Spikes and Flats

MILES AHEAD II

Let's hope this font stays with us longer than the last one. Please note that I have selected "ARIAL BLACK" as the font to show my mastery and control over a machine that thoroughly intimidates and manipulates me,... almost at will.

 

We were talking about the mental aspects and properties of training and coaching peak performances. Quite frankly, since the loss of the original font I have lost the stream of thought associated with the topic and so will continue with a less cogent effort that hopefully will make sense as I offend some people in what I am about to present.

 

In many instances the ultimate success of an athlete depends upon the science and detached judgments employed by both athlete and coach. It is my feeling that if a coach has an athlete as his/her best friend, then one, or both, is seriously skewed ans screwed. It disturbs me when I hear a coach refer to "MY Athletes". The same applies when I hear athletes refer to "My Coach". The degree to which the first person singular possessive is used and abused, often determines the degree that dispassionate and scientific decisions are compromised. The same can be said about athletes that refer "My Training" as opposed to "My Racing". If there is too much emphasis and centering on "training", then there is a lessening of the focus and drive toward competing and competition, which, after all, is the ultimate goal and objective of competitive athletics. I have often heard athletes and coaches express reluctance to  attend a competition because it will interfere with "training".. What can be more specific to competitive training than attending a competition to see exactly where you are in the scheme of things, and with that knowledge, return to workouts with a more certain sense of what is needed for further improvement ?

 

While I am on the topic of pet peeves, let me share another one that is mental and psychologically centered. Coaches and athletes constantly talk about the need to "focus". To a degree this is necessary, but in actual competitive situations, it is more critical that athlete and coach have the ability to "refocus". Very rarely will things go according to the manner and mode we have been told we need to focus on in order to optimize results. All too often "stuff happens" that requires a last minute, second, or nano-second modification or adjustment . I have seen great athletes make these changes and adjustments, and less flexible and adaptive athletes cave in and falter. The same can, unfortunately, be said for coaches as well. 

 

At major international meets like the Olympic Games and World Championships, where there is a monitor in the warm up area, I never venture into the stadium for running events. The reason being, as long as I am in the warm up area, I pretty much remain a coach, somewhat dispassionate and science centered. When I enter the stadium and join in with the electricity and excitement, I become more of a spectator and fan than is good for making the necessary judgments and decisions necessary to really help the athlete through the next round. What is really revealing is the number of coaches who coach athletes to the podium who are fighting me for optimum positions with which to view the monitor in the warm up area.

 

I guess the thrust of what I am attempting to convey is the fact that coaches need to be coaches and teachers, and in order to do that effectively there needs to be a certain physical and psychological distance between coach and athlete. In order to make the mental decisions necessary to maximize training and competitive results, there has to be a certain delineation and separation. I take great and unusual pride in the fact that athletes that I have coached have achieved their best results when I was a continent and ocean away. Jeff Atkinson and Patti Sue Plummer both were Olympic finalists in Seoul in 1988. This was the very apex and pinnacle of their athletic dreams and drive up to that point. They were in Seoul, Korea and I was in Palo Alto, California. Last May David Oliver ran 12.95, his PR and best performance ever, for 110 hurdles in Doha, while I was in Orlando, Florida, a continent and ocean away. Let's face it, there are too many coaches who want athletes to be totally dependent upon them, rather than have the athlete rely upon their own skills, talent, and ability that they a possess. At the Olympic Games in Beijing I witnessed an athlete come totally unglued because the coach did not have a pass to get into the warm up area. This kind of dependency builds up a real and/or perceived need that is not only counter-productive to maximizing performances but is self-defeating and causes a form of self-denial and self-denigration within the athlete that is not healthy for either party.  A marathon athlete was advised by the coach that attendance at a seminar of other athletes in the same event to get the latest insights and knowledge provided by USOC scientists and successful USATF coaches about how to handle the topography, heat and humidity factors of the Beijing course, would result in a permanent separation between coach and athlete. The athlete did not attend.     

 

It is obvious from the above, that coaches are just as susceptible to making major mental and psychological errors as athletes. Those, athletes and coaches, who find the ability to successfully negotiate the distance between their left and right earlobe, will find themselves "Miles Ahead" of those who do not.

 

Brooks T. Johnson

Posted by Coach Brooks Johnson at March 17, 2009 | Add Comment

MILES AHEAD

 

Miles Dewey Davis is a trumpet player from Alton, Illinois. His father was a successful dentist and his family was essentially black bourgeoisie. In the early 40s he came to New York City to study at The Julliard School of Music, one of the most prestigious schools of music in America.. He desperately wanted to be a jazz musician, got involved in the bebop music scene, got hooked on heroin, fighting heroin, he fell off the jazz radar screen for a while only to emerge in the middle 50s with what is considered the quintessential jazz quintet of all time ( Miles - trumpet, Red Garland- piano, Paul Chamber- angel head bass, "Philly Joe Jones - drums with fatback, and John Coltrane- tenor saxophone) Jimmy Cobb would substitute for Philly Joe Jones when the group toured. One of the first and most successful early recordings of this group was called "Miles Ahead" . If you want to get the full essence of what is to follow, listening to the title cut of the "Mile Ahead" album will certainly help with the nuances and layered meaning and significance.

 

It has often been mouthed that 90% of competitive success at the elite level is mental. However, it has been my observation that there is rarely enough understanding and emphasis dealing with this area commensurate with the significant position it holds for competitive success in track and field. I subscribe to the idea that psychology is in many instances the "winning edge" as far as success is concerned at the outer limits of any endeavor: athletics, art, acting music, theatre, politics, and so many other pursuits. I often share with athletes with whom I work, " The longest and hardest distance we will ever and ultimately have to cover is between your left earlobe and your right earlobe. " Or,...... how many " Miles Ahead" do we have to traverse with each athlete before we reach the optimum mindset, for the event and the athlete's skillset.   

 

In order for the coach to properly get a handle on the psychology involved, there must be something of an inventory taken of the psychology required for the event and the basic psychology and mind map of the athlete. For example, often we find athletes who possess what we call "instant reward syndrome" as opposed to those who have the capacity for a "delayed reward syndrome". Athletes with "instant reward syndrome" need immediate feedback and sanction,....positive or negative. These athletes are "now" centered and focused and are impatient for results and evaluation and especially approval. Athletes with "delayed reward syndrome" can prepare longer without having to have reward or results. They will accept long term planning and programming. As a rule, "instant reward" athletes have a mindset that is more compatible with the sprints and ballistic events, although this is not always the case. Their emphasis on "now" and the willingness to roll the dice right now, is certainly a plus in these events . On the other hand, athletes who are willing to train at a high level for an objective that is months away, obviously do better in events ( distance and some field events ) where preparation for peak performance in the event requires prolonged preparation.

 

I have often heard coaches say, "If that athlete would move up to a longer distance, they could do so much better." That is only true if the athlete has the proper reward syndrome required of that event. No matter what the basic gifts may be, an "instant reward" person is not equipped to do well in a "delayed reward" event. The additional catch is the fact that athletes determine whether they can adjust to the requirements of another event,....not coaches ! There is no way an athlete with an "instant reward syndrome" is going to successfully move up to the 800 meters, no matter what the physical gifts happen to be.

 

Once upon a time I was coaching two very gifted and talented athletes at Stanford University. I almost ruined the career of one because I coached and trained them the same. Further the race strategy was the same, which was  was to get the race down to a one-on-one affair and beat the person isolated ut as the chief competitor. That was the competitive ploy I employed with marginal success as an athlete, and naturally thought it was best for everyone else who wanted to do well. Patti Sue Plumer was made for this type of training and race strategy. I would identify the person I felt she had to beat in order to win and train her to dominate the critical area of the race where it would come down to one-on-one. This is what we term a "goal oriented" perspective.

Establish a personalized objective and have at it. Regina Jacobs on the other hand, was "task oriented" at the time I worked with her. If I tried to get the race down in her mind to her and one other person, she did not enjoy the success she did when she was asked to perform certain tasks and keep the whole affair dispassionate and impersonal. " Regina, go out in 63-65, then give me a 65-67, bear down a bit for the third lap in order to stay at 65-67, and then kick like hell to the finish line." Later, I must say, I thought I saw some "goal oriented" motivation when it came to her and Suzie Favor- Hamilton. Thank God she was able to realize the shortcomings of my training for her and move to someone who had a better grasp of how she needed to be coached. Patti Sue went on to become ranked #1 at 3000/5000,made the Olympic final in the 3000 in 1988, and the Olympic final in both the 3,000 and 1500 in 1992. Bottom line, " Different strokes for different folks." because one size definitely does not fit all.

