopians have for their country, join famous past idols such as Yifter, Bikala, and Haile as heroes, and role models for their countrymen is also good contributor. In short there are several factors but thats my opinion in condense form.

Vipam

If you dreamed up escaping poverty from an early age, and the best way to do that was to become a great runner, your motivation would be a little bit greater than someone who can get a 50k job slamming away on a keyboard.

A recent long term (15-20year)study came out of UCLA that studied brain development. It found that females brains do advance slightly quicker than males brains. Also, of great significance to your question, is that they found the brain develops rapidly in specific areas during specific times. One of these rapid developmental stages corresponded with the ages of between about 3-7. That was the age in which the brain was exploding in regards to the senses. Think about that. During the age of 3-7 we develop much of our motor control. Now, if you are wearing shoes from the time you are 2 on, how light do you think you'll be on your feet? How much brain development will there be in regards to sensitivity of touch for the foot when it is numbed by socks and shoes? Shoes are a gigantic crutch we make our kids unwillingly deal with before they are older enough to choose for themselves. Weird.

This study tells me to get your kids into swimming at a very young age, as that is a great movement that takes awareness of the entire physique. I don't know if I'll end up Marinovich style and give my kids liver to suck on as babies, but I'll likely have them in swimming along with lessons in ballet, piano, and the voice. Hmmmm...maybe home schooling is our answer to catching up with the Ethiopians.

Isn't one of the top boys high school runners currently home schooled?

Does anybody else have info on the UCLA study I was referring to, it was recently talked about for a few minutes on NPR.

"If you dreamed up escaping poverty from an early age, and the best way to do that was to become a great runner, your motivation would be a little bit greater than someone who can get a 50k job slamming away on a keyboard."

This is the dumbest rationale for Kenyan success for running I have seen because it only applies to a few tribes in Eastern Africa. Why haven't the scores of other Third World wretched discovered this path out of poverty? WEst Africans and Carribeans, black Americans and Canaddians seem to prefer sprinting to do this. Why don't they all just choose distance running? And what about India? That wrestched place of 1 billion people would certianly produce a few distance runners on the "escape poverty" plan.

Now if we posit that these few tribal Kenyans have some reason to suppose distance running would be the easiest route to financial well-being for them owing to, say, proven ability to dominate at it in large numbers, then it may make sense.

"Ethopia also has a federation that seeks out their talented young athletes and houses them and train them so that their talent can be developed fully."

I have another take on that. Ethiopia's Federation is government funded, and the money comes in with the expectation to win at all costs. Ethiopia is desperate to have some national running heroes so they have developed a state-run doping program to start at a young age. Most of the Kenyans we see doping do so after they show some promise as a junior and an agent or other nefarious westerner swoops in to make money off of them. (Hermans, Rosa, ect.) Ethiopia has bypassed the middle man and streamlined the doping process. In Kenya their federation uses their own coaches in isolation for the runup to major events. While their performances are still incredible, they are now getting slaughtered by the Ethiopians who use the same coaches throughout the runup to major events. The Ethiopians have become the better dopers that is all there is to it. The Kenyans will be no better than runner-up until their federation allows the athlete's individual coaches to work with them (and on them) in the weeks before major events. Or, you can just accept that in the last 3 years the Ethiopians have discovered an amazing new way to train and it has resulted in dozens of incredible performances in World Championship events that no other country on Earth can match.

Obviously I have not a shred of proof to any of this, but the theory I just laid out is a lot more plausible than a clean 12:37.

They do the right training, they don't overdo it. If you look at Geb's schedule, it looks like something Lydiard wrote: 18km of Lt one day, hills another, 60m sprints another, race specific work as needed, a 3hr long run and a bunch of 60min easy runs to make 130 mi/wk. The Ethiopians have it down. Drop of American athletes to live and train with them, and American coaches to be educated by Kostre.

Intelligent and though provoking post, jmw. Thanks.

"One of these rapid developmental stages corresponded with the ages of between about 3-7. That was the age in which the brain was exploding in regards to the senses."

Dr Montessorri discovered that more than 75 years ago...she called them sensitive periods of development and trained teaches to observe and react to them.

If you have an idiotic response to volunteer such as drug use contributing to these performances, please, refrain.

Actually, suggesting drug use is far from an idiotic answer. In fact, it is arguably the most reasonable one. Occam's razor and all that.

Admittedly it is thrown around far too often and with far to little thought. But just because you don't like the maturity level of the messenger, doesn't make the message any less valid.

Having said that, I honestly do not yet believe that drug use is the reason that Bekele and Gebrselassie run so well. I still believe that the Ethiopians are clean. I am astounded as much as you are at their performances. But don't forget that while the Ethiopians currently beat the Kenyans, both groups are still light years ahead of the rest of the world.

I believe that the reason that the Ethiopians and Kenyans are so far ahead of the rest of the world is a combination of ideal climate, terrain, culture and yes, genetics (to some extent) to support running fast. I just think Ethiopia has a better combination than Kenya does.

