Jim Bradley + Stawell

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AS AN EXERCISE IN OBSESSION AND SILLINESS, THIS IS UP THERE…:rolleyes:

By John Salvado
STAWELL, Vic, April 4 AAP - It certainly doesn’t sound like the diet of champions, but Stawell Gift contender Adam Burbridge swears by it.

On the insistence of his legendary coach Jim Bradley, Burbridge has been eating steak and chips for dinner every night this year as an integral part of his preparation for Australia’s most famous footrace.

After easing into Monday’s Gift semi-finals by finishing second in his heat, Burbridge - no relation to red-hot race favourite Tom Burbidge - lauded the the wisdom of his ``old school’’ 89-year-old coach.

As detailed in his book Athletics My Way, Bradley famously eschews weight-training, preferring to have his athletes work out on the speedball.

And then there’s the diet.

``I go to the market every Sunday, I buy four steaks and I got to the market again on Thursday again and buy three more steaks so it is all fresh,’’ said the 28-year-old Burbidge.

``My housemates can’t believe that I eat the same thing over and over again but I’m not sick of it.’’

Burbridge, from Melbourne, was even rebuffed by his coach when he attempted to mix things up a bit on the culinary front.

``I started boiling my potatoes and told Jim I was doing a bit of mash and he said ‘you can’t do that, it has to be the chips’,’’ he said.
‘’… Jim just gets the best out of me as a coach.

``I know I won’t get the best handicaps training with Jim, that is a fact, but training-wise and running- wise he is the best coach.’’

[b]It’s pretty hard to argue with a man who has trained previous Gift winners Steve Brimacombe and Glenn Crawford and a host of top Scottish pro runners.

Allan Wells, the 100m gold medallist at the Moscow Olympics, also used Bradley’s speedball training method. [/b]

And if Burbridge is looking for any further inspiration on Monday, he need go no further than the example set by [b]his coach, who was involved in a life-threatening car accident last month.

With the seatbelt cutting across his neck, Bradley was dragged unconscious from his car by two strangers, before coming to in the back of an ambulance.

``I don’t know how long I was in there and I heard this voice and it turned out to be a paramedic,’’ said Bradley.

``He said `this fella should get himself some Tatts tickets because if those blokes hadn’t got him out of the car he would have been dead’.’’

The paramedics wanted to take him straight to hospital but Bradley refused, insisting he be driven to the athletics track for the daily training session with Burbridge.

Bradley was later diagnosed with severe bruising in the chest and lungs, although nothing was going to keep him away from Stawell.

``I’ve just been coming good today, I can walk without really staggering,’’ Bradley said in his broad Scottish brogue.

``Before that, people were saying ‘he’s on the drink’.’’[/b]

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Ok million dollar question, is Sev Bradley?

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yes, ok, … is who what? Or shouldn’t I ask :o

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This appears to be coach Jim Bradley (left) with protege Adam Burbridge with the Stawell sports oval behind them

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The face of a legend

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haha - i doubt it, im pretty sure Sev dont like Bradley!

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Must have a dull life to pretend to be someone else.

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stilljd_5

Must have a dull life to pretend to be someone else.

G, mate, how dull it is then when someone is pretending to be a white horse!?

:cool:

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It’s interesting to note that Burbridge had a full head of hair before starting the steak & chips diet. Now look at him! :slight_smile:

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It’s interesting to note that Burbridge had a full head of hair before starting the steak & chips diet. Now look at him!

And if he continues with the steak and chips diet he will have a nice set of teeth like me! :cool:

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Just thinking on a keyboard. You can pretend to be anyone you like, I wonder how the other bloke feels.

Probably a bit hard but you have broad shoulders and a strong constitution. Steak & chips 7 days a week, if they were feedlot Tee bone steaks maybe

make a good movie.

:cool:

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Gee KK, not sure why you need to make the comment “appears to be coach Jim Bradley”; you know Jim well enough.

There’s no need to ridicule the man.

He’s eccentric yes, but he has made a wonderful contribution to the sport of athletics for over half a century.

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Actually I don’t know Jim at all! Never set eyes on him until someone on this forum said Sev’s avatar is a photo of Jim. So when I found a photo of that pro runner with his unnamed coach I figured the resemblance to the avatar was strong enough to assume they are the same guy. And if the avatar is your man then the shot o posted “appears to be Jim Zbradlry”. Straight up No disrespect intended. If I’m going to insult someone it won’t be discrete :slight_smile:

and no disrespect meant to You either Youngy. More power to you and your magnificent obsession with the pro game.
But as to your assertion that no one is forcing me to have anything to do with the pros , that would be totally wrong and I don’t want to go into that here but it relates to my employment and the fact some folks truly think that Stawell is a parallel to Olympic competition. I’m so over reading the winner almost every year say … “now it’s off to run at the Olympics” - it’s so naive but it’s what they’ve been fed and it’s what they feed the great unwashed who bob up at these events. Like I said it’s such a laugh.

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KK, Delusions of grandeur is not restricted to professional athletics, it exists in all walks of life, including amateur athletics. Many of our National t&f champions will think and say that they are going to win or place or final at worlds/olympics and we all know too well that the majority will just make up the numbers. Nothing wrong with this, but to suggest it is the domain of the professional athlete is in itself laughable.