 

One of the most essential, misunderstood and mis-applied mental concepts, is the level of demands and expectations of the either the athlete or coach, or both.  In establishing goals and objectives for an athlete there are many things that must be taken into realistic account. The first has to do with the mental profile and orientation of the athlete. As we have stated above, an "instant reward" mindset will not allow for maximization of results in a "delayed reward". A person who is trained and coached as a "goal oriented" person, will not do well if their basic psyche is "task oriented.

 

I have managed to totally screw up the type/font thing and do not know how to adjust it back to where it was. Accept this for now and the rest will follow when I can get someone to help me out.. Being a cyber cretin really has real drawbacks.

 

Brooks T. Johnson

Posted by Coach Brooks Johnson at March 15, 2009 | Add Comment

COACHING AS JAZZERCIZE

LAKE ALMANOR, CALIFORNIA - SEPTEMBER, MIDDLE 80s

 

Jeff Atkinson was a young middle distance runner from Manhattan Beach, California. The Stanford cross country team is up at Lake Almanor, California for our pre-season altitude training and team bonding experience. Atkinson shows up with some loud cut offs and I immediately jump his case.

 

" Atkinson, if you want to draw attention to your dumb ass, do it in a way it counts. Do it with what you have IN your legs and not what you have ON your legs. Do it with real substance and not some bulls--t style experiment !".

 

He responded with a somewhat mild smart Alec rejoinder and I immediately knew there was potential there. Very few Stanford men would have been so bold to my face. He also cut back drastically on his choice of apparel when I was present.

 

A year or so later we had a meet at the University of California - Berkeley and Washington State and their Kenya Afrika Corps was there. In the 1500 meter run, with a lap and a half to go, Atkinson took off and passed and gaped the feared the Africans . With a lap to go they swept him up like he was an autumn leaf in a windstorm. All of his buddies on the Stanford team rushed over to him afterwards and began berating him about how stupid he was to make such a move and embarrass himself like that. I made it my business to get to him as fast as I could and yelled at them.

 

" You guys get the hell out of his face ! If you don't understand what just happened then you need to shut that hole in your face below your nose.". 

 

Turning to Atkinson, who was bent over desperately gasping for air , dignity and composure I said,

 

"Jeff you just shifted all the responsibility for your success from your shoulders to mine. If you have the balls to make that kind of a move, then it is now up to me to coach and train you so that kind of move will hold.. You know longer have to worry because the real challenge is on me. I have to take the weight."

 

Later we talked in greater detail about what was necessary for him to make that kind of kick move and have it be sustainable through the tape.

 

"Jeff, we have to get your prepared so you can run between 53 and 55 seconds with a lap to go in the 1500."

 

"Coach, I can not run 55 seconds fresh.".

 

"Don't worry, you will.".

 

As we prepared for the Olympic Trials of 1988 I approached Jeff about goals and objectives for the Trials.

 

"Jeff, the opening 800 is going to be slow and tactical, between 2:03-2:05. If you can run 53 seconds you can win it. If you run 54 seconds you will be no worse that second and if you run 55 seconds you will at least make the team. What do you want to do ?".

 

"I want to win the damned thing ! I ain't taking any chances.".

 

"That means that you will have to beat Steve Scott ( American record holder at indoor and outdoor mile, silver medalist at 1983 World Championships and  an American icon in the mile and 1500 meters. ) and Jim Spivey ( One of the most intense competitors in the event in the world )."

 

"Brooks, I want to win !"

 

Since the day of the encounter about style versus substance we had increased his cardio-vascular capacity, which was already pretty good as a result of the volume of mileage he had put on in high school. His high school coach had as one of his claims to fame that he , the coach, had run 100 miles a week for a solid year ! We had worked on his sprint mechanics and sprint and training to the point where his final training session on the Tuesday before the first round

was two X 400. He ran 48.50 and came back with a second one in 48.30. In my head I figured that off a tactical pace he could come back in a time that was 10% off his 400 speed, or in the 53 second range. He ran 52.96, Steve Scott was second, and Jim Spivey was third. So here was an athlete who coming out of high school was under the impression that he could not run 55 seconds fresh, now running 52.96 in debt, in the most important race of his life.

 

But that is not really the real thrust of this effort. At one point I conducted a class without credit in the athletic department at Stanford called JAZZ SPORTS AND SOCIETY. Jeff, aware of my great and abiding love of the music, thought he would get back at me in response to some criticism I had heaped on him by saying,

 

" You coach just like a jazz musician !".

 

"You stupid ass,.... of course I coach like a jazz musician. And whether or not you realize it or not, that is the reason you can now make a decent living from running. Every G--damned time you win a race, you can thank Miles Davis, John Coltrane, and Ahmad Jamal.".

 

The core point I am making here is in response to some of the feedback I have been getting about this "blog". There has been some flattering responses, but there have been some that are particularly critical of the style and manner I use to make a point. I heard from a person I used to coach, who is one of the most knowledgeable people in the sport, who actually helped shape the sport much more so than any coach I know. His statement to me was,

 

" Brooks, you make it too complicated. You show some courage in telling the truth, and laying it all out there, but you don't have to use all them words. Just stick with the facts. People do not want to hear all that other stuff." .

 

" You know what ? First, I ain't doing this for other people. Second, I am only concerned about maybe one or two per cent of the people who read what I have to say and "get it". Nothing happens in a vacuum and I try and flesh it out as much as I think practical and profitable for the point I am trying to make. For some people this enriches and embellishes the piece, for a lot more, it is just useless and superfluous verbosity. I am sorry you are in the majority.".

 

"Well,...I would rather you keep it up rather than stop. But you will see the light and lighten up one of these days.".

 

This brings me to the meat of the subject, Coaching as Jazzercize. First of all, by "jazzercize" I am not referring to the kind of activity that takes place with overweight people at the "Y" or gym fighting against their calories and easing their conscience. What I am talking about is coaching and training people based upon the underlying principles of good jazz. For a basic and simple example, a typical composer of a song will usually work out the melody, and on the piano, play it with the right hand. The right hand melody is then backed up by a left hand chord pattern that is in harmony and augments tonally and rhythmically what is happening with the right hand. Now the jazz musician plays a Hegelian game and turns this idea on it head. The jazz musician learns the chord pattern and improvises a new right hand melody that is based upon the chord pattern and the creative impulses the musician feels. The simplest examples of this are, Ahmad Jamal, Red Garland, and Erroll Garner or piano and Jimmy Smith on Hammond B/3 organ.

 

For/to me, this is exactly how I feel coaching should be conducted. The coach should know and have a complete command of the basic left hand chord patterns, which consist of the basic science(s) of the sport, especially the applicable and relevant laws of physiology, physics and bio-mechanics. With the right hand there should be played out an improvised melody that is consistent with what is going on mentally at the time immediate before, during, and right after a workout. The left hand science provides the structure, foundation and basis of the work, with the right hand interpretations of what is needed and possible, expressed and reflected in the quality and/or quantity of what the coach requires and asks the athlete to do in any given workout.

 

On a good day,... my coaching goes beyond, Red Garland, Ahmad Jamal, Erroll Garner and Jimmy Smith. On a good day, with athletes and me primed and really tuned in, I feel as a joint effort we can get down with John Coltrane. One of many techniques and approaches Coltrane had to playing was called " sheets of sounds". In this he would take a slice of time and space and try and play all of the various elements that constituted and defined that time and space. Instead of being linear in emphasis, he would play all of the vertical visual images that represented to him the totality of that instant in time and space, from top to bottom and then from bottom to top, thus "sheets of sounds".

 

Whereas in coaching it requires that the athlete also be "tuned in" in order to exploit Coltrane's approach. In writing these "blogs" I do not feel the need to be constrained or in any way limited by second and/or third parties. I merely put down the images that constitute whatever time and space and subject I am occupied with, and, as honestly and candidly as I can, frame and flesh it out with background and/or history.

 

So now you have it.

 

So what ?

 

Brooks T. Johnson

 

Posted by Coach Brooks Johnson at March 11, 2009 | Add Comment

DUMB,DUMBER AND DUMBEST - LIES, DAMNED LIES AND DAMNEDEST LIES !!!!

WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 11, 2009 - ETON COLLEGE

 

Life is good !

