Mr. Young, thank you for the warm welcome. Bottom line, I’m just telling it like it is becasue I’m living it and I have trained along side people who are living it.
Going back to the topic at hand I really did not answer the question as ACCURATELY as possible. So lets go at it again, “why do a lot of athletes seem to get slower after high school?” Well, the truth is, a University Track and Field program is a business and there in the business to win championships. Therefore, this makes developing a college athlete into a world class athlete or just into a better athlete irrelevant. It’s the same with all the other collage sport programs.
If you “happen” to get better and faster and turn out like a Reggie Bush or a Michael Johnson; then good for you. However, after you graduate, don’t come back crying to your collage coach (unless you got money) if you want to continue on training becasue they have no time for you. As a matter of fact, some graduating athletes can no longer train at the collage that was there home for 4 years becasue of liability issues; this was stated by Dan Pfaff.
But you know, the collage level training does not bother me as much as the training that’s available at the “so called” professional level. Can you all believe that I know a guy right now who consistently runs 10.1 and has ran a 9.9 wind aided but yet has to train himself, has no contract, and doesn’t have any money? I also know another guy who is a long jumper, jumps “27” but works two jobs to pay the bills. Both of these guys are good guys and are non-trouble makers.
Excuse me, but why does a man that jumps 27 or runs 9.9 haft to have a job? Ohh, I know why, it’s because the IOC and other governing body’s take all the money and the up coming athletes haft to fend for themselves. It’s also becasue the Government could care less about the athletes that represent the country. Actions speak louder then words, so just look at the actions.
Take the Olympics which is laughable becasue every 4 years the United States comes out the woodwork’s and takes claim/credit for the athletes that place but yet I could take you to a gym in the west that has ranked athletes in the top 20 in the U.S who have NOTHING. I mean, let’s look at the extra money that people pay at the DMV to get special Olympic plates. Well, where does all that money go because it’s clearly not getting to the athletes that I see that need it the most. Furthermore, coming out of the mouth of one of these ranked athletes I was told that it would be a better situation for the sport of Track and Field if say a shoe company would split a million among 5-6 people who NEED it then to give it all to one person. It’s just sad no matter how you look at it we rely on “private” company’s to earn a living.
To a degree, and this does not make it right, but I feel that high drug use is a reflection of the overall problem and why it has gotten to the level that it has becasue combined with piss poor training the only way to make a living in this sport is to be on the very top. So after a while when you put in 10+ years of training while scraping by on Top Roman or Oodles of Noodles (take your pick) I can totally see how a person would say, “f it” and do what they got to do to make there dream come true.
Wow, I have to agree. When I first started reading I wasn’t in agreement, but I know exactly what he is saying. Right after my Sr. Year of college a year where I ran 10.30, the guy who beat me ran 10.19 in the same race. I was completely left behind and so was he. After competing at USA’s twice I still had nothing. I could use the track and lift weights at my school because i was still a student, however I had to have SAT’s sneak ice out to me because the head trainer would not allow me in the training room, wouldn’t allow any evals, etc. This is after I helped my school win 4 National Championships, many conference titles, etc. My coach wouldn’t write my workouts and didn’t spend any time with me. I trained alone and still ran 10.34. Today, I still train alone and came to grips a few years ago that I was never going to get any additional help.
Another guy at my college ran 45 and change in the quarter, qualified for USA’s, was a national champion several times in the 400m had the same problem I had. At the USA’s he got in a limo with his former teammate and olympic gold medalist. He was then told by his former coach that he’d have to take a cab to the track and he couldn’t ride in the limo.
It sucks that this happens, but it’s not going to change and I accept that. I train now because I love it. I can’t go to the big meets with guys to really, really push me, but I still feel that I can PR, but sometimes I wonder and I’ve had others tell me that they wonder what I could have run if I got immediate help.