Altis is for jumpers, fair to say that many ideas Pfaff puts forward are not consistent with the laws of Physics. Well according to him they might be, as he appears to be someone who re-writes the laws of physics to suit his own ideologies.
Ameer Webb, who ran 9.90 (+2.4, equaling the wind aided time Gatlin ran in Nassau) and legal 19.91 at Mt. Sac, is with ALTIS. Given Pfaffâs track record, I would not have any question about having him as a coach, but ALTIS has a large number of athletes, and access to the âcrown jewelsâ would be something I would be concerned about. For example, Hannah Cunliffeâs progression at Oklahoma while being coached by Kevin Tyler before he left for ALTIS was not exactly awe inspiring. I just donât think you can create an âelite athlete factoryâ. You need an elite coach for a reason.
Andre de Grasse is scheduled to compete in the 200 at the Jamaica International next weekend.
Cherry picking athletes that do well doesnât really respond to my criticism. Which is based on Pfaffâs ideologies on sprint mechanics. I have watched many of this presentations and many of his views are not consistent with the laws of Physics.
When a athlete is accelerating, the joints undergo angular or rotational acceleration. This is accomplished by angular force (torque) exerted at multiple joints. At ground contact, this torque takes the form of a force acting backward, pushing against the ground, depending on ground strike relative to the athlete.
Essentially Pfaff inappropriately makes a number of claims on cueâs and adjustments to limb position that can significantly change vectors. Which is simply not true.
Examples ?
It seems this signature arm swing really helped him in his 19.5x, thus from using it at that very high elite level, Iâd assume that pattern is with him for good and justifiably so(for the betterment of his sick âsuck up other runners techniqueâ)
In the sun angel 200m he only used it until 140-150m, then geared down with the shorter arm takeback
Not sure if this has been mentioned so pardon if its a rerun
Dan Pfaff is NOT working directly with degrasse, stuart mcmillan is the coach. Dan doesnât really coach sprinters anymore. Heâs focused on jumps. Thatâs not to say that some of his people donât run races or relays for their nation, but Andreas and Stuart are the lead instructors, trainers, for 100-200 and hurdles. This is not a critique of Dan, because DAn is one of the best.
STill I firmly believe an athlete of degrasseâs level can make demands in a contract that they keep the coach. Iâm assuming he could have stayed at USC to train professionally like Carl and Leroy did with their former college coach Tom Tellez, houston universityâs coach.
Michael Johnson kept clyde hart at baylor, his college coach too.
I think it was a big mistake for Degrasse to change coaches. It doesnât matter who is supposed to be 'better". Once you find what works for you, stay with it. Glen Mills and Usain bolt have a certain interaction about them that leads to success, as a partnership⌠a chemistry, hard to probably put into words, but once Bolt went to Glen it clicked. Maybe for some that wouldnât work, but for them it does. Same thing with Degrassed and Caryl Gilbert. Shes a great coach anyway.
I hope Degrasse has a great year. But I think it was a big risk, and frankly a stupid one. You ran 9.7 winda aided and 9.9 legal, 19.5 in the 200m, how much more will a coach who âknows what theyre doingâ get you to by 21 yr old? the environment was working. Why change?
Our sport is a fantastic one without any doubt at all. The things I know for sure is that athletes in this sport generally lack a bigger picture view of what is and has been going on in the sport and for good or bad these ideas need to be considered when looking for success in their running both short and longer term.
Glen Mills has been around for a long time and has been very successful. Bolt is a talent you only see every so often in one generation. Time needs to meet chance on several levels for an athlete and when you start waving large sums of money around, money that most people have never seen before it becomes difficult to think straight unless a plan was already in place before the big money happened.
Also who is in charge? And was that person in charge from the beginning? Lewis stuck by the people who developed him. We are not able to say that about everyone and this story I know too well.
exactlyâŚ
And how would your opinion change if a sponsor dropped an $11 million check on your kitchen table? I think thatâs the issue here. Andre and Caryl Smith-Gilbert HAD a plan that involved staying in school, getting his degree, going to the Olympics and THEN signing a contract. But given the conditions where Puma had a lot of money to spend given that Bolt was retiring, if you wait for the Olympics, that money might be there. I would have done almost the same thing.
But if I was going to leave Smith-Gilbert, I would have tried to go with Glen Mills, instead of the coach that Dwain Chambers dumped for Rana Reider.
Sure, he can make the demand but the shoe company does not have to give in to the demand and in this case PUMA insisted he go with Altis. Iâve heard this story now from two separate sources that it was not ADâs choice to leave CSG.
I agree that at least in the short term it was probably not a great move-donât change going into an Olympic year in particular. Thatâs not to say he wonât be successful this year but changing coaches in an Olympic year after a great prior season was a huge risk.