 

Two hurdlers I am coaching have run the #1 ( Olympic Bronze Medalist, David Oliver - 7.45) and the #3 ( Joel Brown - 7.48 ) fastest times in the world for the 60 meter hurdles. I have just finished a consultation presentation to the top coaches in England for the sprints, hurdles and other events. The event takes place at Eton, yes,.....THAT Eton. An institution that boasts it produced 16 prime ministers of England. I used to work and walk the halls at St Albans  School in Washington, D.C. and had the opportunity to work with, teach/coach, a future Vice President ( Al Gore ) and a U.S. Senator ( Evan Bayh ). St Albans was based upon an English school like Eton and has produced more than its share of leaders in government, industry and service,.. but Eton is still Eton. The presentation had gone over very well and compliments and thanks were shared all around. The British track and field federation is mandated to increase their Olympic medal count just as we were charged with the same task back in 2001. They are keenly aware of the fact that the U.S. has gone from 15 medals ( after drug disqualifications ) at the 2000 Olympics to a high medal count of 25/26 at the last two World Championships and 24/23 at the last two Olympics. As Chair of the High Performance Division, I was charged with creating and get implemented  plans and projects , approved by the Executive Committee of the High Performance Division, that would increase our medal count from the 2000 medal nadir. Knowing my responsibility and involvement in the medal increase, I was asked by the Brits to share with them the things that worked best for the U.S. in achieving the increase in medals. One of the pillars upon which my good feelings rested was the fact and irony that I was now being paid to do for them,.... what I volunteered and had mostly done for free for the U.S. since 2001.

 

So it was after this rather successful experience that I was made aware of portions of the Audit Panel "Report" being circulated by USA Track and Field.

Dorrell Smith, who had coached his son's mother to a 2008 Olympic medal in the 400 meter hurdles,  sent me an e-mail complaining and taking issue with the findings and conclusions of the report . His opinion was that it was shallow and self-serving for the interests of Doug Logan and Carl Lewis.

Even after he pointed out that I had come in for a share of criticism and blame for certain failings and shortcomings of the High Performance Division, I still remained resolute that I was not going to allow this utterly predictable outcome to negatively impact me. I was supported and confirmed in this sentiment by a quote from a book I was reading by a British author, Laurence Rees. His book concerns and centers around the outlandish statements and accusations necessary when weak people seek to take control and authority over an organization. The quote that fortified me read as follows:

 

    " I can't be very outraged by something that is so pointlessly unreasonable.

    To say it's unjust is to give it too much pride. It is a form of ignorance,

    isn't it ?"

 

That was my approach and response to the "report". Another friend SKYPED me with some choice words of criticism for the "report". His first question was, "Do they really think this will fly ? The thing is full of half-truths, outright lies, and damned lies. Why do you think they have to go to such lengths with such a faulty and flawed document ? I thought we won the medal count in Beijing. We got 23 and the Russians got 16 for second place. That's 30% more than second place." My response was that over the last two major competitions, the 2007 World Championships, with 212 countries competing, and the 2008 Olympics, with 210 countries competing, we won a total of 6 relay gold medals. No other country won more than one relay gold over the same period. That was 6 times more gold relay medals for the U.S. than any other country won ! Yet Carl Lewis and Mel Rosen are calling for the National Relay Project to be eliminated. My friend demanded, " Why all the clamor and criticism ?  Again my response came from Laurence Rees:

 

    "Without a crisis to feed on, they were lost." Prior to this, "...they were

    active only at the margins...."

 

Not satisfied, my friend said, " Man, you got to do something !" I stated I was really enjoying what I do best, and enjoy most,...coaching. I have a great collection of athletes that really need my full attention. There are 12 of them with 11 having the Olympic "A" standard and several already have Olympic medals. In closing, I made a phophecy and warning based upon the New Testament. Peter stated:

 

    " Many will follow their shameful ways and will bring the way of truth into

    disrepute. In their greed, these teachers will exploit you with stories they

    have made up."

 

That was supposed to be the final word in this whole pathetic and disengenuous fiasco from me. That was until John Smith got me on the phone today, Wednesday, February 26.

 

"John, the reason I called was because Karen Locke e-mailed me to pass on the fact that Camelita Jeter looked great in Birmingham, England this weekend. She sees a lot of Torri Edwards in her."

 

"Thanks man, that is good to hear. She is making really good progress"

 

"Just goes to show that those in the know, really know, and those not in the know do not even know they don't know."  

 

"Man, you are so right with that ! I am so sick of people who do not know a damned thing trying to tear down what we built up. You need to straighten their asses out !".

 

"John, I am happy to be outside for the time being at least.".

 

"Look, man it ain't just about you! We all came together to build this thing up. You got the rest of us involved and we need you to set the record straight."

 

"Let me think about it.".

 

"You need to get the truth out there. What the hell is there to think about ? ".

 

"Good question, I'll get on it tonight."

 

Here's the truth:

    

The USOC, since the days of Ollan Cassell, and before Craig Masback, wanted to have more programmatic input as to what programs their funding supported. Ollan basically told them where to go and this did not set well with them. So there has been some USOC anti-TAC/USATF sentiment for some time. The USOC had a series of very serious internal situations that pointed to internal dysfuntionality and need for change. This resulted in a chain of CEOs and a restructuring of their board. After it had undergone restructuring of its board, it became an ardent wish of the USOC for the National Governing Bodies ( NGBs ) that manage all the Olympic sports to reorganize and restructure as well. The idea from the USOC staff was that the USOC board model was the best for all the NGBs. This despite the fact that Bill Roe, Stephanie Hightower, John Chaplin and I met personally with Peter Uberroth, then president of the USOC, and he allowed as how there was not certainty that the USOC board model worked best for it, let alone different NGBs. Further, when asked about USOC staff interference in the programmatic activities of NGBs he stated that the USOC should only intercede where there was illegal, illicit, or gross mismanagement. This was very much at odds with what the USOC staff and some USATF leadership wanted to accept. Over the past couple of years, USATF was under extreme pressure and duress from the USOC staff to reorganize, even threatening de-certification if USATF did not do as the USOC insisted. In 2007, in the only unanimous vote I every saw the USATF board take, it voted to resist the pressure being put on the board by Jim Scheer, Executive Director of USOC. This only intensified the chicanery and back channel work by the USOC staff and certain USATF board members to have their way.

 

Fast forward to Doug Logan, 2008, who upon being selected CEO of USATF, publicly stated that he did not know anything about track and field, other than the fact he jogged on a regular basis. Keep in mind that the other top candidate for the job was Bill Schmidt, Olympic bronze medalist in the javelin, who as makerting and promotions manager for Gatorade, help turn a drink that the University of Florida refused, into a multi-billion dollar product. When Doug Logan publicly stated that the U.S. should be able to win every medal in any Olympics, Clyde Hart, who coached Michael Johnson to three world records ( 200/400/400X400 ), several Olympic gold medals, and  Jermey Wariner  to two Olympic golds in 2004,  sagely and succinctly stated, " He has already said he is totally ignorant of the sport and every time he opens his mouth he proves it !"  The new CEO of USATF has a blog entitled "shinsplints".  Can you image the CEO of major league baseball having a blog entitled  "beanball" ? How about the CEO of football calling his blog " turftoe" ? What about the CEO of basketball calling his blog "brick" ?

Get the picture ?

 

So now this guy who has the credibility, respect  and value within the sport of a broken crossbar, has this real need to take control of the sport by the throat . Again quoting Rees, the situation is he: " ...could never flourish in such sunlight......Without a crisis to feed on, they were lost.". So along comes Carl Lewis as his shill and fig leaf. What is the height of irony and hypocracy is Carl Lewis speaking of proper relay conduct and athlete professionalism. Carl was the single most disruptive relay person in modern history. He had a well documented, divisive and acrimonious confrontation with the relay coach at the 1988 Olympics. In 1996 there was another divisive situation with the relay involving Carl. He had refused to attend relay practice along with the other athletes and it reached a head when the relay athletes voted him out of consideration for the relay team. He had/has such high regard for U.S. Track and Field that he boycotted the national championships that were held on his track at the University of Houston. He is such a knowledgeable person in the sport that two years ago he attempted to recruit athletes to allow him to represent them as their agent. One of the unfortunate people to accept Carl's offer was Dwight Phillips. Dwight had been the world's #1 long jumper from 2003-2006. Certainly this was a match made in heaven. Dwight Phillips did not make the U.S. Olympic Team in 2008, after winning the Olympics in 2004.       