I have hard time believing that all elite athletes are clean.

In professional cycling it is evident that many are dirty and

EPO is one of the banned substances being used.

A couple of runner have been caught too: Chepchumba, Mourhit, Boulami and perhaps Lagat.

My guess is that this is only the top of the iceberg

If I am correct, the EPO became commecially avaibable

a little before times in 5000m/10000m started to drop

significantly. This fact is of course only circumstantial

"evidence" but....

Trackhead: I agree with many of your points in general, but there are several examples of kenyans who do not have a huge

life time base of aerobic running (kipketer, Elly Rono or another who started to run to loose weight).

Cheers,

Bengel

One thing that helps is that they are "small." Have you ever looked at the top 10 lists that Track & Field News magazine puts out? The top ranking distance runners tend to be small. Supposedly, the taller you are the more dead weight you carry around because the percentage of body weight attributable to bone mass goes up exponentially as you get taller. There are exceptions like Paul Tergat, but he's really skinny and probably has really thin bones. It's funny. Geb is pretty short, but then Bekele came along and he's even shorter.

First, I agree with Vipam's points. But to add on that, the past 20-25 yrs, the country was under servere communist reperession. The people are just beginning to see the light and use athletics to advance themseleves and as well as their beloved country. One other thing is unlike Kenya, Ethiopian runners come from number of tribes - though majority of them comes from the sount. So the country has great potential for greatness

The most overlooked aspect is faith and belief. Before you get upset about this, it is NOT an argument for or against religion.

By faith and belief I mean a mindset that success is attainable if not inevitable. A young African kid sees heroes around him and decides that one day he will join them. That belief system spurs him to work hard, to deal with the pain, and make sacrifices. If you are an American, where does your motivation come from? This website? Dyestat? RW? We may have some talent that can compete but after years of hearing "the Africans are genetically superior" or "All good runners are doping" or "Caucasian's are too heavily muscled" etc. to succeed in distance running, eventually they will lose hope or just settle for being college champion or making the Trials as their pinnacle.

Let's Run is not the cause of the decline but the general negativity of the posts (plus the trash talking) towards American distance running could be contributing towards an inferiority complex. If you cannot conceive of being the best, you will not be the best.

I agree with you PR. I think that the boundaries we non African runners tend to set for ourselves are simply much slower than the boundaries a 17 year old Kenyan might consider.

Monty

"Hmmmm...maybe home schooling is our answer to catching up with the Ethiopians."

How's that going to be benificial? How long a run can it be from the bedroom to the kitchen for school everyday, 25yds max? Then back and forth to the bedroom for lunch and back again after school, the kid gets in a hundred yards a day. :)

imagine if everyone in the us that was an athlete ran. there was no football, no basketball, whatever. what if micheal vick ran the 5k.

water cooler wrote:

"Hmmmm...maybe home schooling is our answer to catching up with the Ethiopians."

How's that going to be benificial? How long a run can it be from the bedroom to the kitchen for school everyday, 25yds max? Then back and forth to the bedroom for lunch and back again after school, the kid gets in a hundred yards a day. :)

Maybe I should have made up some new term like "parental guiding" instead of home schooling. The home, and most places indoors under crummy lighting, are terrible places for the mind to be creative and open to the infinite. Let's say that today we were going to take a couple kids on a guided tour of sacred geometry, a form of mathematics that reveals the simplicity of the body's relationship to phi. We'd hike/run up the 8 miles to the top of local Mt. Baldy for that lesson. That way the body is refreshed, the mind has had several hours to have blood pumped through it that got it's oxygen from the clean air up there, and we'd find ourselves overlooking a great deal of geometric splendor below. By my tally that'd be a day with at least 16 miles on the feet, up and down a 6-10% grade, at altitude. If "classrooms" like these were a staple they'd be physically and mentally fitter than anything the public schools are turning out.

I'm beginning to think I will be somehow comparable to Poppa Marinovich, hopefully in a positive way though, and without kids dabbling in heroin.

I think what you say is right, but I think the more important issue is body weight. The human heart reaches its adult size when we are about twelve years old. This explains why there can be extraordinarily good young 1,500 meter swimmers. Swimmers can continue to grow in size without it affecting them too adversely because water renders gravity irrelevant. Running, however, is a different matter.

OBN wrote:

One thing that helps is that they are "small." Have you ever looked at the top 10 lists that Track & Field News magazine puts out? The top ranking distance runners tend to be small. Supposedly, the taller you are the more dead weight you carry around because the percentage of body weight attributable to bone mass goes up exponentially as you get taller. There are exceptions like Paul Tergat, but he's really skinny and probably has really thin bones. It's funny. Geb is pretty short, but then Bekele came along and he's even shorter.

The flexibility might work well as it does in other sports. The kid would not be stuck in "school" 8-3, instead, run, breakfast, lessons, run, lunch, nap, lessons, run, lessons, bed!