The greatest coach is....

i did miss the “whole rest of africa” bit,apologies. i concider nigeria the united states of africa as far as spinting is concerned, just like the states, nigeria is more inclined 2wards the sprints whereas almost the whole rest of africa is inclined 2wards middle and long distances. so u could say it’s part of thier sporting culture. it’s also intressting 2 note that nigerian sprinters r either trained in the usa or use the training methods used in the usa where as a lot of other african countries( and i should know because i’ve been there) kind of go with what they feel is right.

YOU have a stigma with white sprinters.
The questions i posted for you were supposed to make you think about why Guadeloupe and Cuba failed to produce sub10 sprinter (low altitude) while Jamaïca and Trinidad have several (and Martinique 1). Instead of pointing out the fact that Whites never ran sub 10, you should include some Black population (countries, islands) which never did it either, in spite of great efforts from athletes, coaches and scientists, and big success in other events (especially Cuba).
if it’s me who has the stigma about the white sprinters y then does the world sprint leader, the states, have a sub par white sprinter as there fastest. correct me if i’m wrong bt i believe that it’s kevin little with his 10,13 . this performance is well behind alot of the caucasian records around the world.

i have noticed that there r alot of black sprinters who r not sub 10 standard bt if u read my previous post u’ll c i did make mention that alot of those sprinters have the same type of problem as the white sprinters.

i know training makes the difference, is that not what i’ve been saying all along. identify the problem and train 2 eliminate it.

Don’t be so sure about the “either/or” with Nigerian sprinters and neither about them not going by what “feels right”…

You really don’t know what you are chatting about you v’e been there? I was born there I know what goes on. Its not as simple as that. Most Ghanaians (Ghana is in West Africa) for example stigmatise sports. They detest the idea that their son or daughter is training for athletics. You will find that the REALLY talented may shy away from the sport due to the low status of sport in Ghana. Until recently people were not interested in making a career out of sports. The really capable sprinters who could run 9.9 secs use it as a ticket to go study abroad once there, they usually give up the sport.

Now in comparison, many of my friends are from Jamaica. One of them went back a few weeks ago. Now in Jamaica… (he is also an athlete incidently) athletics is BIIIIIG!!! youngsters get up at six in the morning to train, there is a culture of encouragement in sports participation in comparison to Ghanaians and many parts of Nigeria where parnets would rather their children became doctors, lawyers, architects, that is not to say that Jamaicans do not want the same for their children but sport is more accepted.

Jamaicans and African Americans do not attach stigma to sports participation in comparison to their west african counterparts. My aunt HATED the fact that my cousin (ran 10.XX secs and sub 10 but it was not ratified cause the clock stopped at Mount Sac) was an athlete EVEN when he was showing promise. I guess its a West African thing, this may explain some of the discrepency between top 100m performances between West African countries and Carribean and African Americans.

good point culture has just a strong if not stronger influence than genetics do.

y is that?

firstly i did not know that ghana was the whole rest of africa. secondly, thank u 4 confirming what i said, that other countries in africa have less of a sprinting culture.

i have stayed in africa 4 more than 20 yrs so i know how the sprint training is done there. i have worked with the national record holder of uganda in the 100 and 200m, moses mila mayate b4 he got injured and athletes from other part of africa as well, such as zambia and south africa amongst others.

there4 i would say that i am in a much better position than most 2 comment on african athletics.

Maybe the reason why In africa there are no great sprinters…european closed mind coaches…

there r alot of great sprinters in africa, in fact nigeria is only behind the usa with sub 10 performances.with ghana equal with canada and of corse don’t 4get namibia, it took 2 wr 2 beat frankie in 1996.

the problem is that there r not enough top notch coaches in africa.

I never proclaimed that Ghana represented the whole of Africa so don’t suggest that. I used the example because Ghanaians and Nigerians share many cultural values and you was harping on about this and that…now you are telling us that you lived in Africa for 20 years ok… so? It does n’t mean that your views are correct or qualified. As they say you maybe schooled but not educated. You may have lived in a compound not mixing much with the “natives” for all I know. The point is you are making these sweeping claims about race and performance the only difference is that its being directed towards white sprinters.

i said that bcos u suggested that i did not have first hand experience there and did not know what i was talking about.

it does’nt mean that may views r wrong or unqualified either. infact experience is the best teacher so i may b more qualified than alot of coaches. if i lived in a compound and was so far removed how come most of my athletes were black.

my goal is 2 let white sprinters realize thier potential, and i plan on doing this in a planned and structured approuch. eliminating the faults and allowing him 2 function at an optimal level of performance.

Personal experience…

hows that, pls explain.

All I am saying is don’t be so sure about what you said. I don’t have to explain anything. Take it or leave it.