 

In order to create the needed credibility and legitimacy, Logan states to the USATF board, and publicly, that he is going to appoint an Audit Panel that will be, his words, "dispassionate" and "objective". This panel will review USATF, and especially the High Performance Division , due to the "crisis" that was created because the U.S. only won the Olympic medal count by 30% over its nearest and hated rival, Russia, and had twice as many relay golds for 2008 than anyone else, in addition to having 6 times as many relay golds over the past two years. It was obvious to anyone with three brain cells in working order what the outcome was going to be once the "dispassionate" and "objective" panel did its work. First of all the original panel of 7 was disportionately represented by current USOC employees ( 3 ) and a former USOC employee for a USOC total of 4. This at a time when the USOC had demonstrated on a consistent basis that it  had serious issues with the High Performance Division.. Often delaying funding and decisions that negatively impacted athletes being able to train at the USOC Training Center in Chula Vista. Funds for the domestic relay program were ordered drastically cut back to less than $75,000.00 in some years for athlete support. This despite the fact that the National Relay Project involved more than 95 male athletes in 2008 and more than 85 female athletes over the same period. , yet there is a million dollar price tag assigned to this program by some of these "objective" and "dispassionate" participants.

 

The original Audit Panel was illegally and ill-legitimately constituted on several levels:

 

    1. The Amateur Sports Act, the USOC Charter, and USATF by-laws and

    mission statement insist on 20% athlete representation. Neither of the two

    "athletes" appointed by Logan meet the USOC standards and guidelines

    under the 10 year rule. This should have disqualified the panel and its work

    right there. Logan attempted to ex post facto legitimize the panel by

    appointing three athletes that do meet the Amateur Sports Act, USOC

    Charter, and USATF mission statement and by-laws. This was AFTER the

    national convention in December, with most of the surveying and

    assessments already having been done. This was especially so with the

    National Relay Project.

 

    2. The very same stipulations that apply to athlete representation, also

    apply to Diversity. The Amateur Sports Act, the USOC Charter and the

    USATF by-laws all insist on Diversity. This is not a discretionary

    requirement. It is mandatory in order to legally conduct the affairs of

    USATF. Since there was only one female and two blacks represented on the

    original panel, given the mandate(s) under these enabling

    legislative commands, Diversity requirements were never met ( and still

    aren't ). Again, ex post facto, Logan tried to repair this egregious and fatal

    flaw by appointing two more females, one of whom is black. So again, the

    work done by the panel is not only flawed, it is fataly flawed.  

    

    3. Given the criteria and characteristics Logan presented as required for the

    panel, namely "objective" and "dispassionate" it is obvious that several of

    the people on the panel were anything but objective and dispassionate. The

    closest they ever got was that they fiercely objected to the High

    Performance Division and were passionate and prejudiced about doing

    so.          

 

So what gives ? What we have is a situation where it is expected that people will be taken in by lies and half-truths. The USOC was overly represented by people with a swimming background ( Doug Ingram/Steve Roush ) with Jay Warwick being the water carrier for his boss Roush. Why swimming ? Because the powers-that-be at the USOC have determined that the swimming model is the best model for USATF. The USOC is very disturbed because track and field athletes scatter after the Olympic Trials, some to cash in on their new Olympic team status at overseas meets. This means that USATF athletes create serious logistical headaches for the USOC travel people who want them all to travel at the same time to the Olympics, just like swimming. Swimming went directly from their trials to their training camp. Track and field athletes had to be in the Beijing time zone 10 days before competition and in the Olympic Village 5 days before their event. Doug Ingram is head of Olympic Games logistics and does an outstanding job at it, however, he is also a swimming guy and would like, as anyone would, to see the USATF athletes travel in a manner easier for his people to accomodate. This will not work. But what no one is sharing out loud is the fact that in 2007 when we got 26 medals in Osaka, in the same time zone, with essentialy the same weather, our athletes came in as they saw fit and turned the place out ! There is a plan being circulated that USATF will appoint a Team Manager, the same as swimming, to basically do what the High Performance Division did prior, but the Team Manager will have far more individual control and authority. Given the diversity of events and skillsets required for each one, where are they going to find such a person,...even if it was a good idea in the first place ?

 

We have outlined what the USOC's stake and role is as regards the sham and shallow smoke screen that Logan seems to feel will pass muster with enough people to allow him to assume the kind of control he knows he doesn't deserve based upon merit and knowledge, but he so sorely needs to keep the wolves from effectively snipping at his heels ( Achilles ? ). So he has gotten in bed with the USOC on one hand and is having Carl Lewis shill for him on the other. Carl, desperate for some sort of presence and hard against it, wants to embrace the very organization that he has studiously avoided all these years. What he does not fully understand as yet is that his role is that of Ernst Rohm and the "Night Of  The Long Knives" is not that far away. All he needs to do is ask Bill Roe. Bill's reward for manipulating and maneuvering the selection process in favor of Doug Logan was Logan's successful and calloused demand that Bill give up his VIP credentials in Beijing to Logan.

 

No one on the Olympic staff was satisfied with the medal count in Beijing. But what is being overlooked and ignored by too many people, who know better, is that the same support system that was in place in Helsinki and Osaka where the U.S. got 25/26 medals, was in place in Beijing. The same coaching and managerial support that existed at our Olympic Trials was in place in Beijing. The medal contenders had their coaches present and available. There were video tapes of all the races that were available to athletes and coaches within an hour of the last event. USATF had two videographers there with the USOC having arranged for us to get the NBC feed is we needed it.. It was the most technically supported U.S. team of all time, and I made my first one in 1962.

The National Relay Project was established to separate out the relays from the stepchild category and treat them as their own individual event(s).. That means they were given the same treatment and status as all the other events. In 2004 we had two medals in the men's pole vault. This time around we got none, despite having the #1 vaulter in the world in the event. In 2004 we had a medal in the men's highjump, two in the men's long jump, and one in each of the marathons. In 2008 we got no medals in any of these events. But no one is demanding that these events be unfunded and programs specific to them be discontinued. Why is that ? The reason is that "stuff happens" and one Olympics does not tell the whole story,.... good or bad. In 2007 the U.S. won all four World Championships relay medals against some extreme odds. Jamaica in the 4 x 100, for example, essentially had the same team they had in 2008, with Bolt being a mere mortal then. The U.S. had only one athlete ( Tyson Gay ) from the men's trails 100 who finished in the top 5 ( that puts to rest Mel Rosen's Phi Beta Kappa idea that the relay team should be the first 4 that finish the 100 meters ). We still put together a team that won. The same system and methodology that allowed that team to win, was the same as the one employed in Beijing. Bottom line, the "objective" and "dispassionate" panelists with agendas can not get the things done they would like to get done without  there seeming to be a "crisis". So a "crisis" it is at all cost,...with the first victim being the truth.

 

 

 

 

Posted by Coach Brooks Johnson at February 25, 2009 | Add Comment

ELITE ATHLETE AS ROGUE MODEL - OR - MODEL ROGUE

Plymouth, Massachusetts - Late October 1944

 

The leaves had already gone to technicolor and fall was already and fully upon us. But this had been an Indian Summer day and we had just finished what would probably be our last baseball game at the Summer Street playground for this year. As the New England chill of fall replaced summer's fading warmth, football would be the activity of choice for all of us now.

 

I had had a very good day for me, going 3 for 4 with two doubles over the short fence that ran behind first base and and paralleled Summer Street itself. It was a short poke and the fence got in the way of anyone trying to make a catch. Bottom line, it was the cheapest way to get on second base and provide me with crowing rights over those who sought more challenging ways to get on base. The brothers, Bubba and Sonny Gavoni, and I had just left the playground and stopped into Clough's store for  post game rewards. They had Nehi Orange and to further gloat and celebrate my performance I had a Baby Ruth bar. Not satisfied with the cheap three hits and the self-congratulatory candy bar, I needed to rub it in even more and did so when Bubba Gavoni inquired, " Why didn't you get Orange Crush like you always do ?"

 

"I got a Baby Ruth .I'm  just like Babe Ruth because I hit just like Babe Ruth. "

 

" Do not. "

 

" Do too."

 

" You don't hit like Babe Ruth, and you can not be like him neither."

 

" Can too. You just jealous because Albie Heath struck your ass out three times."

 

" Dumb ass, you can't be like Babe Ruth because he is white and you're colored . Ain't no colored guys in the big leagues. So no Negro can be like any major league ball player. What do you think of them apples ? "

 

" I think you are just pissed because Albie Heath struck your no-playing ass out three times !"

 

" You still can not be like Babe Ruth or Ted Williams, Bobby Doer, or any of those good guys.  I can cause I ain't colored !!!"

