Bowerman athletes all broken

Frerichs and Houlihan are the only two athletes to survive Jerry’s ridiculous coaching. You either break or run very well.

Quigley, Infeld, Grace, and Cragg have been injured consistently. Jager and Lomong have also had hiccups this year and the last few years.

Ryan Hill has been pretty banged-up since 2016.

Derrick and Bumbalough have spent more time injured under Jerry than they have healthy.

Centro currently hurt. So are Hughes and Mo Ahmed.

Woody Kincaid has been broken most of his time at Bowerman.

Shalane is hurt and this may end her career.

German Fernandez was always injured but going to BTC certainly didn’t help.

Tegenkamp was always injured under Jerry. Jerry also broke Elliot Heat, Simon Bairu and Chris Solinsky.

BTC is ridiculous at this point. Jerry takes on so many athletes, throws them all at a wall, and runs whoever doesn't shatter. He's got like 15 women at this point and many at the same distance, most of whom are hurt. Only 2-3 non-marathoners of his have been successful. That's quite a high failure/injury rate.

London just announced Chris Derrick has withdrawn.

Why single out Bowerman? They are one of the largest groups of world class (mostly) American runners ever assembled. Is this a symptom of training? Or that we’ve followed so many of these athletes for years, whereas a decade-plus ago many would have completely faded off the map much earlier in their career.

So who are we comparing their proneness to injury to? Smaller groups or individual pros? That is a bit unfair unless you count every runner that stopped running due to injuries. I bet the time BTC runners spend injured is average, but many may fight through it due to contract requirements or other lofty goals/expectations where many others would completely hang them up.

The other question may be the impact 4 years in the college system have. Are there residual issues our runners experience from 3 big seasons each year during an important time of physical maturation?

Too many athletes. Which means not enough individual attention and coaching. Things start to slip though the cracks. Infighting ensues as resources become limited. In turn, limited communication issues only compound things.

It was just a matter of time.

WhyThough? wrote:

We know injuries are apart of the game of high performance running but lordy... if there is one program that has the most injuries its the Bowerman group. Is there seriously no control by the coaches? Is all eggs against the wall with extremely talented athletes? The injuries keep occuring

Percentage-wise, the NOP is way worse over the last year. They had Hasay and Rupp hurt at the same time.

For what it's worth, we all look pretty stupid trying to pretend we would do things better than Jerry has over the last few years.

Hejdjsdj wrote:

Frerichs and Houlihan are the only two athletes to survive Jerry’s ridiculous coaching. You either break or run very well.

Quigley, Infeld, Grace, and Cragg have been injured consistently. Jager and Lomong have also had hiccups this year and the last few years.

Ryan Hill has been pretty banged-up since 2016.

Derrick and Bumbalough have spent more time injured under Jerry than they have healthy.

Centro currently hurt. So are Hughes and Mo Ahmed.

Woody Kincaid has been broken most of his time at Bowerman.

Shalane is hurt and this may end her career.

German Fernandez was always injured but going to BTC certainly didn’t help.

Tegenkamp was always injured under Jerry. Jerry also broke Elliot Heat, Simon Bairu and Chris Solinsky.

Solinsky broke because he tripped over his dog going down stairs. Get your fact straight.

You guys don't realize it most of the time, but most of the pros are almost always nursing something. They train a lot harder than most of us, they are sore a lot. They are always pushing the envelope. I bet at Boston this last week about 50% of the pros had aches and pains and weren't 100% on the line.

Jerry Fraud wrote:

BTC is ridiculous at this point. Jerry takes on so many athletes, throws them all at a wall, and runs whoever doesn't shatter. He's got like 15 women at this point and many at the same distance, most of whom are hurt. Only 2-3 non-marathoners of his have been successful. That's quite a high failure/injury rate.

He can't coach all those athletes. You need to pay attn to them. Injury rates can be reduced this way. Jerry is going for the bonus money he gets from landing runners on World and Olympic teams.

Thanks Dobert

WhyThough? wrote:

We know injuries are apart of the game of high performance running but lordy... if there is one program that has the most injuries its the Bowerman group. Is there seriously no control by the coaches? Is all eggs against the wall with extremely talented athletes? The injuries keep occuring

Great performance at World XC.

... it's gotta be the SHOES! (full eye roll)

NOP has (obviously) had some major injury setbacks (including Centro, he's just transferring his injury to another camp).

