[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]
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.
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.
Hopefully Ange or NumberTwo or PJ will confirm this, if true. Hell, I hope it is!
The only reason I am not buying it is because of the descriptions I have read of the training and interviews with Glen Mills. To me, the evidence of Charlie’s influence is more in the inclusion of speed from day one that Mills has stated he believes in.
I think the key here is that he has already run 9.84 and 9.82 this year… A year he considers easy. His prep for this year I doubt was as intense as his prep for a championship year.
I kind of think he’s goal of staying undefeated this year without serious prep work was kind of naive. I guess, he’s learnt his lesson.
Injuries usually occur when you try to force the body to do something that it’s not prepared for.
Didn’t Bolt lose quite a bit of training time this year due to an achilles injury? That would also explain, in part, his performances relative to previous seasons.
It did not appear he got much of a start/acc. relative to the guys around him (not just Gay) since perhaps he could not get much push.