So whats the deal with Charlie?

The Forums Ask Us.
1

I mean, lets say, I wanted to be coached by Charlie himself can I do this?

The reason why I’m asking is I remember looking at the T.V and the news was reporting that Marion Jones and Tim. M were going to solicit Charlie for there coaching. I remember there was such a backlash! It was as if it was illegal be trained by CF.

Can Charlie coach here in the states or can I move up there and train with him and compete for USA?

Story short, I want to be at a world class level before my Bio clock runs out. I don’t believe I can absorb 30+ years of knowledge in a year or two and then use it on myself to run sub 44.Or maybe I can, because my idol, Darnell Hall, trained with his pop after Junior College.

Anyway, one other question, the only coach I trust and know of here in Californnia is Coach Blackman in Riverside, Ca, he trained Mikey Grimes for a little bit.

Does anybody know any other good coaches out here in California?

2

Contact us off the board and get your checkbook ready :).

(Private msg me).

Rupert
CharlieFrancis.com

3

Any approx. idea of the cost :smiley:

4

I will tell you from a personal stand point that it is worth every dollar. Charlie and his entire staff in Toronto are world class. It is amazing what you can learn in just one week with him.

5

I would imagine you could move to Toronto to train with Charlie and your USA citizenship would be fine. Anything is possible if you make any sacrifices that are necessary.

6

Ha, this really sucks. I live in the most powerful country in the world and yet I might haft to move to Canada to get the best training possible as a sprinter.

I already moved from Philadelphia to California to find (or so I thought) the best training. I was under a sprint coach ( I will not say who) who coached one of the fastest HS girls ever. However, I don’t know how she got that fast because his program did nothing for me. We ran distance, lots of BS stadium stairs, always 3x10 weights and NEVER did any 90+ pure sprint training. Yea, we all looked great and felt great but we all ran like S&&T! Well, the school got there championship so thats all that really mattered. Championship = $$$. In the end its always about the $$$; so whats new.

Anyway, here in the states (James Smith knows very well of this issue) there is no system to develop people with potential into world class athletes. You either haft to be a HS phenom from the start, or be lucky enough to land yourself at a golden school like Baylor or LSU. Other than that, your stuck, and thats why a lot of athletes fall by the wayside, get jobs, or start a family. Clyde H said it best, there is only one thing worse than not having a coach and that is having a bad coach.

Ha, I sometimes have envy for kids that say they want to be a doctor or a lawyer because the trails are blazed for them and the government and the general public supports those people through funding and encouragement but people like me who want to use there body as a way to make a living are really between a rock and a hard place.

I don’t even tell people that I run track anymore because people are MOSTLY negative. I have had many people tell me to “just give it up” or “why are you pursuing such a high goal” as if something is wrong with me.

Even if I don’t make it because my genetics wont let me run say 43.00 I can at least have peace in my old age because I knew I had and gave myself the BEST training possible.

Its a major disservice that thousands of kids are exposed to junk training every year at the HS and college level! Its even made its way into the general fitness industry. I see “so called” personal trainers standing next to there clients while there client is standing on some kind of half swiss ball doing squats. Then charges them about 600 bucks for this BS training for about 8 sessions!

Speaking on the commercial gyms its all fake. I use to work at XXXXX total fitness. Some of the sales staff were using hard drugs, most of them partied, all of them would eat pizza and fast food and then hide it when a customer walked in to sign up for a membership. Total hypocrites.

UAA, I did not mean to wright all this…:eek:

7

if you are seriously interested you can contact me through bookings@charliefrancis.com.

8

If you are seriously committed, this is just logistics.

A great deal of your post is valid and 100% spot on. However, remember the fact that you are even aware of this site is a positive for you. Use your points to your advantage. Everybody else for the most part is doing shit training, you should be happy about this as you will NOT be doing crappy training.

9

Seriously, take the move to canada. Find a job (easy bank job?) - pay your rent - food and charlie.
Work to live and train, nothing else. Give it 6-12 months then see where you at. (a lot faster i bet)

10

Just have a read of the forum rules too buddy please

11

If you are serious about training you need to find a way to work with Charlie. I trained with Charlie and I regret not finding a way to move to Toronto. My problem was finding a job that didn’t interfere with training. Keep in mind that you get what you pay for. I had ran some decent times in college and Charlie found issues with my starts, running, etc that I never knew about. My college coach was an Olympian and he never saw these. There is a reason some athletes have such amazing improvements when they change coaches. What other coach at that level would even speak to you or train you??? Good luck.

12

For what it’s worth, under different circumstances, I’d be willing to speak to you about coaching you; however, my current obligations prohibit it.

I only made this post because I thirst to work with athletes who are one fraction as dedicated to their cause as I am to mine and you seem to fit the bill.

Find a way to make it to Charlie’s or you’ll really have something to regret later in life knowing that you opted out of being coached by one of the world’s best and not one of the myriad of self-proclaimed world’s best.