I would totally agree, i just finished a study of that for my sociology final.

we are getting into the frame of mind that there are only a few factors to consider when we discuss this topic. but as it has been pointed out there are many others including culture. you may have individuals built for (in every measurable factor) the sprint, living in “primitive” cultures in south America. you would never know it because there culture and cultural values see something like sprinting as foreign. now you may find the same thing applies, to a less extreme extent, in white athletes around the world. like its been said they believe they cant so they don’t even try or at least not in the same numbers that African Americans do. I have always been convinced that the disproportionate number of African Americans in sports comes from two factors. one we were genetically bred for size strength ECT, the weak were culled and pulled out of the gene pull (murder… no genocide). second black culture in America with many living in poor neighborhoods and under circumstances where they believe the only way out is via athletics (one hell of a motivational factor, no?).

Agree with James,

First off I will admit I do not know the answer to this question of what effect race or skin color or anything like that has on sprinting.

And thats what I can say and if anyone can say more than that I would call them a liar.

How, how do you know, how does anyone know, how does anyone have the right to say it is skin color, or isnt skin color, or is race or isnt race or is culture or isnt culture or location or whatever.

There are literarly thousand of factors that go into being a better or worse runner and a variety of these have to line up to be an elite sprinter, and being white and training and not being able to break 10 does not give you the right to say it is race or skin color as well as being black does not give you the right to say that race has absolutely nothing to do with performance.

Anyone for or against such ideas do a proper study of this topic accounting for all other possible variables adequately and show me the results in a scientific matter and then we will talk, all this talk about culture or not having coaching or whatever thats all good and fine so is the race shit, but until someone does a proper study on this then anything all of you say is mere speculation, its just as scientific as hey should Florida or Michigan be the number 2 team, its just what you like and no amount of bullshit talk is going to make your answer more correct than anyone elses.

Race is probably a factor to some extent, but to what extent, it cant be discerned from this stupid bickering, and a really good study of this will probably not be done, way way too many variables to account for.

So until that time, everybody just train like hell and beat as many people as you can, who cares what they look like.

James good points but I remember hearing a theory as to why your 1st point has little influence I will try to find it so you can see and discuss

The other thing to consider is Work. How many top knotch guys are out there, get to say 10.30 during collage, then, get a job. Most of the time, $$ talk, and athletes walk. The guy could be a sheer natural, could break 10s easy, but, it might take more yrs to do so? During that 2yrs, he earns peanuts. Lets say 15k yr… Then he starts breaking 10, and the $$ start coming in. Lets say, he starts earning 100k yr off doing track. Take out tax, travel (flights and hotels), training seminars, constant recovery techniques each week. The guy might be left with 40k?
Now, this same guy, just does track for fun after collage and gets a decient job earning say 50k yr. After 2yrs, he is 70k in front and then, only just starts eaning $$ via the other method. His 3rd year, pay rise, now 60k yr. Still, after 3yrs, he is 30k in front, and better off tax wise (spread out over 3yrs v’s 1 in a high tax bracket). He is not spending travel fee’s ect, so that 30 might blow out to 60k in front. It would be another 2yrs before they become even, or close to even. Then, say they are even after 6yrs, He retires from sprints. Looks for a job. He is now starting at the bottom of the food chain in work, say 40k. No experience. The other example, 6yrs in the same type of job, might be fetching 70k yr if he works hard. As the working version also had a full time job, he invested in realestate and shares, during that 6yrs, they went up in value 50%…

If only i was told that yrs ago, i would have just run for fun and worked hard. Silly me.

Your numbers are way off and your point really makes little sense in light of that. What job by the way do you think this said sprinter will have where he is making $70k after a couple years w/ enough time for something on the side? Just curious…

i been makeing 60-70k as a fitter/turner, a trade. Let alone as a uni grad, say a engineer. These be aussie $$ too. take off 20% for US$
I also was not talking about a World No. 1, hell, only 1 guy can actually acheive that!
I dont personally know what a sub 10 guy, would make?? But from figures that they get from the golden league, it aint too much… Out of all events, only 1or2 get to share the 250k… Thats crap. One would expect a bit more $$ to come from endorsments, but hey, if you got no attitude and and a ugly bastard, your not going to go to well on that front either ey!
Even to bring it down a bit more, a lot of people sacrifice time to train and only become say national finalists in there home country. Even in most events, the top guy in the nation is on stuff all. NOt much of an incentive to keep training ey? If your not making any decient $$ as national champ, and you get a job offer offering more $$, you would be a brave man to keep on running and knock back the job.

Also, once you start work, most people do release they can only expect part time results.

Im sure you could find a National champ getting big $$, but i bet if you look, you’ll find more getting stuff all.
And if you look harder again, i bet, (only guessing here), that the guys that do go on and become a great success have either 1. $$ behind them (parents ect) and or 2. are a marketable item (good looking, have personality ect) or are just bludging through life and just do the running for fun and have great coaching support.