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When will national champs be held?We’ll see how the winner will far in that competition.

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Ok, I’ll bite: Apart from John Steffensen, who aCtually did reach a world final, who else among the so called Aussie amateurs can you name that has made such a declaration? Maybe Tamsyn Lewis but she has won a world indoor gold. Darren Clark said it also when he was 17 so we could forgive him but then he did go on to run in two Olympic finals.

On the contrary I would say most amateurs are so well aware of the world scene that they talk themselves down, actually sometimes have an inferiority complex and don’t believe it’s possible for them to become an Olympic finalist. Makes the coach’s job ever so much harder.

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KK…Hard to believe a person in your line of work and who has been at it as long as you have, has never set eyes on Jim Bradley before. Especially given his presence in the sport.

Anyway moving on…As Dirty Harry once said “A man’s got to know his limitations.”

Not all of us in the sport regard Stawell Gift winners as the next breed of Olympians nor do we elevate Stawell winners to the level of great Aussie Olympians such as Peter Norman or Cathy Freeman.

The winner of the Stawell Gift simply holds a unique place in Australian sporting history as the winner of an Aussie iconic event, similar to a Melbourne Cup winning jockey.

Normally it’s an uneducated member of the sporting media that throws up the ‘Olympics’ line. Brimma was a classic case - After winning the 1991 Stawell Gift he was asked by a reporter would he like to go to the Olympics. All Brimma replied was ‘yes’ and then qualified it with how there was a long way to go. BUT of course the reporter only reported that Brimma was planning to go to the Olympics, which of course was a massive twist on the question asked.

Most pro-runners are quite humble and readily accept their limitations. I do admit though that last year’s winner Aaron Stubbs was cut from a different cloth and is a tad cockier than the average pro. But he is rarity.

I’m a pro-am person heavily involved in both sides of the sport and as I said I’ve witnessed unethical behaviour in the amateurs and met unsavoury characters in all sports.

It’s a tactical game and yes I take it serious. A well organised squad can win substantial sums if they get the right mark and the form is right on the day. It’s an exciting addition to the athletic landscape and to ridicule it is a fairly naive and uneducated view of what’s involved in the conduct of meetings all round the country.

The long track farce at Stawell this year was embarrassing, but I can’t help that as much as I can’t help it when I go to a state champs and see a farcical one or two athletes in a ‘contest’ for a supposed coveted state title or athletes being denied games qualifiers because they didn’t report in on time.

Shit happens.

I read articles in the the daily paper about some horse that won a race at say, Flemington that won with a lightweight because it had ordinary lead up form. That horse may never be good enough to run in a Cox Plate or an AJC Derby but it often has an interesting story that may involve the trainer or owner.

Our sport caters for and appeals to the working class, the non-elite, those athletes that will never go to the Olympics. Like the little known trainer of the horse that wins the last at Rosehill, many of them have interesting stories about the races they’ve won or lost and what keeps them training up to 6 days per week after work each night.

It’s a good healthy sport that caters for anyone willing to train and have a go. And occasionally we ‘cut one from the herd’ who goes on to an elite amateur career.

One thing I can honestly say is that in my experience the average pro-runner has a significantly ‘tougher’ approach to their training and competition than the athlete who restricts their competition to the amateurs only.

The ‘softness’ of some supposed elite athletes in this sport and the unwillingness to compete more than a few times per year can also be the source of a laugh or two.

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Sorry to offend you Youngy, never was anything personal in my criticisms of pro running. I’ve just never been able to get past the fact that the completely honest athlete who shows form is so often handicapped out of a chance to win the Stawell gift. And if a top amateur does win he’s had to beat the dodgy characters who have run dead for years in some cases before suddenly finding form at Stawell. It’s just too silly. I hate horse racing too but I love horses so don’t misinterpret my thinking. I just refuse to support the game. And for that reason I’ve never spotted Jim Bradley.

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No worries, as I said we have polarising views but I wolud love you to spend a week with my squad or maybe Matt Beckenham’s squad - a week that includes a trip to a good pro meet and see how a proficient stable operates.

By the way, we readily accepted the result on Monday, beaten fair & square. Dale Woodhams ran the race of his life - fastest he’s ever run by a fair way but unfortunately ran into a runner just as good but off a better mark.

Matt B had Burbidge in best ever shape and they duly won the chocolates.

Congrats to Matt & Tom and look forward to seeing Tom B run around the circuit next year.

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Matt B had Burbidge in best ever shape and they duly won the chocolates.

Matt B for the Coach od the Year! He got his athlete into the best ever shape in 6 [six] days only!

Youngy, I think your standpoint is valid and fair but you are missing the point kk1 has made here.

It is not about your or someone’s stable but about the game [not sport but game] in general.

It is a game for people who are stuck in the 19th century event though they live in the 21st century. It’s a game for opportunists and bookies. We could also train Guinea pigs to sing and then place bets on. At least we wouldn’t make an error as no measure tape is needed nor stewards are required to allocate marks for the contenders.

What do you say, your stable of pigs vs. my stable of pigs? :slight_smile:

Yours,
Jim the Toothless [Hik!]