Michael Granville write a letter to his younger (1:46 HSR record) self

your not understanding what i am implying. imagine if brazier or boris had been pushed like michael since 11 yrs old? my thinking is they would have run 1:44 in hs instead. look at what brazier did in one year of college. thats what im talking about, boris as well, he was a 1:50 guy in hs and boom a 1:43 in a few years of quality coaching.

what im saying is if michael didnt have his dads coaching and maximizing his potential, through mental and physical driven fear, i see that he would have only been say a 1:54 guy. and then he goes to college and gets down to 1:46. instead his dad got him to his ultimate peak 4 years earlier. how many kenyans "with true age" have run as fast as michael did 9-12 grades?

some articles i found

looks like his dad was a 400m guy, winning the 1975 southern sectional, getting a track scholorship to nor cal, till he injured his back.

http://articles.latimes.com/1996-06-06/sports/sp-12217_1_michael-jr

http://ca.milesplit.com/articles/199322/interview-with-800m-national-record-holder-michael-granville

second article...check his PRs before he was in HS!

10.5

22

48.4

1:56.3

now i look at this and why his dad had him in the 800 is beyond me? 10.5 in 8th grade? he should have stuck with the 100! he was obea moore style but his dad forced him in the wrong event. its like making bolt do the 800. his dad was a stubborn idiot.

Granville did NOT run 10.5 in 8th grade.

Great read

His life seems like it turned out pretty well.

The responsibility, power and an impact on human life that comes with being a parent is so consistently understated. There may be nothing more important.

Ca$hclay wrote:

The responsibility, power and an impact on human life that comes with being a parent is so consistently understated. There may be nothing more important.

well in the second link in the interview the guy asks what his PR's were before he got to high school....

so either a typo and he meant 11.5 or he ran 10.5

curiuos does anyone have granville and obea age group head to head PR's from when they started? that would be awesome

Several of the times were rounded off to whole seconds, so the 200 could have been 22 something, which means his 100 was definitely over 11 seconds.

Granville was extremely talented; no amount of hate in the world is going to propel you to 1:46 in high school.

Good on you Michael for making it through with a happy family and happy life.

With a Dad pulling similar things as a young athlete I can relate. You would have rather died than disappointed your dad, or suffer the repercussions of not living up to his sometimes ridiculously high expectations.

I broke national records as a kid, a full-blown prodigy, then flamed out before HS, then came back in college and had a decent elite career. But it was a constant mental/spiritual struggle to get out of my dad's looming shadow and find that level of motivation and purpose without his conditional influence--even as an adult pro athlete. Even though he was out of my life then. It's amazing what power parents can hold over you and for how long it can pervade.

My letter to my 12 yr old self would reflect similar sentiments.

It took courage to share yours openly, and I'd bet alot of athletes who read it will be better for it.

An interesting response, copied from the Comments.

I will start by saying, I am not a fan of your letter. Sounds like you have been hurt and this is your chance to get back. You only talk about how great you were and horrible your father was. Is this a letter to the younger you or a public shaming of your father? You give your father all of the credit for being abusive, which he deserves, but no credit for what you achieved, which he deserves. You speak of your father as if the sum total of him is a tyrant. Perhaps your father was a bully and a jerk, perhaps even more so than you described, but you got his full attention. News flash, I would suspect half of African American men your age have a similar story, but without the incredible success you had. What would your story be if you had an apathetic or absentee father? Your father was present in your life; he made sure you studied; he kelp you away from bad influences; he worked a job and supported his family. Have you ever thought about all of the time, the thousands of hours, money, the thousands of dollars and energy your father invested in you…you see, nobody is all bad.

A friend of mine whose son is a retired superstar professional athlete, someone whose name we all know. I once heard the son say, what my father put me through nowadays would be called child abuse. He said that with a laugh. I also heard the son say, I didn't have a love relationship with my Dad, it was a respect relationship; however, I owe everything I achieved to my father. He put his life on hold and completely dedicated himself to me. On a separate occasion, I once heard the father say, I was obsessive and I didn't know where to draw the line between father and coach. My life was driven by making my son a great athlete. My son became a great athlete, but looking back, I wish I could exchange some of the training sessions for a few laughs and hugs. I don’t know if it’s by virtue of therapy, the passage of time or the fact that in spite of everything, this father loved his son and vice versa. I suspect it is the latter, but currently, this father and son are best friends. The father who was once a beast with his son, is the gentlest grandfather you could imagine. Lots of hugs and kisses and he refuses to coach his grandkids who are now athletes, even though the son has asked him to. I suspect on reflection, this father realizes he’s better off just loving his grandkids instead of coaching them.

This father was also a very good athlete, his career got cut short mostly because of the 1980 Olympic Boycott, then injuries and a lack of money. A lack of money which lead to a period of homelessness, while still trying to pursue his dreams as an athlete. The father also came from an abusive household, one that was far worse than what you described. Your father is not the first man to fall into the psychological trap of trying to live vicariously through their kids and some of the negative things that come along with that. (The backstory is important to help put things into perspective.) The long and short of it, there is no excuse for the way your father treated you, but people aren’t perfect. It’s much healthier to deal with a painful past by trying to make amends and move forward by not trying to necessarily rewrite the story, but giving it a happy ending. As a person with a somewhat similar story, that would be my advice to you.

TrackCoach wrote:

An interesting response, copied from the Comments.

I don't know what comments you're posting about, but not everyone comes from the same situation and is able to make peace. I don't know what Granville Sr was like, but my dad was always a terrible person and I would never justify how he was.

You have no clue wrote:

TrackCoach wrote:

An interesting response, copied from the Comments.

I don't know what comments you're posting about, but not everyone comes from the same situation and is able to make peace. I don't know what Granville Sr was like, but my dad was always a terrible person and I would never justify how he was.

I think that comment is extremely thoughtful and well written. Tons of adults have unresolved issues with their parents, but they don't publicly shame them. Making peace should be the goal because after all, they will always be your parents, you will always be their child and they will be grandparents of your children. With that being the case, why would you not want to reconcile.

There is no limit to the arrogance of the LRC poster. We know better than a former abused child how he should treat his own father.

A great battle his junior year with Aaron Richburg at CIF:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ptAGDLikTSA

TrackCoach wrote:

Tons of adults have unresolved issues with their parents, but they don't publicly shame them. Making peace should be the goal because after all, they will always be your parents, you will always be their child and they will be grandparents of your children. With that being the case, why would you not want to reconcile.

Tons of children have been sexually molested by their dads, beaten and nearly killed by them, and you're trying to justify that behavior with your comments. You need to think of what you're saying and perhaps your motivations are misplaced. Terrible people deserve to be publically shamed, held accountable, and no, I would not allow any child molesting sexual predators to be near my kids.

webby wrote:

There is no limit to the arrogance of the LRC poster. We know better than a former abused child how he should treat his own father.

Does anyone know what kind of abs and core exercises he did?

You can't take a guy who had all the class/age records and say he wasn't a talent. At the same time, both Webb (1:47.7) and Brazier (1:47 with a negative split and weak competition) could well have run significantly faster if they had in the former case the major goal of breaking the 800m record and in the latter case with more serious coaching/competition. Of course, Granville ran 1:46.45 leading the entire way with a 51 second first lap. But Brazier showed the potential to break the record in high school and then obviously ran three seconds faster than it as a freshman in college with McBride pacing him.