13

Maybe everyone is being a little hard on the US don’t you guys think. While coaching as a whole “MAY” not be on par with some former eastern euro or other countries we cannot be that bad… Let’s have a look at the medal podium after this month and see really how bad we are. It’s not JUST talent, their has to be some good coaching to help realize this potential.

Sure we do not have the system of bringing athletes through the different classes and slowly increasing their capacities but is anyone REALLLY convinced that all the USSR, Bulgarian, German, etc. coaches were so good and that is how they all did it? Or were we simply seeing their best athletes perform and the lower class athletes were back at the local club just like HERE. Were they so perfect as to not have retarded club weightlifting coaches screwing up talent? I am sure there were other Rigert’s and Alexeev’s that did not have the “luck” of finding a Plukfelder. Surely there were other Borzov’s who got butchered.

There is a guy by the name of Dan Pfaff. I think he’s pretty good. He coaches out of California and he is mainly coaching people who are “tossed to the side” after college so to speak. From what I have read/heard most of them are working for food and to pay him and are bunking up together. They train in a hanger. They all seem to be pretty driven.

So there you have two of the BEST in Track AND Field to choose from.

Be resourceful and pursue your goals.

14

I agree. A major problem I see with some highly dedicated athletes is not knowing the coaching landscape which leads many to a poor choice of coaches. By the time they figure it out, precious time has been wasted.

15

If we could even call it that…i.e.,a system, I would argue that the US succeeds despite it-self in track and field.

There are very few coaches that are worthy of being entrusted with developing talent. It’s incredible the number of kids in the collegiate system that never reach their high school pbs.

Whereas if you compare countries with relatively smaller populations that have athletes that stay at home…the development is significantly better.

16

track coaching is not a respected profession in north america. most work for chump change or for free unless you are Texas. it’s all about football.

17

Thanks everybody for the responses.

Really, I only have two options. I can train myself to get fast enough to earn a contract then move to Canada or I can move to Canada right a way and just tough it out until I earn a contract.

Unfortunately, earning a contract has to be part of the goal because it would relieve me from working. No such thing as a part time athlete.

Either way, earning a contract is not Guaranteed.

The way I see it, if you can RUN, you can RUN. All this programing, weights, eating right, in a way, works up to a point. I can take you guys to Compton, Ca over here in the West coast or I could take you guys to N Philly in the East coast and I can pull some kid off the corner who could pop a 10.5 easy who just ate Mc McDonald’s and sits on his butt all day with the Playstation.

Mortac8, you are so right, track coaching is not a respected profession. Thats what I HATE about this country, people only chose jobs or study curriculum that will earn them lots of money or has high status positions irrespective of anything else.

We have enough doctors, we have enough lawyer’s, we have enough Real estate Agents!
We need more thinkers, more philosophers, more real artist and so on.

The way I see it, there will be no more Michelangelo’s, Mozart’s or Bach’s because everybody is chasing money no matter if they are happy doing it or not, and to make matters worse young kids are being raised by American Idol instead of strong mature patents who introduce them to books, literature, and museums. Its all about beer and big screens
over here.

Society puts so much pressure on people to have material items and to have x amount of degrees on there walls because its something you can measure. Thats all we are doing, I have more then you, so I must be better; stupid fools!

I have been in houses that are worth millions due to my business that I run on the side. Some of these people have rooms that they never use but yet down the street a man sleeps in the ally way at night.

Look at little children, they all get along with one another, they all enjoy life with a smile, they all are so curious, inquisitive and learn things so fast but is only when we indoctrinate them, force rules on them, and scare them they turn to be a lot like us, unsmiling, uncaring, cutthroat and driven only to pursue a superficial fake life.

The modern society suffers from intellectual arrogance. Because we have all this wealth, food and material items we feel that we are ahead of our ancestors. And now that we are making conquests to outer space, I’m sure we feel on par with celestial beings. Bull! Dead people are rolling over in the graves! There are still 3rd world country’s, we still wage war, people are still homeless, people die of hunger, cancer, aids, obesity, diabetes are all growing problems.

But you know what, this is all conspired to happen; the elite capitalize on the ignorance of the masses.

So to end my serious rant, I found out that true wealth is your health, family, to nurture your God given passions; and as far as money; to let it be used only as a tool.

The End

18

sorry, i have never seen that!! closest i have seen is from somebody who is active at school sports yet doesnt train for them, just does the sports and ran 11.3.
I have seen guys football train and run fast (high 10sec) off it, mostly slow (11.5+)though (our football in aust is diff to american football)

as for somebody who sits on butt all day - 11.5 maybe - massive diff from a 10.5 to a 11.5. massive. And if they are going faster - should you really be believing that they actually do nothing??

19

If YOU WERE TO move to CANADA what area or coaches are there that would coach a masters athlete that uses the CF system.I am a teacher and have the opportunity to teach in Canada and thought it would be good to train under someone who knew the CF system really well. Cheers.

20

Gee! If I said on the board, they might have a problem. Contact bookings@charliefrancis.com and maybe I can direct you- though it’s not up to me if you can work something out with them.