 

The established and indelibly embedded protocol and practice in our neighborhood at such a junction required that this discussion immediately turn into a fight and whoever was left standing obviously had won the debate. I knew I could take Bubba, but Sonny Gavoni was still there. Although he was a year younger than us, he was a formidable force because he literally went beserk when he fought. He would start to cry and tears would stream down his face as the rage came out. Then the tears would join up with the snot that would come from his nose and cascade down over his mouth and chin making for the most disgusting sight imaginable. You had to be real angry to get up enough disregard for streaming and spewing mucus that went all over the place when Sonny fought. I knew if I started up with Bubba, Sonny would join his brother. That prospect required more courage than I could muster at that time. A little ashamed and a bit embarassed by my lack of resolve to end this encounter properly, I lamely offered, " Joe Louis can beat any white guy out there !"

 

"You ain't no Joe Louis either."

 

" Yeah, well you ain't no Ted Williams. Albie Heath could never strike out Ted Williams "

 

Mercifully, by now we were at their house and Mrs. Gavoni called the brothers inside. As I walked up High Street to my house, I thought about what Bubba has said and sadly accepted the fact that as a colored guy, I could not be like a white star. I consoled myself with the fact that I still had Sugar Ray Robinson and Joe Louis. I didn't like Sugar Ray that much because he had a "conkolene" which was a way that black men straightened their hair with heavy grease to make it look white. Joe Louis was my man and I put away any thoughts of having white athletes as idols. By the time Joe Louis was to fight Rocky Marciano I was in high school.  Plymouth High School had a lot of Italian students whose parents migrated to Plymouth to work in the Plymouth Cordage Company that was located in North Plymouth. When the Louis Marciano fight was about to take place, there was naturally a lot of whoofing and bragging about whether or not the Italian tough guy could beat the Negro idol and icon.  As a matter of racial pride and personal prejudice I knew I had to go with Joe all the way. Besides, no white guy, tough Italian or not, at 189 pounds could beat the heavyweight champion of the world,... and all Negrodom. I bet the deposit money for my class ring on Joe Louis. I lost the deposit money, the class ring, and the desire to ever again vicariously live through someone else as a role model or idol.

 

So I imagine it is easy to see why and how a person with this kind of mindset finds it ludicrous, and well beyond ridiculous,  for people to see elite athletes as role models. In the years since Bubba straightened me out about Babe Ruth, and Marciano took care of Louis, I have been able to observe many elite athletes at very close range. No matter what the sport, the one common denominator that runs throughout athletic performances at the very top and extremes of sport,.... any sport, is the need of the athlete(s) involved to compenstate or overcompensate for a real or perceived need. The athletes at the very uppermost extremes of sport have a special itch that only certain kind of competitive excellence and or performance can begin to scratch. The trick for them is to find an acceptable and rewarding avenue to gain the recognition, status, indiscriminate love and acceptance that they  so obsessively crave. Some have the ability to keep these compulsions relatively socially acceptable in nature. However, some are not strong enough and this results in the anti-social and destructive behavior we see on the front pages of newspapers  and television, on an almost daily basis. Most of us recoil and claim we do not understand how young people making millions of dollars can act in such self-destructives extremes. Bottom line, people we see and respect because of the extremes they achieve in athletic performances, can only push themselves to those extremes if they have extreme needs and motivation.

 

What the typical defensive player in football does on Saturday/Sunday on the field would be criminal felonious assault in the parking lot. To think that this psychotic behavior can always be limited and confined to just the playing field is naive in the extreme. There will always be spillover because these athletes have these needs 24/7/365. What has happened since Bubba set me straight is:

    

    1. We expect even greater extreme performances from athletes

 

    2. The material rewards are much greater and increase each year

 

    3. The mental and psychological pressures have gone up disproportionately

 

    4. There is more scrutiny that goes along with greater exposure

 

Coaches and sport administrators make very little effort at channeling these drives and compulsions by athletes into constructive and productive pursuits.

As long as they can perform at a high level, athletes that fall from grace ( Ray Lewis, Pacman Jones, etc. ) are dusted off and allowed to return to the very same lifestyle and conditions that contributed to their fall in the first place. 

 

Baseball has known for many years that it had a real serious drug problem. Of the minor league players that were tested for candidacy on the 2000 U.S. Olympic Team, it was reported that 40% of these players could not pass the IOC drug test. Tommy LaSorda was the coach and was very well connected within the baseball community. It was common knowledge that Jose Canseco and Mark McGwire were juicing when they were team mates in Oakland in the 80s. We, in track and field used to laugh at all of the steroid use manifestations by these two and many others at that time. The very same useage would have resulted in a bust in track and field, but went "unobserved" and unsanctioned in baseball. A team that should get special scrutiny is the Texas Rangers. Who in high places shoudl/could have known what when about drug use on that team ?

 

The thrust of all this is to state that no matter how you arrive at the conclusion, having, or suggesting, elite athletes should be role models is the same as asking a cripple to get up and sprint. People we expect to do extreme things, by definition have extreme needs. If we want abnormal performances, then we had better seek out people with abnormal attributes, gifts and drive. If you want a girl scout or boy scout troop, then for God's sake do not look for it in the major leagues of any sport. The responsibility to see reality in sports does not end there. What follows is the companion responsibility to assist and support efforts that allow eilte athletes to get at that itch through more acceptable avenues. If Michael Phelps wants to get "high" and not , as advocated by a former first lady,  "Just Say No !", then a slap on the wrist with no accompanying efforts at behavior modification merely proves to him that he is "bullet proof" and can undertake an even greater bad behavior risk later as his needs and itch grow greater.

  

It is this "bullet proof" feeling and sense of entitlement that allows for elite athletes to rationalize that they can get away with the offenses they often find themsleves engaged in. Much of their efforts and work has been to deny and get away from the vulnerbility and sense of inferiority that haunts them when they are left with their own private and innermost thoughts. It, in many cases, is the need to overcome vulnerbility and a sense of inferiority that drives these athletes to overcompenstate and in some cases supercompenstate. Do these have to be converted into anti-social and self-destructive behavior ? The answer is a resounding "NO !!!". However, authority figures involved with these athletes can not merely turn a blind eye in order not to jeopardize performance, association, affiliation and profit. Coaches need to do more than train and teach. They need to insist on certain elevated norms of behavior for people they help to reach elevated levels of performance and status. In some cases their efforts will be met with success and, unfortunately, in some cases with abject failure. But there is a certain amount of value and consolation in knowing that you did not actively and directly contribute to an athlete's becoming a "rogue model" or a "model rogue".                

 

    

Posted by Coach Brooks Johnson at February 20, 2009 | Add Comment

DR. BERT LYLE - USAIN BOLT,...........A LEGACY AND RE-EMERGENCE OF STRIDE LENGTH IN SPRINTING

In 1973 I found myself at Texas Women's College, in Denton, Texas.. I was there at the invitation of Dr. Bert Lyle who was the athletic director and head women's track and field/cross country coach there.

 

Let me interrupt right now to state this is a long and convoluted piece to make my point showing how Dr. Lyle is connected in a way to the success Bolt enjoyed in 2008.

 

Bert Lyle was/is the quintessential manifestation of what a true and good southern gentleman should be in my eyes. He is very intelligent ( Duke grad ), sensitive, compassionate, and what I admire most, has a special feeling and empathy for the underdog. He is also white. I have been labelled a racist by some, and to varying degrees that is an accurate characterization. Growing up in a racist and sexist country, it is impossible not to be acculturated, to some degree, by both of these insidiously pervasive and crippling concepts.  When it comes to music I am a fan of, and prefer, music that blacks basically invented,...jazz, blues, and to a lesser degree, gospel. When it comes to art, my favorite is Pablo Picasso because he did with paint, brush, and canvas, what Miles Davis did with  trumpet, tone and timing. I cried uncontrollably sitting on the steps of my house in Plymouth, Massachusetts  that warm April day when President Roosevelt died. I did the same walking down Massachusetts Avenue, N.W. in Washington, D.C. when President Kennedy was assassinated . I could not hold back the tears when President Barrack Obama was sworn into office. When it comes to track and field, my favorites are two Englishmen,... Sir Isaac Newton and Geoffry Dyson . My point being, when it comes to the sport that I have been involved with all my adult life, I feel liberated from my self-admitted racial preferences. This allowed me to more easily accept a basic thesis that Dr. Lyle introduced to me  back in 1973 and I saw expressed and exploited in the men's Olympic sprints of 2008. 

