Few Tips about Track And Field Coaching
Many youngsters nowadays wonder for what it takes to be good in the competition on the field and what inspires the coaches to consider them as potential part of the college athletics teams. Athletics are usually considered among the disciplines where one
can easily find tons of great athletes who usually leave little room for the rivals to look forward to have the few scholarships offered by the colleges each year. Before dwelling upon the tips which would help the athletes to have the attention of the coaches,
here, first we would like to make a comparison of some of the best college athletes in both men’s and women’s category.
While starting to think about initiating a career in athletics, youngsters usually have LaShwan Merritt, Sanya Richards and Dwight Phillips in their minds. LaShawn Merritt, who took only 44.50 seconds to cover the distance of 400m, was a rare talent. Merritt
made it to bag gold medal at 2008 Beijing Olympics, where he had beaten the world number one Jeremy Wariner. Wariner, who was not capable of competing into this year’s nationals, has been reported to say that he was waiting for the right moment to sneak in
all over again and to overdo Merritt. Merritt on the other hand is trying to level the record of worlds and America’s number one Michael Johnson who crossed the 400m finishing line in mere 43.18 seconds in 1999.
Among women athletes, Sanya Richards has the record of making it to the finishing line in 400m race in 50.05 seconds. Through this performance of hers looks rather impressive, but she is far behind her previous record of 48.70 seconds depicted in 2006. Richards
has the privilege to hold American high school record of 50.69 seconds depicted in 2002. From this one can depict that what progress she has made in 7 long years (64 one hundredth of a second faster than 7 years earlier).
Dwight Philips, another big name won the long jump with an impressive heap of 8.57 meters. He made it to the gold medal at Athens Olympics in 2004; currently he is trying to chase the world record of Mike Powell which is 8.95 meters, depicted in 1991.
What coaches around the globe feel about the competitions both on “field and track” is that speed is something which is GOD gifted. However, one can significantly enhance one’s talent with proper training and coaching. On the contrary, if one cannot make
it to 100m distance in 12 seconds, even the best coaches around the globe cannot help one to cover the distance in 10 seconds.
Arthur Lydiard, who is considered the best distance running coach in the world, once came up with really interesting thoughts over the matter when he said that the important factors which determine your ultimate speed are your build, weight and leg length.
However, these factors prove to be of little help if you do not have the ability to initially cover 200m in 26 seconds. If you do not have the innate ability to run fast, no training in the world can make you the world champion.
Giving examples from the real life Lydiard said that Murray Halberg’s best time for 200 meters was 25 seconds while he covered 800 meters in 1.52 minutes in which he had run flat out all the way and depicted his best speed ever. It was that the athlete could
not run any faster however, he had an impressive stamina after finishing with 800m once, he could run another just as fast again. Laying the foundational standards, the coach said that an athlete who can run 200m in 22.5 seconds, he is fast enough to become
Olympic champion in 800m, provided that he has the stamina.
“On the contrary”, said the coach, “if you can hardly make it to 400m in one minute, hopes for you to succeed in 800m are pretty low, no matter what you do.”
While concluding his remarks Lydiard said that athletes and coaches usually do not give considerable importance to the basic speed, as a result many runners are selected for the distances which they can never master. Having foot speed would do more than
anything else to put an athlete on the top of the podium.
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