not enough 400m talent in state of FL

[Paul Henry]

I dont think there is enough 400 talent in the world.

[kamikaze7]

I dont think there is enough 400 talent in the world.

There is plenty of talent out there. What is lacking is proper training. It does not exist except for a few pockets in Europe and North America, maybe Oz. 400m training is highly technical.

[Marlow]

400m training is highly technical.

Every event at the highest elite levels is 'highly technical'. I would venture, however, that it's less technical than the 800, both hurdles and every field event.

[hjumper33]

...it broke my heart to see that the Illinois high school kids would have won the "what state did you grow up in" NCAA XC championships :cry:

You're sad because the kids got to go to college in other states?... isn't that a (small) part of the American rite-of-passage?

I agree for many kids to leave is normal, but not every single top 10 large school kid for the last X years. Illinois doesnt have great weather, but neither do wisconsin, minnesota, iowa ect. where we lose plenty of them to.

[kamikaze7]

400m training is highly technical.

Every event at the highest elite levels is 'highly technical'. I would venture, however, that it's less technical than the 800, both hurdles and every field event.

I disagree. Sprinting is far more technical than distance events. IMO, the 400m, 400mH and 110mh are the most difficultevents to train for without coaches. 400m seems to me the most injury prone event. Astute coaches are able to make adjustments for reduce injury

Besides having good coaching, factors such as nutrition, rehab etc play a huge role.

Back to my earlier point, developing nations would perform much better in the sprints if they had the proper coaching. One of the reasons they do well in distance events but not in the sprints is precisely that. Distance events arent that hard to train for. Its not rocket science. So many athletes like John Ngugi the legend can succeed without a coach.

IMO Kenya is an excellent example. Many of Kenya's top 800m runners actually specialized in 400m in high school or during their junior days.

According to the IAAF site, Billy Konchellah ran 45.38 at age 18 in 1979, which is comparable to Merritt and Wariner types at the same age. And this was probably without good instruction. Who knows how good he would have been as a 400m runner if he had instrcution.

Besides Konchellah, many of Kenya's top 800m runners were sprinters when they ran as juniors. : Pamela Jelimo ran 400m, Janeth Jepkosgei ran the 400mh

Others like Francisca Chepkurui, Patrick Ndururi (1:42.30),
Even Kirwa Yego strikes me as a similar case.

Nigeria too probably has 400m talent coming out of their ears if they only had a program to develop such talent.

Long story short, if you are a 400m runner and you are not from Europe or North America, its just that much harder to make it. In Pamela Jelimo's case, she showed up a training camp and the coaches told her there was no one qualified to coach her in the 400m, so he switched

http://www.eastandard.net/InsidePage...3995423&cid=39

After she won 400m gold at the Africa Junior Championships in Burkina Faso, she came to my training camp in Kapsabet and asked whether she could join," the coach begins.

"I asked her which race she wanted to run and she answered the 400m. I advised her that her chosen event involves a lot of technical training that we could not provide in Kapsabet," he adds.

[paulthefan]

I dont think there is enough 400 talent in the world.

Neither is there enough oatbran and flax seed in the world nor enough mathematical competence.

Back to my earlier point, developing nations would perform much better in the sprints if they had the proper coaching. One of the reasons they do well in distance events but not in the sprints is precisely that. Distance events arent that hard to train for. Its not rocket science. So many athletes like John Ngugi the legend can succeed without a coach......
...jelimo....
"I asked her which race she wanted to run and she answered the 400m. I advised her that her chosen event involves a lot of technical training that we could not provide in Kapsabet," he adds.

wrong and almost 1/2 right, both are highly technical, they just did not specialize in the 400m.. simple as that. They could provide the support necessary for 800m+ but not 400m and below.

[Paul Henry]

I dont think there is enough 400 talent in the world.

There is plenty of talent out there. What is lacking is proper training. It does not exist except for a few pockets in Europe and North America, maybe Oz. 400m training is highly technical.

I'm sorry, I only said this due to mere frustration with the fact that the 400m filed is so uncompetitive with only a handful of guys managing consistent sub 45s.

[kamikaze7]

Back to my earlier point, developing nations would perform much better in the sprints if they had the proper coaching. One of the reasons they do well in distance events but not in the sprints is precisely that. Distance events arent that hard to train for. Its not rocket science. So many athletes like John Ngugi the legend can succeed without a coach......
...jelimo....
"I asked her which race she wanted to run and she answered the 400m. I advised her that her chosen event involves a lot of technical training that we could not provide in Kapsabet," he adds.

wrong and almost 1/2 right, both are highly technical, they just did not specialize in the 400m.. simple as that. They could provide the support necessary for 800m+ but not 400m and below.

For me its a no brainer that the sprints require far more astute coaching, attention to detail and individual attention than do distance events.

Strength training to target the right muscle groups
Finding your ideal sprinting weight
proper diet and nutrition to get to your target weight and maintain it
exercises to improve balance, posture and stability of the core
Exercises to reduce injury

Among others factors, these are more critical for sprinters than they are for distance runners. All require individual attention from various specialists. Distance runners esepcially in East Africa often dont have that kind of individual attention. They dont need it.