I’m still wondering if Bolt isn’t 100% healthy or he missed too much training and knows he isn’t close to 9.5x strength or shape yet. In the US broadcast Ato commented right before the race that Bolt looked nervous and was standing up near the blocks ready to go, when everyone else was hanging back by pylons, something he never does.
You know he’s been partying and taking care of puma bolt brand. He has talked about how he wasn’t going to train as hard this year. Not like his talent has eroded or disappeared.
Hmmm, I guess… I just thought it was curious how Bolts deterioration in performance seemd to coincide exactly with the time Charlie passed. And while Mills may have coached other top talents, none of them has come anywhere near the level Bolt was at the past 2 years and the very beginning of this year. He looked very good at Penn and his opening 200 in Jamaica but after that all his performances wer sub-par for his standards and they are getting worse. I think it is just as plausible that Charlie may have been serving as a consultant to Mills/Bolt to get him to the level he reached. But like I said, this is all just speculation… but an eerie coincidence nonetheless.
in reference to gay…hes looking superb and at 20m hes bouncing of the track. watch this space for gay
No one has coached a talent such as Bolt.
Mills has been coaching since he was 14.
Bolt stated numerous times that this season is the season to beat him and that he is taking it less serious. Also, it is really clear that every where he goes he is all about promoting and not necessarily competing.
Mills is coaching Blake, who almost ran down Tyson in the 200 and PR’d, he’s coaching Gonzalez who just PR’d in 44.40, and he’s coaching Ricardo Chambers who just PR’d in 44.54 all happening after Charlie passed. Mills program and coaching seems to be doing just fine for them. He does give credit to his assistant Bert Cameron for working with Gonzales and Chambers.
Not buying the black helicopter theory.
I’ll bite.
What’s with the black helicopter?
Prophet is saying he thinks Charlie was helping with Bolt’s prep and now that Charlie passed he thinks that may be a reason why Bolt has floundered recently. As opposed to the more realistic theory that Bolt is just not taking it as serious as he did last year and that he is distracted and not training as much/as hard. Of course Bolt confirms in interviews that he is slacking this year. Plus there is zero evidence that Charlie has ever had anything to do with Bolt and it is borderline arrogant and disrespectful to insinuate such.
Not so fast my friend, do you know something we don’t? It’s easy when you get your ass beat to say “I’m not training - BS - if you not ready don’t step your ass on the track” - if you do - it’s all game.
I’m a bit with lr1400.
Let’s not subscribe to any far fetched conspiracy theories.
Bolt has taken it a little more casually this year and no doubt will return to his best shape & form in 2011.
He’s clearly in good hands with Mills.
In reference to the final, I find it interesting that Bolt’s 10.1 in the heats looked very routine (not to take away from the fact that he was working to make up for his start) and demonstrated such forceful grimacing, shoulder elevation, and over all tightness to run the 9.97 in the final.
A few things come to mind:
- the 9.97 is 96% and change of 9.58. Granted he is not in 9.58 shape; however, that’s nearly 4 tenths to the hundredth- slower
- he’s always been tremendous in the final of a multi-heat competition. thus it’s interesting to note how strenuous the relatively poor performance of 9.97 was in comparison to the Sunday jog 10.1 in the heats (barely a tenth difference for someone who, when in top form, has to run sub 10 flat just for it to qualify as +95% speed work)
Before I get too academic, I, for one, am more interested in how poor his technical performance of the race was in addition to the discrepancy in form/relaxation between the heats and the final when the actual time difference between the two was almost negligible relative to his top form potential.
He’s clearly no where near 9.58 shape, however, to struggle to run 4 tenths slower less than a year after the 9.58 (where he cruised a 9.89 in the heats) in addition to the 9.84 and 9.82 he’s already ran this year (post injury and within the last couple of months)- is curious to say the least.
Yes sir. Thought you knew, it’s all in the yams…
Just what he said earlier before the season started and what I have read from those who said he’s been carousing more than normal. Could be many things including what you allude to.
[i] “I’m really happy with the win, even though Usain Bolt isn’t in the best shape,” Gay said. “It was very important to beat someone like that for the fans and the sport.”
Bolt has run faster this year, finishing in 9.82 a month ago in Lausanne, Switzerland.
A sellout crowd in the 1912 Olympic Stadium turned silent before the showdown. And the tension heightened even further after two false starts.
[b]“I think it showed that I wasn’t in the best of shape,” Bolt said. “I’m not unbeatable. I can be beaten and it showed today.”
