Joining the pantheon of Ben’s “coaches” like John Davies, I just ran across a lecture presented at a seminar in Tokyo in Nov of 1987, in which a certain G Okaka, a “Polish specialist working in Canada” and CONSULTING WITH JOHNSON divulged:
“Ben’s entire preparation was geared towards his duel with Carl Lewis…blah, blah, blah…
Using a system of electronic timing and dynamometric starting blocks to record the force and time parameters of the movement, THEY ascertained Johnson’s optimal starting position…blah,blah, blah.”
Who the fuck is this guy? Figuring out how he should start? Don’t you think he already knew how to start? This nimrod goes on to say a spacing of 1 to 1.5 footlengths from the line and .8 footlengths to the back block was chosen! Jesus! What bullshit! Didn’t this guy even find a snapshot to see what he was actually doing before shooting his mouth? If he was crammed in like that, he’d fall over!
Electronic timing and dynamometric devices? Hey! This is Canada we’re talking about. I had a stopwatch on my timex.
Tried to google this guy but they don’t look under rocks yet.
Wow, for that guy to out-renegade Davies is an impressive feat.
Where were you, Charlie, when all this super-scheming was going on? I’m surprised Ben had the time or energy to work with this “expert”.:rolleyes:
Perhaps this was done in the Seoul wt. room(that does not exist)where the heavy squats were done prior to the final?
This was after Rome apparently and written up in a soviet review. I’m surprised no one mentioned this presentation to any of us at the time as we had a lot of contacts in Japan.
It also serves as a warning not to accept everything you read in publications unless it makes sense to you.
What’s the deal with the Ben lifting weights after the semifinal at Seoul? I’ve now had 3 coaches who were there tell me they saw him do this but I swear Charlie has said a few times that this wasn’t the truth?
I’m not surprized at all, its tough being at the top with so many bottom feeders down below.
Rupert
CharlieFrancis.com
You dont need an electronic block, FAT machine, or reaction device, to have a good start. I already had a great start before I had any of this stuff. WHEN I first started trying to figure out my optiminum starting stance, my start got WORSE. When I tossed the machine and went naturally, I came out 1000x better.
One start fits all. We should all know that this is novice talk.
Great quote Pioneer! You had me laughing out of my office chair.
The time between SF and F was only about 90min or so and there were no weights at the warm-up track. It didn’t happen and anyone who says it did is full of shit.
You need a good story to insert yourself into a picture you had no part in.
Did that technology even exist in the 80s? Haha. What a loser. I just reckon if you make running TOO technical, its not going to work out for you. Its a natural motion.
I mean to train a sprinter is advanced stuff, but its not like your trying to build a fucking time machine…
It was published in a soviet review so watch what you accept as gospel
Shee… that track must have been pretty crowded back then. 
Very true, often people make the mistake of reading publications and assuming them to be true. The most accurate publications come under scrutiny of peer reviews. In this case the authenticity of the claims where not verified by source.
Did Yessis give this to you:)
Yes, he was the editor of this review. Never spoken to him or met him.
Charlie, I read an article in Athletics Coach about the use of dynamos to set Ben’s block settings in 1996-98 it may have been by this guy but I am not sure all I remember is that it claimed to show how to training for the acceleration phase… I think the article was written in 1987-88. There are numerous articles by people who claim to have worked with Ben, they never seem to mention you.
They don’t mention me- and they sure don’t come around me either. There’s no doubt these charletans are getting paid to make this stuff up. Hosts of seminars must know this is BS and one can only assume they’re getting a kickback from the BS presenter(s).
I suppose you could look at it as the downside of success.
Martn76,
Can you list these clowns by name for us? I’d really appreciate it.
Its that time of year again.
Rupert
CharlieFrancis.com
Problem is- are they real names or fronts? There’s nothing I could find to show that there’s anyone named Okaka out there. I also find it very hard to believe that a seminar could have been held in Japan- our biggest market at the time- and it not getting back to us.
When Gambetta got a seminar with BB Canada a few years ago, representing himself as " the Head Strength and Conditioning Coach for the Chicago Bulls" it got back to Al Vermiel in a hell of a hurry! Al called the federation to raise hell but after the first call demanding an explanation, the Fed stopped taking his calls, strongly indicating that they were part of the fraud.
We had a sub-agent in Japan and were alerted to several scams there in the fall of 1987 but this was not one of them, leading me to suspect there was no such seminar and it was just more BS from the publication.