They built a statue to him in Portsea, yet many runners particularly great runners wanting great technical advise, felt they got nothing from him according to the author of "Why Die".
The other great coaches are known for their training techniques.
Why was Cerutty considered a great coach in our sport? Passion? Spirituality? His odd personality?
Have you ever had the chance to watch films of Herb Elliott racing?
Or you can read
'The Golden Mile' written by Alan Trengove (Cassel & Company Ltd, 1961)if you can still find it in print.
You are correct that Cerutty was a little "eccentric" but whatever he did as a coach with Herb Elliott certainly worked. Watching Elliott run was sheer poetry.
one word: herb.
It's hard to figure out besides Herb Elliott, why would a statue of the man have been put up in Portsea. Although I found Why Die an absolutely amazing book about a very wild man.
I was sort of thinking about Rasputin while I was reading about his effect on people.
There were a number of great athletes who visited Portsea more than once. If the guy didn't know what he was doing why did they keep going back? I spoke with a number of athletes who trained with Perc. To a man they all said that he was a "whacko" but he made them better athletes. There is no question that he was years ahead of his time on training theory , nutrition, sports psych, etc.
I went to Australia to train under Perc myself, but as luck would have it, he passed away before I got there.
He foresaw that by now, milers would be running under 3:00 with 30-foot strides. Without his influence, would world-class runners all be training on sand dunes and be imitating animals? He took that no-talent Herb Elliot, and made him a world-beater. Truly a head of his time, if you catch my drift.
It wasn't just Elliott, though really, what else would you need? There was Don MacMillan, Merv Lincoln, Albie Thomas and a few others who I can't recall. Les Perry, maybe?
Great technical advice is in books. Even in those days there was some. Elliott always said he'd never have accomplished what he did without Cerutty.
That said, he wasn't, apparently, for everyone. He was a shameless self promoter and there were problems between him and guys like John Landy and Ron Clarke. But no other Australian has coached as many world class middle and long distance runners as he did.
While travelling in Aus last year, I took a side trip to Portsea. There's absolutely nothing I could find anywhere in town commemorating Percy, Herb, or any other the boys from Portsea. Kind of sad, really.
yeah 'why die' answers all, in my mind he gave pretty much nothing as far as training theory goes apart from periodisation, but his motivating effect was massive and an ideal life coach for his athletes
'only the fit are fearless'
I read a book about him that RunGuru lent me...I would have to agree he was years ahead of his time..and somethings he perhaps still is
A few of this techniques that come to mind:
an emphasis on off track training
an emphasis on stamina running
an emphasis on changing speed while training
an emphasis on making entire musculature strong
an emphasis on resistance running - hills/sand
an emphasis on 6 months background work, 3 months race prep., and 3 months peak race season
an emphasis on eating natural foods
an emphasis on the psychology of running in tandem with the physiology of running
an emphasis on the athlete being a thinking athlete - looking not to the coach for every bit of advice, but taking what he needs from the coach, and then looking to himself to produce the finished product.
yes PASSION the ability to motivate is the greatest asset a coach can have. And he inspired his runners to train their butts off.