“This is my easy season,” he added. "If you don’t beat me this season it’s not going to happen next season because next year is a championship year.[/b]" [/i]
http://www.stuff.co.nz/sport/other-sports/4001692/Gay-upsets-sprint-king-Bolt-in-100m-in-Stockholm
Raymond Stewart was getting massages from Waldemar in the 1980’s because the Jamaicans didn’t have the money to have their own person, let’s not forget that either.
You would also notice that Francis has a very large club (80+ athletes) with an A, B, C, and D group, which is eerily similar to Charlie’s philosophy, and this is not a coincidence. There are many influences at work in Jamaica, and without a doubt Charlie’s influence is significant.
To suggest that a top coach in the world would just read someone’s else’s books and not actually attempt to talk to them when they are a known consultant with less of an axe to grind than other high level coaches (as he wasn’t actively coaching a group of his own) is just as implausible as suggesting that top Jamaican coaches consulted with Charlie.
They couldn’t consult easily with John Smith, or Pfaff, or Seagrave, as they all have competing athletes. I know someoene specifically who went to see John Smith for example, and learned nearly nothing because he holds his cards so close to his vest, probably because he coaches an active group. Not only that, but guys like Pfaff, Seagrave and Smith have never taken a 15 year old and progressed him into 100m champion. That’s just not the way the system works in the US, they usually get kids in college or afterward (Donovan came to Pfaff at what, 24?). The current Jamaican system is much closer to a CF style development approach.
I think anyone would admit that to improve your own knowledge, you need to talk to others at a high level, and when that person is a known consultant to top sprinters and is not competing against you with his own runners and works on strict confidentiality, I think it’s reasonable to suggest that they might have conversed on occasion. I am certainly not saying that he wrote anyone’s program, or even that he was involved, just that I think I’d have a little more interest than just reading a book if I was a coach with a 21 year old 100m kid who ran his first race in 10.00 flat.
Charlie talked to the GDR coaches when they were the best and extracted as much info as he could. Any coach with a high quality athlete would be foolish not to consult someone at Charlie’s level considering the stakes involved.
At any rate, I think it’s safe to say that Tim wasn’t the only top 100m man to do so, not that we’ll see any confirmation of that.
Is charlie the first to do that? He took regular kids and turned them into record holders! So many people dont realize that. Thats Why I consider him the GOAT of coaching.
AS for bolt really him gay and asafa are not running super fast this year. I have my theories why, but the main one is that this is a prep year for next year. Everyone will start dropping times next year.
Yes, that’s true.
Relax guy! There is really no need for you to take so much offense to it unless you are Glenn Mills yourself, lol! Im not being arrogant nor am I trying to be disrespectful, I am simple pointing out some eerie coincidinces between Usain Bolt’s rise to the top and his current freefall. Look, I never said I had concrete evidence of anything, I just presented some circumstantial evidence and I gave my hypothesis as to possible reasons why he could be suffering this year.
There have been several sprinters who have shown a similar level of talent as Bolt. They didnt improve most likely because of poor coaching. Also something such as ‘talent’ is impossible to gauge objectively.
I think what youre trying to say is that Mills has been coaching Bolt since he was 14, which is not true. Bolt left him in his late teens because his performance was deteriorating instead of improving.
Actually Usain was very confident in his interviews at the beginning of the season. His confidence decreased as the season went on until you have him now, saying that this is the year to beat him and that he’s taking it easy this year. Ill have to find the interviews to show you what I am talking about, but his whole demeanor in interviews seemed to change after his 3rd race of the year, which was a 200 somewhere in Asia. He also began showing visible frustrations with his performance at this same time which was coincidentally exactly around the same time Charlie passed.
Blake is doing very well this year and he is progressing well. However, I never said that Mills program doesnt work and you have to admit there are worlds of difference between an athlete running 9.58 and 19.19 and an athlete running 9.93 and 19.78. What I did say was that I think Charlie was consulting with and providing guidance to a coach and an athlete that has reached levels no one has ever reached before and that when he passed and his guidance was no longer there, Mills and Bolt began struggling. It is certainly not implausible to suggest that one of the world’s most brilliant coaches, who is a known consultant to top athletes in many sports, would be cosulting with the top athlete in his(Charlie’s) bread and butter sport, the sprints. As T-Slow pointed out in his post, Charlie’s influence in Jamaica is already vast. But as was also pointed out, even if he was, no one who actually knew would ever admit to it, so I expect the answer to be no regardless. Another interesting bit of circumstantial evidence; Usain was in Toronto, ON in June of last year and ran a 100m race while there. Now Toronto is not exactly a large sporting venue, so for an athlete of Bolt’s level to be competing there suggests that there were other reasons for it.
I’m not taking offense bro. Maybe the poor communication through the WWW makes it seem that way.
Ahhh, ok. My mistake then!