Great topic!
I couldn’t help but laugh when I saw MSO’s reply :eek:
I was also thinking that just because we don’t have Mike Powell and Carl Lewis banging away at the 29ft+ line today, are our coaches any less knowledgeable about long jump than back in the 90s. Clearly not.
The science underlying coaching principles is so much more advanced than ever before. And it is so much more accessible, especially due to the internet. So the dissemination of information is potentially enormous.
But it doesn’t mean the greatest talent always finds it’s way to the greatest coach or the most appropriate coach.
Different societies also develop at different rates.
The way our children play today may be different, less wild and “native” than it was when I was a kid, for sure in my own case. When I was little I would spend hours climbing every tree, every rocky cliff anywhere within walking distance of my parents’ home. Now I have kids of my own and I’ve never seen either of them up a tree, clambering from branch to branch. And chances are I’d be tempted to order them down for fear they’d kill themselves.
But running free and getting into physically challenging positions must surely help with proprioception and the ability to express power. Maybe in our increasingly sophisticated western society many of our kids have lost that quality.
And in some other societies perhaps it’s more a case of a lack of opportunity - as ever - due to socio-economic issues. Wouldn’t you love to take some of the superbly-framed west African sprinters and transplant them into a supportive, nurturing environment where they could be liberated just to train for their event(s).