It wasn’t Pfaff it was Tom Tellez.
And the system that is being set up here has school teachers being the coaches, I was told the reasoning behind such a system is so everyone will be taught the same thing.
Sady could you please explain more regarding Tom Tellez? what did he/didnt he do?
I was asked by an ex American athlete if I had studied Tom Tellez. As an athlete this man has run 10.2, he laughs when he says in the US that ain’t good enough to make the final, he regards himself as an average athlete. I never asked but got the impression he trained under Tom when he said a lot of what I do is the same as Tom show him 20 years ago.
I have never met Tom Tellez or studied what he does, the only overseas coach I have seen is Loren Seagrave and that was in the late 80’s. I do see some of the Australian representative coaches doing drills that I was doing 10 years ago and when I asked one of them about the drills I was told he had just come back from the US where he was studing under Tom Tellez and proceeded to tell me who Tom is. The only coach who has helped me was Mike Hurst and it was possibly 6 years ago and it was through telephone calls, he helped me with programming for a young lady.
I no longer coach or have any intention of doing so, I will help my American friend as he requires and the odd CF member,
john smith coach to bolden,greene etc was an assistant to tellez at UCLA before tom went to houston. seagrave may have wroked under tellez but i aint sure but Pfaff uses alot of toms ideas. as far as drills, they havent changed and why should they? A+B skips etc are there for a reason and in actual fact training hasnt changed alot either…what charlie coached in the late 80s-90s is still used and has been proven and this also applies to TT’s work with his L-S approach. its other factors which have changed
After serving 22 seasons as the head coach at the University of Houston, Tom Tellez serves as a volunteer coach for the UH program. A member of the U.S. Track Coaches Association Hall of Fame, Tellez has produced some of the greatest track and field performers in the history of the sport.
His former Cougars included: four-time NCAA champion and nine-time Olympic Gold Medalist Carl Lewis, former NCAA and Olympic 200-meter Gold Medalist Joe DeLoach, two-time NCAA champion and Olympic Silver medalist Kirk Baptiste and three-time NCAA champion, Olympic Bronze Medalist Frank Rutherford and Olympic Gold Medal winner and three-time NCAA champion and former world 100-meter record holder Leroy Burrell.
He also coached three-time NCAA heptathlon Jolanda Jones, three-time NCAA long jump champion and USA Olympic team member Carol Lewis, USA Olympic sprinter Jackie Washington and NCAA 200-meter champion Michelle Collins.
In addition, he tutored NCAA 100-meter champions Sam Jefferson and Stanley Floyd; NCAA discus champion Rick Meyer, NCAA 60-yard champion Greg Edmonds, NCAA indoor shot put champion Mark Baughman, NCAA 400-yard champion Anthony Ketchum, NCAA high jump champion Brian Stanton, NCAA 55-meter hurdles champion Darius Pemberton and NCAA heptathlon and pentathlon champion Patsy Walker.
Currently, Tellez is coaching one of the USA’s rising stars in two-time NCAA long jump champion Jenny Adams. In addition to his UH proteges, Tellez has tutored Olympic Gold Medal winners Mike Marsh, Michele Finn-Burrell and 2000 Olympic 200-meter sprinter Floyd Heard.
Besides his outstanding athletes, Tellez also had some successful teams at Houston. In 1997 and 1998, he was named the Conference USA men’s indoor and outdoor track Coach-of-the-Year after leading the Cougars to four titles in their first two years in the league. He also was named the 1998 C-USA women’s indoor and outdoor Coach-of-the-Year after leading the Lady Cougars to both titles.
He also led Houston’s men’s team to a fourth-place finish at the 1996 NCAA Indoor Championships and that marked the ninth time that Tellez led the Cougars to a Top 10 showing at the NCAA Indoor meet. In addition, he guided UH to six Top 15 finishes at the NCAA Outdoor Championships.
He also led the Cougars to the 1977 and 1978 Southwest Conference indoor championships.
In addition to his success as UH’s men’s coach, Tellez also began the Lady Cougar program and led them to three Top 10 finishes at the NCAA Indoor Championships and eight Top 20 finishes at the NCAA Outdoor meet. Houston also won the 1983, 1984 and 1987 SWC indoor titles and the 1984 and 1990 SWC outdoor championships under his direction.
Tellez began Houston’s coaching career as a graduate assistant coach at his alma mater, Whittier College, in California. After a two-year stint in the U.S. Army, he was named the head coach at Buena Park High School in California.
In 1961, he became the head coach at Fullerton Junior College before becoming an assistant coach at UCLA in 1968.
While at UCLA, he coached the likes of Dwight Stones, Mike Tully, Willie Banks and James Butts. In 1976, he was offered the chance to become the strength and conditioning coach for the Dallas Cowboys under Tom Landry. Instead, he opted to come to Houston and replace retiring track coach Johnny Morriss. In addition to his success at Houston, Tellez enjoyed tremendous success on the international circuit as well. Between 1984 and 1996, six of the seven United States sprinters who won Olympic Gold Medals were coached by Tellez and seven of the USA’s overall 13 medals were claimed by his athletes.
