Can you tell by someone’s body what event they should run to be competitive??? Or if they will have success at elite leve

This method works 9 times out of ten:

Skinny - distance

Stocky and white - field

Stocky and black - sprints

Also important to look at ethnicity:

Europeans - field, middle distance and ultras

East Africans - middle/long

West Africans - sprints

South Afircans - ultras

Japanese - sprints, marathons and ultras

druns wrote:

Looking at some athlete I’m not sure how they could be competitive with their natural physique... for example Elinor Purrier looks like overachiever and seems big boned compared to other runners and I’m thinking will never win anything (same for Colleen Quigley at steeple).

Is it possible to be able to look at a runner and judge their success? And or what event would be ideal... maybe quigley would be better if she toned up and focused on 1,500?

I’m not a coach but I know there are some on this sight and am interested in your opinions.

You need to change your name to "drunk" instead of "druns", since that it what you clearly are. In what world is Colleen Quigley not toned? Besides Quigley is coming back from injury and finished 3rd at the US Champs behind the winner and runner-up of the last World Champs. I think she is doing just fine.

Colleen looks heavier compared to other women in the steeple... she is a great runner but I just don’t think with that body she will be a top three steeplechaser in international competition. Hope I’m wrong.

This Will trigger the SJWs wrote:

This method works 9 times out of ten:

Skinny - distance

Stocky and white - field

Stocky and black - sprints

Also important to look at ethnicity:

Europeans - field, middle distance and ultras

East Africans - middle/long

West Africans - sprints

South Afircans - ultras

Japanese - sprints, marathons and ultras

Not quite true. Not all of these regions or countries have a population with the same body type. Even Kenya has had good 400 meterrunners and hurdlers and javelin throwers. South Africans have excelled in the sprints and short middle distance events. Scandinavians have had some good sprinters and Italians, Spaniards, Balkan born athletes and Scandinavians are very different.

However, often you can successfully look at an individual and point him/her to or away from an event.

There are 3 different types of frame -

big frame - runners like Solinsky, Mottram, Purrier, True, etc.

average frame - most runners

small frame - KoKo, Jager, Kiprop, Geb, etc.

There is a test, where you use your left hands index finger and thumb to wrap it around the right wrist - if it overlaps, it indicates small frame, if it just touches, average, if the fingers don't even connect very big frame.

Why is this important? Because the ideal weight is different for each athlete based on his frame. A small framed runner needs to be 5-10 lbs below the ideal weight of an average frame runner, and a big frame runner needs to be 5-10 lbs above ideal weight.

One of the schools I coach against has a top-3 in the state 400m girl who:

A) also runs the 100 and 200, but not nearly as well as she does in the 400,

B) runs her 400's with a "kick" (such as it were, in a sprint race), and

C) is skinny as a stick.

If she were on my team, I'd at least have her try the 800. She's probably going to win state next year in the 400, but I'm surprised her coach doesn't look at the above and think, "800m national elite."

Ectomorphs make the best distance runners.

The old communist countries used too do test to see what the kids best sports would be, not sure on what the test consisted of. If you could find that info, I would go with that.

LateRunnerPhil wrote:

There is a test, where you use your left hands index finger and thumb to wrap it around the right wrist - if it overlaps, it indicates small frame, if it just touches, average, if the fingers don't even connect very big frame.

What authority developed that nonsensical so-called test? My index finger and thumb are a good half inch apart if I try it -and my wrist is only 6.5 inches around- and I'm 5'4" and 123 pounds. I guess I have a "very big frame."

Steve Caution wrote:

LateRunnerPhil wrote:

There is a test, where you use your left hands index finger and thumb to wrap it around the right wrist - if it overlaps, it indicates small frame, if it just touches, average, if the fingers don't even connect very big frame.

What authority developed that nonsensical so-called test? My index finger and thumb are a good half inch apart if I try it -and my wrist is only 6.5 inches around- and I'm 5'4" and 123 pounds. I guess I have a "very big frame."

That’s what she said!

No question about it. wrote:

Ectomorphs make the best distance runners.

Was Chris Solinsky an ectomorph? Was Craig Mottram one? Both are among the exclusive group of western, white runners who broke sub 13 in a 5k (Solinsky even ran sub 27 in 10k). Allie Kiefer also ran great marathon times and there are plenty of examples.

The thing is there are way more ectomorphs in running than mesomorphs. Many mesomorphs, or rather people with naturally large frames go for sports like football or baseball where the incentive is much higher (bigger salaries, better reputation, etc). An ectomorph can't do nearly as many sports as the larger framed people can (they would be destroyed in a college football game by the bigger guys), so many end up in endurance sports.

Kenyan's said about Solinsky when he was the only white with them competing in championships that he got the biggest engine/heart of all of them. They respected him despite his size and body type. That means something when someone gets credit from a group of other sub 13 runners.

"Was Chris Solinsky an ectomorph? Was Craig Mottram one?"

Yes.

Steve Caution wrote:

LateRunnerPhil wrote:

There is a test, where you use your left hands index finger and thumb to wrap it around the right wrist - if it overlaps, it indicates small frame, if it just touches, average, if the fingers don't even connect very big frame.

What authority developed that nonsensical so-called test? My index finger and thumb are a good half inch apart if I try it -and my wrist is only 6.5 inches around- and I'm 5'4" and 123 pounds. I guess I have a "very big frame."

This test may say more about the length of your fingers than the size of your frame. Although it works for me. I'm 5'5" and 116 pounds and not at all skinny, but I have a very small bone structure. And my index finger overlaps my thumb by a good half-inch in that test.

Usain Bolt was supposedly too tall

Easier to tell what they aren't going to be competitive at than what they will be competitive at.

Currently one of the best European 800/1500 runners:

https://media.aws.iaaf.org/media/LargeL/ecb704e6-5e35-409c-89b5-87a246479cf0.png?v=1493827282

On the HS level I think you can tell pretty quickly who is going to be good and who is not. That has very little bearing on whether they are going to make it to be an elite runner, by the time to get to the top level of HS and into college the body types are all very very similar.

NotPC wrote:

On the HS level I think you can tell pretty quickly who is going to be good and who is not. That has very little bearing on whether they are going to make it to be an elite runner, by the time to get to the top level of HS and into college the body types are all very very similar.

But I see some elites with body types that don’t meet the mold... like Purrier who I’m thinking will not be competitive. Do you agree? Are there any other athletes that won’t be competitive or should t be competitive due to body type but are?

druns wrote:

NotPC wrote:

On the HS level I think you can tell pretty quickly who is going to be good and who is not. That has very little bearing on whether they are going to make it to be an elite runner, by the time to get to the top level of HS and into college the body types are all very very similar.

But I see some elites with body types that don’t meet the mold... like Purrier who I’m thinking will not be competitive. Do you agree? Are there any other athletes that won’t be competitive or should t be competitive due to body type but are?

Outliers do exist. Seko had thick AF calves. How many marathoners have calves his size and run 2:08 for the thon?