Is Jason Vigilante a Genius?

figured out you don't need to swat flies with a sledgehammer.

that's a big step in coaching.

ultimate whoop-ass: Webb in the 5000, and Andrews in the 1500m.

Webb Watch '12 wrote:

If, hypothetically, Alan Webb makes the Olympic team in the 1500, would it be appropriate to call Vig a coaching genius? I mean, look how far webb has come already. Sure, sure, he's incredibly talented, but he's hardly raced at all the last two years. It seemed like he was done. Now, he's at least in the discussion for London. Again, I realize he is a huge long shot, but the fact that he's even going for the "A" standard and has at least a semi-realistic shot at it, speaks volumes.

Moreover, it seems like Vig is really gearing webb toward Pre and the trials. If he has any sharpness in his legs, then he has a shot at the greatest come back since my boy Lazarus.

So a guy is a coaching genius because he got a former 1:43, 3:46, 3:30 guy to run 3:37? A 1500 time that is slower than his best HS mile time equivalent?

yes you f ucking moron. It would mean that he revived him when the world's best coach (salazar), and his former high school coach couldnt. Wake up

I think he is a genius because Robby Andrews is a beast and out kick anyone in the 800m and now transitioned to out kicking everyone in the 1500m. That has to come from good coaching.

94 degrees wrote:

So a guy is a coaching genius because he got a former 1:43, 3:46, 3:30 guy to run 3:37? A 1500 time that is slower than his best HS mile time equivalent?

No, a guy is a coaching genius (theoretically) if he can:

1. get a seemingly washed-up former phenom's head back on straight

2. get his training under control and focused

3. get his race results moving in the right direction.

Anyone can coach someone who is running well and improving all the time. It's extremely hard to reverse the momentum of someone going in the opposite direction.

For U.S. pro athletes, this is actually the beginning of the outdoor season, if you look at how a typical training cycle goes, every thing up to has training and experimenting.

Don't forget about about what he did with Virginia mid-d and Texas mid-d. He made Leo Manzano into the monster he is today. Not to mention, he coached Manzano and Hernandez to dominate NCAA outdoors by winning from the front.

94 degrees wrote:

So a guy is a coaching genius because he got a former 1:43, 3:46, 3:30 guy to run 3:37? A 1500 time that is slower than his best HS mile time equivalent?

I wouldn't say he's a genius yet, but it looks like Webb is on the right track, and the success Vig had with Manzano and now with Andrews is pretty impressive. A big part of his role with Webb is keeping him focused and "moving on" from each performance, good or bad.

Imagine the pressure that anyone who coaches Webb would have to feel. Making the Olympic final should be an absolute minimum for someone with Webb's talent.

cheesy wrote:

yes you f ucking moron. It would mean that he revived him when the world's best coach (salazar), and his former high school coach couldnt. Wake up

Alan didn't give Salazer the time. He rushed. He wasn't patience. He acted like a fool.

Oh, I agree. However, I understand the reasoning behind the leave. Sure, Salazar has had some solid success with coaching the 5k and 10k. However, he has not really had any with the 15. That being said, I do think webb would've been able to have run fast under Alberto, but he didn't hang around long enough to do so. Moreover, I respect his desire to move on, simply because he didn't have any true milers to train with. It was probably a better fit for Galen and Ritz than for Alan.

CoachFlynn wrote:

I think he is a genius because Robby Andrews is a beast and out kick anyone in the 800m and now transitioned to out kicking everyone in the 1500m. That has to come from good coaching.

Let me know when Andrews out kicks Kaki and Rudisha. He’ll have his chance soon.

Only if Webb gets the 1500 "A" then starts running the steeple.

Webb ran 3:37 early last year under Salazar and 3:37 this year in May. That's coming far?

Or was the plan to run 3:54 for a 1500 early this season, bring it down to 3:37 and make it look like improvement?

These guys get crushed by 50 meters by the Kenyans.

He invented the light bulb and worked on the mahattan project

cheesy wrote:

the world's best coach (salazar)

Oh god i can barely type ..... laughing too hard.....

Oh. You're serious?

1) Vig is a good coach.

2) So is Salazar. Webb was doing fine with Salazar as far as race times indicate.

cheesy wrote:

yes you f ucking moron. It would mean that he revived him when the world's best coach (salazar), and his former high school coach couldnt. Wake up

I literally laughed out loud at your calling Salazar "the world's best coach". What a joke. This site has too many high schoolers.

cheesy wrote:

yes you f ucking moron. It would mean that he revived him when the world's best coach (salazar), and his former high school coach couldnt. Wake up

Yes Webb went from running 3:54 to 3:37 this year. Is that good? What if Webb was training away with Vig and made his much anticipated debut to get 7th at Oxy running 3:37? Doesn't look so good does it? Perhaps the only reason he looks good is because he was running so shitty earlier, 3:37 looks great compared to 3:54 but it's still 3:37 and way off from what he's done in the past. The guy ran 3:53 in HS and has run 3:46 he is the most talented miler the US has ever had. I think Vig is a genius just not as a coach. He has the best miler in the history of the US running 3:37 and some people are thinking he's doing a good job. Anyone that can pull that off has to be a genius.

Please keep posting you're doing a great job of making me look good.