Logan's WC Comments

[Marlow]

http://www.usatf.org/about/leadership/ShinSplintsBlog/

I have been a Big Fan of his since he took ever, because up to now he has been saying the right things, but his latest comments having him taking a left turn in Albuquerque. His job is not to be an apologist; his job is to be critical of the things that need critiquing. Yes, we did great in many events that have been problematic, but that's through great PERSONAL dedication on the part of the individual athletes. In the two events where the infrastructure really can make a substantial short-term difference, the 4x1s, we were abysmal, and I can point right to London where one could first see the wheels coming off. OF COURSE Logan himself can't be blamed for the miscues of the relays, but he sure as heck did not take the bull by the horns, as his previous blogs seemed to indicate.

[Smoke]

Where was this breakdown last year when he was placing his entire opinion on what happened in the sprint relays??? We won the second most medals ever and all he harped on was how bad the team was and how there was a mess in the federation that he was going to clean up and thus we have Project 30!
It is worse.
Project 30 was biased.
The relays this year were fine. I will repeat, they were fine. The men ran fine in Cottbus and ran fine in Berlin. The infraction is minimal and HAS NOTHING to do with anything. And I mean that sincerely. It is a freak occurrence. Not a dropped stick or poor stick handling, just something that never happens and only happened because we were making safe passes and NOT stretchingt he zones to qualify. Sans a chickenshit protest it is a non issue. And we cannot ignore the bs protest because that is the ONLY reason we are talking about this.
The women, we can harp about the muffed handoff but I will repeat, it is a aprt of the game. If you are going to beat up on the ladies for that handoff then we may as well beat on every hurdler that hit a hurdle too, same fallacy. It shoud not happen, you do not want it to happen but it happens and for a number of reasons. Muna pulled. Now that I lay at the feet of those making decisions. We saw this bear jump on us in Athens.
The young lady doubled and they thought it wise to run her in the prelims the next day???? Let's see, that would be 6 days of sprinting in 7 days. Now watch this. Last year some athletes complained that they did not know what they were running or where. The method to the madness was for this contingency. Vet got hurt and that left us with ONE third leg, Muna. Why? Because no one else available had been run at that leg. But this way was supposed to be so much better. It was a lie then and it is a lie now.
Less races, less practice,less options. We do not have a relay program and now he is making it Benita's number priority????? We had a relay program and we were just fine folks. 07 we won all 4 relays. In 05 we won three. In 03 we won a men's 4x1 with the same four guys every round! Please note that the hiccups have happened in Olympic years, and yes there is a reason for this.

Anyway, there will be more cries for more practice and having relay teams compete. It is crap. Speed wins. If you think not look at Jamaica this year and last, shaky sticks but so fast no one paid attention. The Jamaican women this year, shaky sticks but so fast no one blinked. The US the past 40 years, so fast we only care when we do not win. Now we are challenged and something is wrong. LOL

[klass klown]

The right decisions were made, but hamstrings are fickle things, especially for sprinters.

Getting sick and tired of people trying to blame that botched exchange on Lee's injury. Logan knows full well what happened, and that the injury was a PRODUCT of the screwed up handoff, and Lee's attempts to grab the stick, not the cause.

In summary Mr. Logan - Lee got out slowly, Anderson whiffed on two handoff attempts, Lee contorted trying to grab the stick, Anderson banged into Lee, Lee's hamstring went south, Lee laying on track.

We have video if you need it. Perhaps watch it slowly. But don't make weasely excuses for failure.

[Marlow]

The relays this year were fine. I will repeat, they were fine.

We're going to have to agree to disagree then. I thought the relays were an embarrassment. Both exchanges that caused our problems were just flat-out bad. When you run up on your teammate (women), bad things often happen. When you get the baton too soon (men), you aren't using the zone the way you're supposed to.

'If it ain't broke, don't fix it.' Do you REALLY think that is the case here? I sure don't. It needs a major overhaul.

[klass klown]

By the way marlow your link is bad. One too many forward slashes at the end.

[gm]

I think I will listen to the guy here who has actually had hands-on experience at that level.

[klass klown]

I think I will listen to the guy here who has actually had hands-on experience at that level.

[gm]

well, then, klown, tell me how much relay coaching experience you have beyond the collegiate level

[klass klown]

well, then, klown, tell me how much relay coaching experience you have beyond the collegiate level

Why would I admit it if I did?

[gm]

Never mind. That answered the question. Another armchair quarterback.

[Slowrunner]

All in all the US performance was very strong. With the exception of the race walks, the US was competitive in almost every event (except like men;'s javelin & steeple, women's TJ). Look at how strong the middle distances have become, especially for the women. We can expect the US to contend for medals in potentially upwards of 40 events in '11 & '12. It was exciting to know that each day brought multiple medal possibilities. Think of the last day, Symmonds in the 800, Lagat & co. in the 5k, Reese in the LJ, 3 women in the 1500, Goucher in the marathon and the 4x4 relays. If the sprinters pull their weight, 30 medals in possible.

[vip]

Klass klown was 100 percent correct about Doug Logan's erroneous blog. The injury had NOTHING to do with the relay; it was a botched handoff that led to a domino effect, ending with Muna face down on the track. For Doug to ignore the obvious is for him to think we're fools, which we are not. He's just trying to protect Muna (who got off too slow) and Alex, which I understand, to an extent.

Relay handoffs are botched all the time, but you'd think professionals would pass the stick much better than this. And I got a kick out of Lauryn Williams saying the ladies weren't "discouraged" by the latest debacle. I guess they won't get discouraged until it happens 7 or 8 more times.

[gh]

I was somewhat troubled by this comment (BF mine): " Benita, who has been in her job just over a month, will be making the relay system overhaul a priority. We won't be satisfied until we develop a system whose only potential weak spot is natural human fallibility."

From that I take it that the two mishaps here were caused by divine intervention?

Note that the pass that was screwed up on the men's side was Crawford to Patton. That was the same combo they closed with in Cottbus and at Penn this year and in London and Zürich last year. Practice does not always make perfect.

[Marlow]

Practice does not always make perfect.

There is no 'perfect' in relay running. But there IS experience. Multiple recent high-level competition. Which the USA did not have. Without which you are indeed relying on divine intervention to forestall disaster. And you don't need to be an elite national coach to see the effects of a slip-shod approach to a relay. I certainly do NOT blame the coaches and athletes. They did the best they could under the circumstances. Now let's fix the 'circumstances' also.

[gh]

Since about 1 (maybe 2) meets per year year offer "high-level" competition, just how would you suggest the U.S. get it? Funny how the other nations manage without.

If there's a villain here, it's the wealth of sprint talent. Most nations are lucky to find four world-class sprinters, so they can put them in a year-round camp and do nothing but (knowing that they'll not be making many/any individual sprint finals).

The fact that Jamaica is doing "better" is totally relative. They have a better core of top-enders right now (and that, I assure you, is a transient thing, because small-pop nations can't keep that stuff up; just ask Canada) and they've not been quite as snake-bit (see the Ja women in Beijing).

Most years (not w/ Bolt/Powell around) the U.S. could "guarantee" a gold medal (either sex) by putting together a firm national team 6 months ahead of time and ignoring the Trials results. But then you end up with Nike (or to a lesser extent, adidas's) Nike's new star ripping it up in the Trials and not being on the team.

Tough Damocletian sword.