He was named the head coach for the 1991 U.S. national team that competed in the World Championships at Tokyo, Japan and was the head coach for the 1987 USA Pan American team.
He also served as an assistant coach for the 1980 and 1984 USA Olympic teams. He coached the throwing events in 1980 and the jumping events in 1984.
A former standout collegiate athlete in his own right, Tellez was a halfback and defensive back at Whittier College. He also was a sprinter for the school’s track and field team while earning a B.S. degree in physical education in 1955. He earned a master’s degree at Chapman College in 1962.
He and his wife, Kay, were married more than forty years before she passed away last fall. He has three children: Kip, Tina and Kyle, a current UH assistant coach.
Usain’s mechanics in this video remind me alot of how Michael Johnson used to run:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T7W4kbobqIw&NR=1
…I wonder whether he was coached to run like that or it came naturally?
Sady, is there a reason you no longer coach?
I haven’t used the A+B skips etc since the late 80’s or any of seagraves drills either.
KK thank’s for the history of Tom Tellez. Carl lewis is the name that springs to most peoples lips, the most successful athlete yet is what I hear the most. I was in now way trying to belittle the man
Yes I am over the attention. LOL
If I may ask is there a reason you dont use A or B skips? Granted I dont use the B skips either (haven’t use them neither has my coach in like forever)
Tom Tellez one of the most passionate and giving coaches I have ever met. The man gives as much time to an Olympic champion as he would to the 10yr old athlete with out an inkling of ability. I have seen the man run across a field in the middle of working with some sprinters to spend 15min helping a young athlete doing high jump then run back to the sprinters and continue with his run demonstrations all the time encouraging everyone in the group. I never new the guy in his prime but his passion at 78yrs old is something to be seen…the guy is a true legend of the sport and one of the great generalist track and field coaches having coached 5.80m pole vaulters, sub 10s sprinters , 8.90m long jumpers, sub 20s 200m sprinters and many others. The guy has given much to both athletes and coaches in track and field.
When I did my first coaching course the presenters were throws and jumps coaches so the sprint session was basically we don’t really know but we see the sprint coaches doing this. It wasn’t good enough for me so I approached the sprint coaches and was told they didn’t have the time to show me anything. I am not a monkey see monkey do person so I made up some basic motorskills. In 1984 I had a back operation and a couple of years later Seagrave was in Aust so I went to his clinic. There were only a couple of athletes capable of doing his drills and they were the ones who trained with me. When I tried the drills myself my back hurt so I did not use them. Any way I continued making up motor drills ranging from all fours to single leg, there were potty squat walks and heaps of others with balance as the focus.
More than a decade ago, Peter Weyand, a science professor at Southern Methodist University, conducted a study on speed. Comparing athletes to non-athletes, Weyand clocked both test groups as they ran at their top speed. What he found shocked him.
“The amount of time to pick up a leg and put it down is very similar,” he says. “It surprised us when we first figured it out.”
So if leg turnover is the same, how does one person run faster than another?
Weyand discovered that speed is dependent upon two variables: The force with which one presses against the ground and how long one applies that force.
Yes, the air time is the same when comparing a fast group and a slower group of sprinters (although they are huge individual variations). But it doesn’t mean that their legs are moving at the same speed through the air! In fact, faster sprinters tend to accelerate their legs at a higher rate and hit the ground at a faster speed than slower sprinters.
Comparing Bolt’s mechanics at 65% and 100% of max speed, I have found that the leg was x2 faster just before hitting the ground, and even more significant was that he was accelerating his leg towards the ground x3 more at 100% max speed. Basic maths will tell us that: if force = mass * acceleration, the mass of the leg remaining the same, the force will be x3 bigger.
It makes total sense cause granted the B skip causes a braking action but I just trained a Phenom and she could’nt do the A skips (granted she lives nowhere near people with any type of rhythm plus she’s young too) so I modified it of course.
I have always classed sprinting a leg straightening exercise therefore the hamstring is the brake.
If we only moved during training and our daily routines accelerating and not resisting gravity as we are designed for…
If we only kept moving during training and our daily routines accelerating and not resisting gravity as our systems are really designed for…
Pakewi gave the answer, gravity. If you cannot change the force of gravity how about trying to keep both feet in the air at the same time, The brain has a built in protection mode and will increase the speed the foot hits the ground. If a 10kg weight has a base of 200sqcm and another has 100sqcm the smaller weight will hit with the most force if both are dropped from a set height. The way to achieve the greater force is to have both the heel and toes off the ground, there is no advantage holding the dorsiflexion with heels raised after the foot leaves the ground. The drill I used instead of the A or B skips was firstly called the karate kid then later called Miss Apps.
My American friend had a pretty successful State comp last weekend, athletes he coaches won several medals and I believe there are new for age Australian records. I do not have anything to do with his coaching. He himself currently holds the Australian for age 60m record.
He does not engage in talent identification he just coaches kids at Blacktown. Well done champion.