 

Back in 1973 I had just come back from the 1972 Munich Olympics where I worked with twelve athletes . Two of which made finals ( Alice Annum- Ghana and Rose Allwood - Jamaica ) and several others had good performances ( Gerald Tinker, 4 x 100 gold medalist ). When I arrived on the Texas Women's University campus I was so full of myself that anyone standing in front of me had automatically placed themselves in the direct line of fire from buttons exploding from my shirt, unable to withstand the extreme pressure of a vain and ego-filled body which caused neither my hat or shirt to fit. So here was this mild mannered, erudite white man calmly and patiently trying to get this black, self-anointed/appointed "Phi Beta Kappa" of sprinting to count the number of strides that sprinters were taking in their races.   

 

"Brooks, as you no doubt know, sprint speed is the optimum combination of stride rate and stride length of the runner.".

 

" O.K. So what ?"

 

" By counting the number of strides we can possibly pick up who is doing the best job of combining the two.".

 

"Doc that is the easiest thing in the world. The one who finishes first settles all bets !".

 

" You may be correct. But we can still learn a lot from seeing what is going on with stride length in the sprints because there is too much emphasis placed on stride rate and turnover.".

 

"Doc, do you really think I came all the way out here to count steps ?".

 

" Do you know how many strides Annum and Allwood took in Munich ?". 

 

"No, and I do not know of any reason why I should !".

 

As I said this I thought back to the fact that both of these sprinters took unusually long strides for their respective height. Four hours later Dr. Lyle and I were still counting strides of all the Olympic athletes in all of the Olympic sprints of 1972.

 

I started coaching Steve Williams in 1973. He was to become "The World's Fastest Human" 2-3 times during the 70s. He was well over 6-3 and was split up to his Adam's apple. We stressed stride length because of his height and in-seam. He ran 9.9 five times when that was the world record, the only man to equal the world record five times in the 100 meters. He had famous duels with Houston McTear who had run 9.1 for the 100 yards and was the best stride rate sprinter in the world,...however, McTear never beat Williams at 100 meters. During the 80s Carl Lewis and Ben Johnson had their famous duels with Johnson seemingly doing it all with stride rate. Later came Michael Johnson and Maurice Greene, both of whom appeared to be stride rate centered, not to mention being compellingly successful as well. There developed a bio-mechanical term and concept to emphasize stride rate, " Front Side Mechanics", complete with a technique and execution that stressed shortening stride in favor getting on and off the track faster. In many ways this flew into the teeth of what I had absorbed from Dr. Lyle. Being reluctant and recalcitrant to theoretical change, I was skeptical to a degree. I remember having several discussions with John Smith who was coaching the reigning "World Fastest Human", Maurice Greene.

 

"John, we know that good big men beat the hell out of good small men. Right ?'.

 

"Yeah.".

 

"What's with the sprints being dominated by small guys with crazy turnover ?".

 

"Fast turnover is the only way the small guy can compete. We do not have the big guys like Steve, Carl and Lindford Christie around anymore, so the small guys are having their way. ".

 

"Any guys out there who could do it like Steve and those guys ?".

 

"Sure, Marcus Brunson, if he got his act and head together, is a throwback talent. He has shown great 60 meter speed and with his long levers he should rule at 100 and 200.".

 

" I think Jeremy Wariner and Allyson Felix show what can be done with more emphasis on stride length. The same goes for Wallace Spearmon.".

 

" You are right. Spearmon is a monster waiting to take it to the next level. I think Xavier Carter  can do it too if he had his mechanics together.".

 

Listening to all of the television "pundits" and "experts" talk about Usain Bolt's run in Beijing and how he "shut it down" and could have gone so much faster had he continued to "push it ", I was intrigued to see just how accurate their assessment was, so I had Andy Ferrara, who was one of two DARTFISH vidoegraphers the High Performance Division of USA Track and Field had at every practice session and competition site leading up to, and including the Olympics. With DARTFISH and his expertise we would be able to get both stride count and incremental times for each 10 meters.

 

There is a sprint axiom for the first 10 meters. It stresses that the optimum number of strides for the first 10 meters is 7. Thompson was there in 7, and so was Dix. Bolt was there in 6 strides ! At 10 meters, Thompson's time was 1.80, Dix was 1.89, and Bolt was 1.85. Bolt is slower at 10 meters by 5 hundredths and Dix, although he has the fastest stride rate, is back by 9 hundredths . At 10 strides into the race, Bolt has taken 2.62 seconds, Thompson has taken 2.50 and Dix has taken 2.32. Dix has reached 10 steps faster than either Thompson or Bolt . However, Bolt reaches 20 meters in 2.85 seconds. Thompson is there in 2.89, and Dix is at 20 meters in 2.97 seconds.  Already the die is cast and the outcome is determined. Stride length, in this case, is destroying stride rate. For example, at between 50 and 60 meters Bolt takes 3.5 strides, Thompson takes 4, as does Dix. Bolt is 6.29 ( check out world record for 60 meters ) for 60 meters and Thompson is 6.39 and Dix is 6.46. Bolt is covering the 10 meter intervals from 60 meters through 100 meters at 3.5 - 4.0 - 3.5 - 3.5  strides per 10 meter interval. Thompson and Dix both cover the same 10 meter intervals in 4.0 strides. During the last three intervals ( 70 to 80, 80 to 90, 90 to 100 ) where Bolt is supposed to be "slowing down" he covers the 10 meter intervals in the times of .84, .86, and .87. seconds. Over the same distance it takes Thompson .88, .89, .91 . Dix splits are .86, .87,.89. Bolt takes a total of 41 strides for the 100 meters, and Thompson takes 44.5. Dix takes 48.50 strides !!!!!!

 

What we clearly see here is that although Bolt was seemingly relaxed and cavalier at the finish of the 100, in fact he was maintaining his stride length, which was the key to his overwhelming success. Further, his deceleration rate was well within what is accepted and expected after top end speed has been achieved. Although he may have been "showboating" he was not in fact "slowing down" as a result of it. The fact he maintained the key element of his success, ....stride length, allowed him to finish as well as could be expected, even if he had tightened up and "pushed it". The impression we were left with by way of the commentators and others simply does not bear up under the scrutiny of a careful evaluation and analysis.

 

In the 200 meters the dominance of stride length is even more compelling. Bolt took 42 around the turn for the first 100 and came  back in 38 strides for a total of 80 strides. The second and third place finishers were there in approximately 90 strides. It is obvious that given the amount of talent and training that Bolt possessed at that time, there was no way people could concede better than 10% fewer strides to him over the length of the race(s) and expect anything other than an ass kicking. Bolt's race strategy and execution is directly out of the Dr. Bert Lyle school of sprinting and legacy. 

Good big people beat good small people and for good big, and even not so big, people, stride length can be the winning edge.

Brooks T. Johnson   

 

"    

Posted by Coach Brooks Johnson at January 23, 2009 | Add Comment

THE AUDACITY OF DOPE .....Mr President,.. Please excuse the small plagarism from on your book title

Yesterday, January 20, a little after 12:30 PM my time, John Smith called me.

 

" Hey man, what are you doing ? "

 

" I am crying like m-------f------- baby.".

 

"Yeah, man I can really dig that. I feel you.  It is really something seeing Obama up there like that. ".

 

John and I go back to 1967 when he was a skinny kid from California who won the Junior Olympics 400 in Washington, D.C. at Roosevelt High School at 5th and Tuckerman N.W.. As a small fry local track and field coach, I was selected to present him with his award. Other than winning the race handily, what made him stand out was the fact that he had a shaved, bald head when just about every other black male at the meet had an Afro. My thoughts were, " Here is a dude that wants to stand above the crowd both on and off the track.". Some forty plus years later that assessment is still applicable and accurate.

 

But this effort is not about a more than four decade friendship. I'll get to that unique association at a later and more appropiate date. What this is about is an attempt at demonstrating the fact that sport/athletics, like music, and all art forms reflect the values and super-values of the society and culture within which they take place. It is my contention that at some long away time in the future, cultural/social anthropologists, can get real and in-depth insights into our current societal norms and values by delving into what we stressed, valued and maintained in sports and athletics. It is my contention that a society will only allow and support those things that are consistent with the basic values and super-values of that society. Those things that the society objects to as being inconsistent with what it wants to project and/or protect are repressed and eliminated. This is especially clear and present in activities that are not essential for survival, but are "value added" and "extras" . Art and sport fall into that category.

 

Both art and sport have been with us for a very long time. Cave art in Europe and elsewhere attest to the fact that art existed, even flourished in pre-historical times. Pre-historical Mayan ruins depict and substantiate that these early humans partook in serious games and sport. Both speak volumes about what these cultures found important and what they considered important to their existence and what they wanted to project and protect for all to see.

