I do believe some coaches have extensive data over the years and those patterns and trends found are valuable. I am not a believer in unpublished research by "eastern bloc" countries as their results are very clearly "published" at international meets. If the results are not statistically supra- normal why bother researching what they were doing and panning for secrets? Statistically the Russi [...]

What can I possibly say or write that would do this justice. Some things to consider:Has any athlete ever been this much better than all his peers?Is it good for the sport to have someone who is so far ahead of his competitors (essentially ensuring that they have zero chance to win)?Do the outlandish performances potentially encourage more athletes to use performance enhancing drugs in hopes of be [...]

Sorry I've been away for a while (more on that in upcoming posts) but I thought I'd mark my return with some detailed commentary on Usain's 9.58 world record performance yesterday: WOW. On a more serious note, I'm actually curious to know whether the performance was better than last year's run in Beijing. I'm not quite sure myself and I have yet to do a detailed analysis of the splits to see [...]

My good friend Kevin McGill got me thinking about this over the past several weeks. He is trying to find out how the “soft step” concept has become embedded in the belief system of American javelin coaches. This is one of many examples of myths that are adopted as beliefs without anyone really taking the time to research the facts. Has anyone thought to challenge this concept of “toe up” a [...]

I am absolutely awestruck by Bolt's performance. It is really hard to find words to describe what we just witnessed. The fact that his two 100 meter world records came in the finals of the Olympic Games and the World Championship, by itself is amazing. He beat the best. I am trying to put it in a historical context and imagine where all the past great sprinters in history would have finished. The [...]

According to this report, 2 Jamaican sprinters who had qualified for Berlin have tested positive for banned substances (not necessarily PEDs). The report does not name names but confirms that it is not one of the super stars and that one of the positives is a female. Is anyone surprised? Do you think this is the start of many slip ups by the Caribbean nation or just a couple fools who wanted to ta [...]

So this past weekend, Usain Bolt casually ran what may very well be one of the more impressive races in the history of track and field (if you can call a 150m race down a street track and field). His 150m time on the rain-soaked temporary track in Manchester, England was out of this world. 14.35 seconds. That sounds like a pretty good 110 meter high hurdle time. Or maybe even a bad high school 100 [...]

I continue to be amazed, befuddled and baffled by people’s infatuation with training programs. It is almost comical to get emails and phone calls asking me about the latest rope thing or the plate swing. The one’s I always like are questions about the Jamaican Sprint program or the Russian Speed program. I want to say SO WHAT! It doesn’t matter unless you are coaching Jamaican [...]

A recent news release quoted Usain Bolt's coach, Glen Mills, as saying that the otherworldly sprint god is going to focus on improving his start for the 2009 season. Here's the exact quote from the article:We have identified three major things with his starting that we feel we can correct this coming season. I feel that within the next two seasons he is going to become one of the fastest starter [...]

Here's some interesting thoughts from former sprint prodigy-turned Balco bustee-turned returning prodigal son Dwain Chambers:When I came back from my suspension in 2006 I went to train in Jamaica and I never got tested once and I was there for six months. You would think that someone coming off a drug ban would be routinely tested but I wasn't tested once. You need to test athletes in October, N [...]