I know nothing about Andre DeGrasse so the following refers to no one in particular.
In terms of T&F, my involvement with a World and Olympic Gold medalist was as a consultant. Thus, I did not meet the athlete in person. In terms of NFL and Rugby, however, I have had enough personal time with professional athletes to know that it is a diamond in the rough to find a chronological younger person (late teens early twenties) who has been properly influenced in their development to possess a broad world view, and urged to seek the objective truth in all things void of bias. For this reason, the reality is that the vast majority of athletes simply have no clue as to the objective truth of their situation at any given time.
Thus, even at a distance, there is nothing controversial in stating that most athletes (and people in general) who are part of highly controversial decision making, rarely uncover the objective truth prior to making the decision.
Lastly, to the best of my knowledge, no athlete of the modern era has been forced to sign a contract at gun point. Thus, regardless of failure or not to discover the objective truth, he or she who signs on the dotted line is accountable.
Lastly, to the best of my knowledge, no athlete of the modern era has been forced to sign a contract at gun point. Thus, regardless of failure or not to discover the objective truth, he or she who signs on the dotted line is accountable.
So true!! Well said.
Letâs try and put ourselves in DeGrasseâs shoes and imagine what we would have done if weâd been offered a lot of money to train with coaches that produced five individual medalists at the last world championships and the two best (non-disqualified) sprinters our country has ever had.
How about this?
âDear Puma, My coach Caryl Gilbert has gotten me to the point you are inspired to offer me a lot of money, because iâm one of the best in the world. If you like my level of excellence I would suggest to you that it has to do with what Iâm doing at USC facilities and in our training methodologies. If you want me to continue to be this excellent-- so that you get the most out of your sponsorship-- I should stay with what works so we take no risks in having that be disturbed. I want to be the best I can be for me, and for Puma. Caryl and I have a system down pat to make it happen. I do not want to switch coaches, and really, you donât actually want me to either if you think about it, since the coach I have is a large reason youâre talking to me in the first place. As part of my contract I want to stay with this coach, and you should pay her a monthly stipend for her workâ
Sharmer,
Would like to hear you expand on Dan Pfaff as well. Curious how someone at such a high level could get it wrong? I can't expound on angular velocities and the like so hoping you can keep it simple.It could be âwrongâ is ârightâ
DAn got most of his ideas from Tom Tellez. Tellez got most of his ideas from Geoffrey Dysonâs Book âMechanics of Athleticsâ. It traces back to solid ideasâŚ
howeverâŚ
I think what coaches say sometimes is deliberately different than every single physics principle. Coaching is about the proprioception of the the athlete. One can say or recommend cues which are simplifications, or over exaggerations , either way, in order to get angular motions and forces / fulcrums etc of the anatomy to work within a certain efficiency
Thereâs a MAJOR difference between documenting what happens during a sprint, and what you tell someone to inspire them to move according to that standard of form
I think Dan, Charlie, Kersee, John Smith , Glen Mills, et al the effective coaches are good at saying things in ways that may not be exactly scientifically perfect, but get the athlete closer to scientific patterning⌠Iâve seen people who can talk all types of amazing facts about running movement yet canât motivate an athlete and cant get an athlete to run smoothly, rhythmically and in the right angle/position/leverages⌠Sometimes telling them things that are actually a departure from pure physics is necessary to change the athletes perception as a catalyst for biomechanical effiency and competitive fires
If a sponsor dropped 11 million in front of me I would hope that I had the sense of what all of that meant. I would hope that if I did not have experience to fully understand what that kind of financial asset that was in terms of it working for me for the rest of my life than my next hope would be I surrounded myself with people who had my best interests at heart or had my back. Once you have to purchase someone to have your back will it be the same?
This young super star is the real deal already. The combination of having seemingly unlimited money and so much talent is the idea that you are insulated from the realities of how things work. Is this happening? Or does the pressure escalate? And then what?
I hope he has taken most of the money and set it aside so itâs earning 5 to 9 percent, he is spending little and working his ass off to win the Olympics. The other thing would be to use the small amount he sets aside to make sure those helping him are looked after as well.
We can all be critics and cynics.
Hopefully his is having the time of his life, working hard and itâs all good.
At the very moment you might like to get in under the radar, all of a sudden EVERYONE has a comment and concern and now we will just wait and see what happens.
Itâs a good test to see just how relaxed this guy really is as all that money just made things a whole lot more complicated.
Thoughtful and reasonable and less risky and it makes sense. Big companies donât specialize in these attributes however. For that reason it makes me wonder what exactly Puma wanted by sending him to Arizona?
David Rudisha trains at his high school dirt track in Kenya with his high school coach, in the Rift Valley. Heâs the world record holder and has a huge endorsement deal. Maybe Iâm wrong but theres too many examples of people not changing coaches after school