 

"Wait a minute !!!!", you say, "What does all of this have to do with President Barrack Obama, Hope and Dope, and Track and Field being a mirror of our society ? ".       

 

Hold on!

 

Here goes.

 

In his inspiring and insightful book, " THE AUDACITY OF HOPE", "P"resident ( when I was growing up we were told to always use a capital "P" when spelling President of the United States. That is very "old school" and passe now, however, I never used "P" with president Bush )   Obama observes, "..........if you are paying attention, each successive year will make you more intimately acquainted with all your flaws--the blind spots, the recurring habits....that may be genetic or may be environmental, but that will almost certain worsen with time....In me, one of those flaws had proven to be chronic restlessness; an inability to appreciate, no matter how well things were going, those blessings that were right there in front of me. It's a flaw that is endemic to modern life, I think-endemic, too, in the American character - one that is nowhere more evident than in the field of politics. ". In my assessment of things it essentially comes down to substituting "Track and Field" for "politics " in that last sentence. What he is describing here is an itch that rarely seems to be sufficiently scratched or sated. As I have grown within the sport all these many years, I understand what he means when he states, "..... if you are paying attention, each successive year will make you more intimately acquainted with all your flaws.".

 

My time in the sport has allowed me to observe first hand, and vicariously, what he is talking about when he speaks of this severe and sometimes self-destructive "restlessness", even in the face of prima facie success and blessings. He questions whether it is genetic or environmental, or stated another way, nature or nurture. I have seen this restless itch work out in many high profile instances. Take for example, the most prominent and successful American track and field athletes in recent history ( Jackie Joyner-Kersee, Michael Johnson, Carl Lewis, and Dan O'brien ) all had the same coaches for their entire elite career. I saw Jackie Joyner-Kersee foul three times at the NCAA Championships in the long jump. I saw her foul in the same event at the 1984 Olympic Games twice, and in having to settle for a "safe" jump, cost herself the gold medal. I saw Michael Johnson suffer a stress fracture in 1988 when he could/should have made the U.S. Olympic team. He was sick and a non-finalist in 1992. Dan O'Brien was a certainty in the decathlon until he no-heighted in the pole vault at the 1992 U.S. Olympic Trials. My point here is that all of these people stayed with their coaches through good and bad times. They make a very strong and compelling case for, if you have a coach with whom you have enjoyed an advanced level of elite success, then monogamy seems to pay off.

 

President Obama's point is the drive to move on, despite "the blessings that are right here in front of (you)" perhaps is endemic in the American psyche and is a natural and/or nurtured trait. For too many in our sport this intense itchy restlessness can not be held at bay like Jackie, Michael, Carl and Dan did. Rather we too often see a promiscuous propensity of athletes to switch coaches, even after having enjoyed significant elite success. I can name them, but so can you and save me from having to needlessly and gratuitously  embarrass coaches and athletes so involved in this sometimes tragic form of musical chairs. The point here is, ... what we see happening in track and field  is what a very wise and prominent person sees in real life, thus

track and field/sport mirrors the prevailing values and super-values of the culture in which it exists.

 

"But what does that have to do with dope ?" you demand.

 

There are many cases to make my case and connect this all together, but let me take the one that interests me the most,.... Marion Jones. If we take President Obama position, that like many competitive and upwardly mobile people she suffers from " chronic restlessness ". On the other hand, Carl Lewis in a recent article sees Marion as a pariah that no one should show a scintilla of empathy or sympathy for or about. He says if you do that you are somehow endorsing drugs and giving a drug user status they do not deserve. Our new CEO publicly and pompously kicked Marion to the curb when she legitimately applied for a presidential pardon.( It turns out that two border patrol officers that actually shot and killed a suspected drug smuggler and,... lied about it, applied and were duly pardoned by president Bush.  Our new CEO threw her under the bus despite the fact that under the by-laws of USA Track and Field that legitimize and establish his very job, require him to,"....reasonably reflect the views... of athletes in policy decisions of USATF.". When I polled the U.S. Olympic athletes in Beijing about his public denouncement of Marion the response was:

 

    1. What does he know about anything having to do with the sport ?

 

    2. I do not condone what she did. I hate what she did. But she still has

    rights.

 

    3. All he has done is to provide the media with another opportunity to ask

    us questions on a controversial and distractive subject right before we are 

    about to start the Olympic competition.   

 

I wander a bit, the real point of the immediate above is to establish the fact that intelligent and wise people do not condone the flaws that manifest themselves in their life, but they can understand how and why the flaws are there and emerge at the most tragic and least desirable times. It is analagous on a micro-micro scale to what Chris Rock said about O.J. Simpson killing his wife. " I do not condone what he did. But,....I can understand it !". It is understanding the root causes that will allow us to get to the best solutions to solve the problems that "chronic restlessness" create for us. A knee jerk, lock step, self-serving and self-righteous condemnation only serves to absolve the pronouncer and gets us no closer to real progress.

 

Marion Jones, as a 17 year old teenager made the U. S. Olympic team in 1992. A little over a year later, as the starting freshman point guard, she led the University of North Carolina women's basketball team to the NCAA National Championships.   Further, I have never seen a camera that did not fall madly in love with her. I have never heard a sound byte from her that did not convincingly embrace my ears. Craig Masback, former USATF CEO, once told me that she was on the cover of 16 publications within a year after the 2000 Olympics. My point here is simply this, Marion had more than enough athletic talent to win gold medals at the Olympic Games without drugs. But more important, she has the personal charisma and attractiveness to transcend her sport star status and become a celebrity. As a celebrity, she has the capacity to make a very good living for the rest of her life and a forum to reach out to scratch that itchy restlessness. She did not need drugs or five medals to attain that loft status.

 

" Then why did she do drugs and put all this at risk ?", you ask.

 

There is a very simple answer, based upon some very complex and complicated phenomena, and it goes like this, " In me, one of those flaws had proven to be chronic restlessness; an inability to appreciate, no matter how well things were going, those blessings that were right there in front of me.. It's a flaw that is endemic to modern life, I think....endemic too, in the American character and nowhere more evident than in the field of ( track and field ).". When we expect people to accomplish extreme and outer-limits feats, then we need to understand that only people with extreme and outer-limits needs and abilities can achieve these lofty objectives. What is more revealing and, most thought provoking, is the fact that when it comes to a choice between extreme talent and extreme needs,......"needs" exceed "talent" as a necessity and requirement.  It is the same whether you are talking, art, music, politics or sport. So in some far off future, cultural/social anthropologists can better understand Marion Jones if they uncover what the President of the United States has to say about himself, because both sports and politics, like art and music, express and manifest the basic values and super values of the culture in which they take place.

 

Both Marion and President Obama are the sum total of their talents that are given ( nature)  and environmentally enhanced ( nurtured ). Both rose to great heights because there was an itch and restlessness that ordinary success could not satisfy,.... and people with ordinary outlooks can not understand. People with special needs can achieve special things, but it takes a special perspective in order to understand them. The Audacity of Dope is that it forces us to look long at hard at root causes and address:

 

    1. What in the society makes it available ?

 

    2. What is it in the provider and user that makes it necessary ?

 

    3. How can we separate the user from exposure to the drug ?

 

    4. Where will we get the will to deal with # 3 ?

 

 

Brooks T. Johnson

 

Posted by Coach Brooks Johnson at January 21, 2009 | Add Comment

*** Email entry ***

THE ROUSH TO JUDGMENT.......

 

Yesterday, I read that Steve Roush, head of competition preparation for the USOC resigned. You may recall the name as it was previously mentioned in connection with the tendency of administrators to want their constituency to serve them rather than they, the officials, serving the constituency they are charged and mandated to serve ( Corporate Role Reversal Syndrome ). Steve demanded an immediate apology from three American cyclists who deplaned in Beijing wearing anti-pollution masks. Later he was forced to apologize and the CEO of the USOC sent a letter of apology to the athletes involved.