Larger teams will have larger volumes of injury reports (especially at this level), and let's not forget that many teams will intentionally hide setbacks due to injury. Not saying BTC isn't leading the pack at this point, but it's also possible that many of these BTC injuries are relatively minor and Jerry (and I'm sure his athletes have a say in the matter as well) is taking extra caution now to avoid missing the big show(s) later in the season.

You can deflect this however you want but when you zero in on bowerman group... the injuries are outrageous and consistent. There seems to be a strong family unit which keeps them in, no were else to go, but if you want to stay within the group you have to accept you will get hurt, alot. History has shown. great team culture is apparently worth all of the injuries from over working the athletes. You hear the stories from every athlete, how you have to survive the first 1-2 years of the massive workload increase because you settle in. kate grace is an example of drowning in the workload. IF, IF you can adapt to the workload you may be successful. jorgensen is another example. went to the program as a low volume runner, kept whining about needing more miles, and then poof, she's constantly hurt and runs a terrible marathon and seems like shes only gotten slower since her low 15 indoor 5k. jerry gets alot of talent so of course he will get results and look like a genius, but he breaks almost every single one, and when you follow the group long enough. it doesnt reflect well on his approach.

the phrase, "every pro runner is nursing something" is such a lame acceptance of crappy coaching.

take out the bias and fanboying and look at the facts. injury injury injury

Solinsky's dog was just the straw that broke the camel's back. He was already having hamstring problems that year (dropped out of the Pre Classic 10k, got pushed out of the Monaco 5k by 110 pound Imane Merga, etc.)

rare wrote:

WinnytheBish wrote:

Solinsky broke because he tripped over his dog going down stairs. Get your fact straight.

You guys don't realize it most of the time, but most of the pros are almost always nursing something. They train a lot harder than most of us, they are sore a lot. They are always pushing the envelope. I bet at Boston this last week about 50% of the pros had aches and pains and weren't 100% on the line.

Solinsky's dog was just the straw that broke the camel's back. He was already having hamstring problems that year (dropped out of the Pre Classic 10k, got pushed out of the Monaco 5k by 110 pound Imane Merga, etc.)

I don't know why people think injuries come all of a sudden. Chris admitted to pushing way to hard after his surgery.

I'll give you a hint... NOP (a.k.a. Salazar) had Rupp, Hasay, and Centro all seriously injured at the same time. By your "logic," that makes Salazar a fucking idiot!

Not a BTC/Jerry fanboy... but I will point out that writing a larger paragraph isn't going to mask the lack of substance or objectivity behind your unjustified bias. What you are dismissing as bias, ignorance, or just good 'ol fashioned fandom is, in reality, experience and objective reasoning. I wonder... when the injury % (relative to team size and competition level) shifts to another squad, and it most certainly will... you going to start a new thread about how shitty their coach is?

Lets all put our blinders on and ignore it.

PS: Salazar is a fucking idiot. Rubbing T on his son... FUCKING IDIOT

Cool Story wrote:

Lets all put our blinders on and ignore it.

PS: Salazar is a fucking idiot. Rubbing T on his son... FUCKING IDIOT

Yes... Salazar is an idiot, and a pathetic cheat (in my opinion), but that's not the point here.

Who's ignoring "it"... what, injuries? Not starting a LR thread to single out one coach/program doesn't mean its being ignored, or that I (we) don't care. There's no conspiracy or failure of conscious going on here.

These collectives/teams are relatively new to the US system, but training related injuries are most certainly not. Having these athletes in "camps" increases the appearance of clusters, but the injuries would be occurring just the same (if not more) if these athletes were on their own or in two to three person training groups (as in the 80's 90's). That, and obviously a portion of these athletes would have ended their careers without the rehabilitation resources available under the new collective training camps.

I don't see this as a coaching issue (directly anyway), but a corporate issue... Corporate Nike is driving this runaway train, not the coaches.

A more relevant discussion would be to discuss the injury rates of US athletes, under our current "camp" system as a whole. Not to single out one coach/program as if the others aren't experiencing the same injury issues elsewhere, or even (relatively) higher attrition rates. As a coach, I am frustrated that Rupp, Hasay, Centro, (BTC et al) are failing to remain healthy and consistent... there's a collective problem, and why not turn our attention to the real elephant in the room? That would be Nike snatching up our best talents with $$$ and marketing, only to watch them fall on the corporate sword with injury after injury.

Glad we all agree Salazar is a cheating idiot.