Having watched Su dip under 10 seconds, and with a couple of Chinese sprinters looking like on a good day they could potentially reach the 100m final in Beijing in August, I was wondering if anyone knew much about what the Chinese sprinters were doing? I have heard due to the political state of China, that possibly they train hundreds of athletes with a huge workload, and the strongest survive, but I don’t know how accurate that source is. Can anyone offer any insight?
Randy Huntington (Mike Powell’s coach) has been working with Chinese sprinters/jumpers according to this article.
http://www.training-conditioning.com/content/catching-randy-huntington
Linked below is an old article by him also from T & C mag.
http://training-conditioning.com/sites/default/files/TheUltimateInSpeed1991.pdf
Taken from the most recent article “I hope we improve communication among sports coaching staffs, strength and conditioning coaches, and sports medicine personnel.”
When I wrote “Programme Management…” in 2012 the first person I sent it to was Dan Pfaff. He messaged me back stating that he was forwarding it to his global network of over 300 coaches. Apparently not many of them were in China haha.
Interestingly, Val Nasedkin (of Omegawave) gave me Randy’s cell number in 2004 because I was coaching an unattached long jumper with some real talent. In my stubbornness to do things my way, however, I never ended up contacting Randy. No doubt a mistake on my end.
Interesting to see him mention the “pawback” in the article from 91. I suspect that’s one biomechanical viewpoint that he’d explain differently at present.
My understanding of the Chinese sports system, in general, is that they took a long look at what the USSR was doing as well as other great sport nations of that time (East Germany and others) and put together the current model based in talent identification/selection, specialization, sports nutrition/medicine/restoration. I’ve read some documents over recent years that also explain how poorly the nation has treated medalists after their competitive careers are over. The early specialization of many of the athletes, at least in part, excludes proper education from their life experience. In this way, it makes possible for some of the most talented athletes to re-enter the civilian world, following their athletic career, and find themselves unqualified for most lines of work. I read one account of a former gold medalist who was illiterate.
Spot on about China James.
"How have athletes changed in the past 25 years?
Randy H. -There’s so much information on the Internet that they think they already know everything. It used to be that you had to be coached to learn technique and training methods, but now athletes can find this stuff on the Web. The problem is there are a lot of people who say stupid things out there. Then we have to undo what the athletes have learned from these so-called experts before we can even start to teach the proper ideas.
The other negative is that athletes have a lot less general athletic ability than in the past, thanks to the decrease of physical education in so many schools and early sport specialization. The more knowledge the body has about movements, the easier it is to install new components. So many of our athletes have limited athletic experiences that it’s hard for their bodies to learn. I really see it here in China where athletes specialize at a very early age."
I just played my first softball game in 14 years last night. I didn’t want to play on a team b/c I am more interested in guiding my two kids…my 9 yr old son and 6 yr old Daughter. I already know what I can do so no biggie to me. My wife and kids kept asking me to play for a team that asked me to play b/c they needed one more player. They all said they want to watch me play. I haven’t practiced at all except to teach my kids.
Well, I played third base and had a fast ass grounder coming right at me. It took a nasty/wicked hop at the last possible moment and was coming straight for my face. I had my glove on the dirt and my other hand right next to it. I had absolutely no time to put my hand or my glove in front of it to shield myself.
What do you think I did?
In one motion I twisted and lifted my body a little while I moved to my right and caught the ball with my glove behind me about shoulder height and threw the person out at first. Everybody was cheering but to me it was nothing special.
some of the team said…boy, you are a natural or how did you do that? We have some former D1 players on the team…they just said…great play.
This is something you get after countless/thousands of hours of playing ball AND participating in a lot of other sports starting at a young age in addition to having a clear mind/being in the moment, etc. etc. Creativity.
My dad was there for many of those hours and he just let me be. I was allowed to make as many mistakes as possible. He was my Coach for the first 5 years and it was great.
I also chased a pop up hit behind me after turning my back and sprinting to the place I knew it would land and caught it. No biggie. I have done it in practice a million times. Well, b/c of my speed I was able to get to it in the first place. I take that back…in addition, b/c of the way I am always ready to spring like a cat…proper set-up…feet, slight bounce before the batter makes contact with the ball.
My wife told me on the way home that she is going to start recording me now b/c no one will believe it if she told them lol
Oh yeah, and BTW, one of my base hits…the first one was were I hit it almost straight to the shortstop. I hit it just to his left they tell me but I still made it to first base. I was flying down the dirt.
High skill and athleticism.
The take home msg I guess is…have a lot of fun at a young age by doing a lot of sports, being with Family and doing well in school. So when you are an adult…you get to do what you want as far as work/business and make enough money so you can raise a happy family and play some softball after work b/c you played baseball as a kid.
I’m really not a bragged type but oh well. If anyone lives in the area and wants to join the team or simply wants to watch our team play…come on by. We play on Monday nights for the next 7 weeks in the South Sacramento area.
I may even start training tomorrow for the LJ in mid-July. I didn’t bother showing up last year b/c I scouted my comp…no threats at all. This year however, I am 45 and last year a jump of almost 21’ won it. Now that is a challenge I am up for.
Chinese system is very much survival of fittest, so it’s the last man standing. When you have enormous populations participant, such a approach can be successful, but I do think we should treat their training principals with caution.
I’m just curious, how long do their World Class Table Tennis players play at the top of the top?
The Chinese called JO Waldner of Sweden “Evergreen Tree” or “Old Wa” b/c he was at the top or very near the top of the Table Tennis world for years and years.
He has some crazy must see shots on youtube…I would recommend anyone to look up his best matches or best shots to see how crazy creative he was and still is.
He is always smiling and having fun.
His serve was different and got him the advantage in a lot of matches against the Chinese players. He made it look like he served with one spin at a certain speed but it was not to be a lot of times.
I believe he learned it on his own by experimenting. Someone please correct me If I am wrong.
In the era of the “Soviet Sports Machine” it was very similar. There are “shining star” coaches in every domain, however. So the difference lies in the corporate average awareness and this is where sports systems such as in China, the former Soviet and communist bloc states, and so on, the general knowledge level of coaches was much higher than in the west.
I had a conversation with a national level water polo coach from Croatia a few years ago. He came up in the Eastern Bloc era and his overall knowledge of sports physiology was far beyond that of any team sport coach I’ve encountered in the states.
Most Eastern bloc principled coaches have had limited success in the Western context, probably because their methods are redundant. Their response is that Western athletes lack motivation.
Maybe coaches have had limited success however methods and principles generated by East are being used by West lol.
From my experience there is a massive difference between wester and eastern athlete from the psychological stand point of view.
There is also a bigger difference in terms of training aids.
What do you mean?
It’s one thing to have “read” materials or “talked” to individuals from elsewhere and it’s another thing entirely to be able to assimilate the information into the practical context.
Point in fact, clearly everyone here, to some degree or another, is a proponent of what Charlie shared with the world; however, go ahead and provide Charlie’s publications to every western sport coach, regardless of sport, and let’s see how many of them have the aptitude to make something of it. Don’t hold your breath on the outcome.
In my experience with a vast amount of coaches, from a variety of sports and levels, around the western world- probably the only quality shared in common is a limited capacity for complex problem solving and a propensity to miss the forest for the trees.