posted Aug 23, 2008

Adored99- Definitely. That's the good thing about the athletics calendar; there's a global championship just 12 months on for athletes to set their mistakes to rights.

add comment | complain about this comment

posted Aug 23, 2008

At the start Lisa was on the outside but as soon an gap opened on the inside, she lept into it. This was on the first lap. I thought then this girl is not going to win a medal, she is hiding in the pack. She had at least two opportunities to get out on the outside but on each occaision she went back to the kerb again.
She is experienced enough to know not to do this but I think fear took over. It was a great shame because it may well be the greatest opportunity she will ever have to win an Olympic medal.

add comment | complain about this comment

posted Aug 23, 2008

Three points. She wouldn't have won whatever race she had run - albeit a surprise the winner was in a different league. Secondly, she has enough experience to take the responsibility herself for unfortunately a predictable tactical disaster. Finally, I don't believe her finishing 'kick' is quite the potent weapon she seems to believe. She actually ran past tiring athletes at the end but made no ground on the winner who made the kind winning move Dobriskey should have thought about making.

add comment | complain about this comment

posted Aug 23, 2008

Exactly, Such A Shame
She had the strength and had enough left to go on and do big things,
just got it tactically wrong.

add comment | complain about this comment

posted Aug 24, 2008

The rule that you should be on the leader's shoulder in a slow race seemed to go out of the window in Andy Badderly's race also. giving fast finishers a ten yard start AND having to run all the way round the outside is a real no-brainer.

add comment | complain about this comment

posted Aug 24, 2008

Number of minutes dedicated to tactics for middle distance racing in UK Athletics coach education programme?

None!

add comment | complain about this comment

posted Aug 25, 2008

In fairness, though Jim, I always go through tactics with my athletes before each race anyway - it shouldn't need to be written down!

Fair enough new coaches may need to have it reinforced, but most (all?) coaches are former athletes, so it should become part of a cycle.

I do wonder of it's the athletes or the coach that's at fault here. George Gandy is a great coach, so I can't see that he wouldn't have gone through the race with Lisa, whilst Steve Cram spoke to Andy Baddeley on the day of the race, yet both ran their finals horribly wrong.

Mike Rimmer was shocking last year, but does seem to have learnt this year - he just didn't have it in him physically after the illness (he looked like a stick - even moreso than normal!)

add comment | complain about this comment

posted Aug 26, 2008

hi jjimbojames,

You may have identified one of the problems.

Going through the tactics with an athlete before a race sounds sensible (and is) but is only a part of the story.

An athlete has to be able to adapt their own tactics and respond to the tactics of others. Learning this is a process which needs to be included in training and initially applied in less important races.

It is understanding this which needs to be introduced to coach education. You can talk through all the tactics in the world before a race but if the athlete lacks either the physical background preparation or the psychological confidence from prior experience, the pre race talk is based on hope rather than preparation.

add comment | complain about this comment

posted Aug 26, 2008

Jim,

Absolutely. This is why it frustrates me to hear people straight away jump on people like Dave Collins and blame him and the people at the top. Have they made mistakes - yes, but the athletes are in the races

In terms of responding mid-race, I usually expect my athletes to become more adept with experience (as indeed Michael Rimmer has done this year), as it's not the easiest thing to simulate in training, but I fail to see how athletes like Lisa and Andy have any excuses here - unless someone has told them to stay on the inside

Both have been around for a number of years, and whilst neither were what I call 'World Class' until this season, I still expected better. They have used the same tactics in pretty much every race (inside, towards the back, expecting a space to open up) I've seen them in all season, and they just don't seem to get it. Both have the physical capabilities to match the pace of the top racers, and have great finishing kicks, but weren't in a position to make use of them

I wonder if the lack of races against the top guys is the issue. Lisa has been pretty domestic-based, and Andy has rarely raced over 1500m this season (finishing 2nd at Crystal Palace, using his 'tactics'). I can't help thinking the success of the 2 of them there gave them false hope that this would work in Beijing

add comment | complain about this comment

posted Sep 3, 2008

So many experts, so much advice, so she got it wrong.

The facts
Never ran against any of the Olympic finalists before.
Lack of a UK field meant running a mixed sex race in order to reach her potential.
Went from 19th in the world rankings to 4th in 4 days and had only ever expected to reach final.

Give the girl a break and focus your energy on promoting a positive atmosphere not only for my daughter but for all the other UK athletes that trained and tried so hard and just missed out on their own expectations.

The bus loads of UK experts are always first to jump on the band wagon when any sports person 'fails'. How about the odd well done for getting to the finals, learn from the experience and we are all behind you for the future.
Regards
M

add comment | complain about this comment