Gatlin's 'new technique'

“Everything I learned I had to throw it out the window and learn a whole new technique,” Gatlin told Reuters in a telephone interview from Naples, Florida.

A lot of what he did back then was very good…to throw it all out the window could be a case of throwing the baby out with the bathwater.

For all his other ‘faults’ and issues, Trevor Graham was still a pretty good operator in getting blokes to run fast, so I would hope that Gatlin wouldn’t be getting too radically removed from what Graham did in terms of technique.

btw, IMO, I will be very surprised if Gatlin ever gets back to PB shape.

Can we get Andre Cason on this forum to post some comments on this thread? I had a chance to talk to him on the phone a little while back and he certainly had some choice words.

“Choice words” for who and regarding what exactly?

His oft repeated phrase was “Shoulda listened.”
John Smith developed him but a falling out led to a switch- and a resultant very short career after.

Yes, the word “bitter” does not adequately describe his state of mind on the subject.

Cason was a legend. I found some footage of him on my old hard drive from WC 1995. Great front shot footage and his 10.09 heat.

I have some old footage of Cason in 1988 in the World Junior Champs that were held in Sudbury, Ontario. It’s on a VHS tape somewhere. Have to dig it out.

Since we’re talk about Cason…

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2_Pr3Y9QpYU

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u36Oiv-AShI

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TlCD0j_SST4

:slight_smile:

look at his leg action in the first clip…superb! charlie and co-what happened between him and smith,was it $$$?

Cason ran 9.99 in Sept 91, then broke the 60m WIR twice : 6.49 (heat) and 6.45 (final, WIR) for his season debut in late January 92 and again in 6.41 in Feb 92, was the fav for '92 Olympic Trials (ran 9.88w and 10.08 into -1.2 in May) but injured his Achilles a few days before the heats. He stopped his season and moved to Seagrave. In 1993, he ran 6.56 indoors and 9.79w at Trials and 9.92 at WC in August. In 1994, 6.58i/9.98, in 1995 6.60i/10.23, in 1996 no indoors and 10.07 and injured at Olympic Trials. How long did he was coached by Seagrave i don’t know.

I can’t be sure but he felt John didn’t pay attention to him after his achilles.

I was in new Orleans for the 92 OT. Cason raced and severely broke down in his heat of the 100. He was in a furious mood. John appeared reluctant to go near Andre. Then in Stuttgart the next season Loren told me they had spent a lot of their time rehabbing the Achilles Loran appeared to have done a great job getting Andre ready for the silver behind Christie.

So…we’d need Cason to tell the whole story…massive thights btw!

interesting…so during 91/92 cason developed an achilles injury while wearing mizunos.during the semi in barcelona mark witherspoon ruptured his achilles while wearing the elite mizunos and he blames the lack of support in that particular shoe for the injury.in 95 he went to reebok as he said that support was far better.

mitchell,fredericks,witherspoon,adeniken and lewis wore that particular shoe during the 92 games

In the 1st clip (Sprint Model 1) is Andre too far foward? I know we’ve all been told about the forward lean coming from the ground etc…He was a great technical model. Explosive out of the blocks too.

What’s Andre’s website address? I can’t seem to find it now.

gatlin at velocity in january…at end of video see him do one acceleration against this random guy, not great quality tho

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gDHQR-fmOr8&feature=related

this video shows a little more on the training side

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=awkIjXYWl20&feature=related

Looked like Speed Dynamics, except with out the suitcases!

who is the white guy with the bald head?

I saw Gatlin training a month or so back outside on the track in spikes. He didn’t look like he was overstriding as much as previously but he also didn’t look like he was going to run 9.7. Will wait and see.