Forgive my ignorance, but who WAS coaching Bekele all these years?

Who?

He was self coached

I think Mark Wetmore had been coaching him by phone.

I have it on good authority he uses Ryan Halls coach.

I don't know his original coaches, but it's very likely Jos Hermens himself contributed a lot of advice once he was involved.

Wasn't he consulting with Dane Rauschenberg?

Shoebacca wrote:

I don't know his original coaches, but it's very likely Jos Hermens himself contributed a lot of advice once he was involved.

^ This. Plus Dr. Woldemeskel Kostre at some point in his career.

Mike Ditka

Word is that both Coach K and iCoach did some consulting with him awhile back. Not sure if they were more involved than that.

PitbuII wrote:

A fudge packer...

http://goo.gl/WgISw

That took a whole 3.5hrs. Careful, you are slipping. (For the record, that is a pic of me as the MC of a special running event. I love that pic. My troll has put it on letsrun 1000x.)

There is one post in this chain that helps. You never let me down, letsrun. Cheers.

Skuj wrote:

The move to Canova got me scratching my head about his former coach(es). I'm not finding out much as I search the internet. Help me, letsrun. Thanks.

There was a link on the letsrun home page to a news story about the preeminent Ethiopian distance coach, some old guy now, where he talks about his heart racing and getting butterflies when he sees his athletes performing and breaking into tears when he sees them win big. The dibabas came up through him and bekele is mentioned. It may be that around the time of Beijing 08 and later on, bekele became more independent and consulted a number if sources but basically directed his own program, like Wilson kip sang does now.

I don't know very much about this, but my impression was that a large number of the Ethiopians are on the same program with little to no individualized coaching. I remember reading that someone asked Bekele what made him so fast, and he said he had no idea, he did the same things as everyone else.

A lot of the Kenyans also don't have coaches. Some of them have training groups and do workouts inspired by Canova but don't really talk to him.

I don't really know what I'm talking about and would love to have an informed response, but those are sort of the impressions that I get from interviews.

"Befitting his quiet, secretive nature, Bekele spent his buildup to Chicago training with just his brother and his coach, Mersha Ashrat, in Sululta."

http://www.runnersworld.com/elite-runners/kenenisa-bekeles-wake-up-call?adbid=545300996784545793&adbpl=tw&adbpr=16031688&cid=social_20141217_37489887

Yes, it was Ashrat. This has been well known among running afficionados for quite some time. Heck, it was in RW for crying out loud.

JimmyCrackhorn wrote:

There was a link on the letsrun home page to a news story about the preeminent Ethiopian distance coach, some old guy now, where he talks about his heart racing and getting butterflies when he sees his athletes performing and breaking into tears when he sees them win big. The dibabas came up through him and bekele is mentioned.

You're probably referring to Sentayehu, who works with the youngsters in Bekoji. I don't think he keeps on coaching these people when they become world class.

you don't need a coach when you have a good dope doc

He was coached by God but decided to switch things up.

Skuj wrote:

PitbuII wrote:

A fudge packer...

http://goo.gl/WgISw

That took a whole 3.5hrs. Careful, you are slipping. (For the record, that is a pic of me as the MC of a special running event. I love that pic. My troll has put it on letsrun 1000x.)

There is one post in this chain that helps. You never let me down, letsrun. Cheers.

Skuj, enough with the "my troll" schtick. That photo of "gay Skuj" has been floating around here for years. It is ubiquitous and used my many posters.

He was self-coached. He trains on his own track that he built next to his hotel in Ethiopia. Check it out on youtube.