 

For some time Steve Roush and his immediate subordinate, Jay Warwick, have lead the fight to have more input into the programmatic aspects of USATF overall operations and high performance projects. This was generally done under the banner of the Sports Partnership Program of the USOC. The genesis of the USOC Sports Partnership Program was to basically assist the various sports federations ( NGBs ) make a more organized and effective presentation to the USOC for funding.   Not satisfied or fulfilled with this function, Warwick, and others sought an ever greater input and participation in providing and designing performance programs for sports and federations ( each Sports Partnership administrator had up to 6-8 sports to assist )  about which they had very little background and/or knowledge. This would allow them to take more credit for the success of the programs that fell under their umbrella, assuring themselves of being more valued and more likely kept on board by the USOC.  The High Performance Division ( me among others ) of USATF strenuously resisted programmatic interference from Warwick and the USOC. Jay Warwick's claim to fame before he became the Sports Partnership administrator for USATF, and several other sports, was that he served as the CEO of Tae Kwon Doe. In recent years the USOC has seen fit to de-certify several national governing bodies because of the incompetent and often corrupt manner in which they were run and managed. Guess which one heads the top of that list ? If you are cynical enough to answer " Tae Kwon Doe " , you win the brass ring ! So what we have here is a person who was responsible for running a federation that was found deficient and subsequently de-certified,  seeking and demanding to have in-depth influence in the high performance programmatic aspects of the sport. Wait,.... hold on one minute. It gets even better !  The very same person, at the bidding and direction of his bosses ( Steve Roush being one ) sought, and got, influential input into the restructuring and reorganization process of USATF that was rushed through at the most recent USATF national convention. The hammer and cycle held over the head of USATF was the threat of de-certification by the USOC. 

 

 

You may have also run across the high sounding and lofty pronouncements from the new CEO of USA Track and Field, about appointing a " dispassionate and objective "  Audit Panel  to review USA Track and Field operations with the purpose (s ), among other things, of improving U.S. performances at major international competitions. First of all, there was already a "best practices" review process by the High Performance Division itself. But a fair and objective review by a knowledgeable panel is a desirable thing and there can be no legitimate objection to such a process. When asked if I would cooperate with such a " dispassionate and objective " panel I answered I would with gladly cooperate. However, I insisted on one caveat,... that the panel not only had to be "dispassionate and objective" it also had to be KNOWLEDGEABLE.     Keeping in mind that at the time of the en paneling process, USATF was/is under extreme pressure from the USOC to restructure and organize in a manner the USOC wanted,... or face de-certification. The original "dispassionate and objective"  panel of seven ( 7 ) selected by our new CEO included the following:

    

    3 - Current USOC employees ( if you cynically picked Steve Roush and Jay

    Warwick as part of this three, you get your second brass ring )

 

    1 - Former USOC employee

 

    1 - Former very elite athlete

 

    1 - Sports Scientist

 

    1- One former U.S. Olympic coach   

 

Now let's get to the basic legality and mandates under which USATF is charged , and supposed to be operating. These can found under the bylaws of USATF. For example, Under Article III of the bylaws it clearly states that USATF is mandated, and has as one of its requirements the PURPOSE of, " Promoting DIVERSITY of representation at ALL levels of participation in USATF activities." The panel appointed by the new CEO had two blacks and only one female. This in a sport where approximately 50% of the U.S.. Olympic team members are women. In Beijing U.S. women won 9 of the 23 medals won, to the men's 14. This in a sport where more than 80% of medals are won by blacks. In the past when I have challenged omissions like this, I have been accused of " Playing the race card and stirring up sexist issues." My response then, and now, is, " If this is playing the race and/or sex cards, then stop stacking the deck and give us a reshuffle and something like a New Deal !!".

 

Further, under the USATF bylaws it clearly and pointedly states under Article IV, " AUTONOMY: USATF shall be autonomous in its governance of Athletics, in that it shall independently determine and control all matters to such governance, and it shall be free from outside restraint." The DIVERSITY and

AUTONOMY requirements are found in all of the enabling legislation from the Amateur Sports Act (Ted Stevens Act ), to the USOC Constitution and the bylaws of the Board of National Governing Bodies. Both of these commands and mandates were ignored and violated in the selection of the original Audit Panel selection. When this was pointed out the response was that a panel did not meet the threshold of governance. What a crock !!! However, oddly enough, there has been  an addition of athletes. Perhaps that is because it was pointed out that the USATF bylaws state that USATF is required to, " Keeping eligible athletes active in Athletics informed of policy matters and reasonably reflecting the views of such athletes in the policy decisions of USATF;". It has been determined that "eligible" athletes means athletes that have been active within the "Ten Year Rule" requirements and criteria. Neither of the athletes on the original panel satisfied the "Ten Year Rule".

 

Let's not Roush to judgment here. First of all, the USOC logistical and competition support team of the USOC was the very best I have ever witnessed, and I have been on four Olympic staffs. Steve Roush had a critical hand in this. From the time we got off the plane with a USOC person there to guide us through the airport and onto our buses, until the same staff was there at the dorms to assist and get us on the buses back to the airport, the support was off the charts !! We were ideally and centrally housed with all the medical and training needs and modalities nearby. There were highly motivated, service centered people at every area of need. Beijing Normal University was our out-of-village haven for both training and a place where we could get American food prepared by American chefs. The facilities prepared and equipped for the various teams at BNU were of the highest quality and no expense and/or effort was spared in getting the very best for the athletes and coaches. Bottom line, in Beijing when the USOC was involved in what it is basically established to do, namely service and support sports federations in the best way possible, they excelled at an unequalled level.  When they and our new CEO wander off the reservation and forget what their legislated and enabling mission and mandates happens to be, they take on the characteristics of General George Custer Roushing off to the Little Bighorn.    

 

Brooks T. Johnson

Posted by Coach Brooks Johnson at January 8, 2009 | Add Comment

[FWD: " THE AUDACITY OF DOPE "]

 

 


-------- Original Message --------
Subject: " THE AUDACITY OF DOPE "
From: brooks@spikesandflats.com
Date: Sat, January 03, 2009 6:39 pm
To: blog@spikesandflats.com


The last installment discussed drugs/doping and attempted to provide a partial history as to why we are where we are with drugs and some of the forces that are present that will allow them to be with us longer than necessary. Let's stray just a bit to explain the notion that drugs will be with us longer than they need be. In the early eighties the machines mostly used for testing for drugs were made by Hewlett-Packard. Working then at Stanford University, I sought out some scientists at Hewlett-Packard because they had offices close by. When I queried them about the efficacy and effectiveness of testing modalities then in use , I was knocked back their response, " First of all, the tolerances that your federations allow as acceptable are laughable. If people applying for certain sensitive jobs in industry and government came back with the values you allow,... they would summarily be discarded as candidates for the jobs. They would fail the test hands down.". Not to be upstaged and outdone, I countered, what about drugs like human growth hormone and stuff that can not be detected ? " There is absolutely nothing you can ingest into your system that we can not trace. We can get down to one part in a trillion in many instances. We can detect gases in universes that are hundreds of light years away from earth. Do you really think we could not detect a gas or molecule of a drug in the human body ?". Still not wanting to admit defeat and beat a retreat, I asked, " Then why is it we hear about all these substances that can not be detected ? " The totally deflating response was, " What you have is a lack of will and money. If there was true will and sufficient funding, there is nothing,......I repeat, NOTHING that could go undetected in the system of a human being that we could not trace and identify.".

 

Fast forward to today and it is easy to see this being the case with Major League Baseball, NFL Football, and the NBA Basketball. But what about track and field ? With the major professional teams we have strong players' unions and reluctant ownership holding back and limiting the drug detection efforts.

What serves the same function for track and field ? Before I attempt to answer that question, let me pose a question. " What company, or executives within that company, actively work purposely to put themselves out of business ?". In an earlier installment we described what I call the "Corporate Role Reversal Syndrome". That is corporate entities start out with the very best of intentions as it regards serving the constituency they are supposed to serve. But some where in the process, the roles are reversed. The corporate leaders expect , even demand that the constituency and the people they are supposed to serve, to in fact reverse their positions and basically serve the corporate leaders and the perverted excesses to which they go in the name of serving the interests of their constituency.   This is more than evident as we follow the corporate meltdowns on Wall Street and elsewhere, with corporate leaders getting massive salaries, bonuses, and golden parachutes for basically destroying the companies they  are supposed to run and bankrupting the stockholders they are supposed to be protecting and enriching.

 

The two major drug testing entities ( WADA and USADA ) in sports are funded to the tune of millions of dollars. Their corporate leaders get salaries they would be hard pressed to get elsewhere. If they were totally and completely successful in their mandate and mission, they would eventually work themselves out of a job, and with it, all that power and money. What special qualities of personality and character do the leaders of WADA/USADA have that distinguish them from their corporate brethren ? Where is the firewall between their activity and that of people involved in the "Corporate Role Reversal Syndrome" ?  Instead, what they are doing is becoming even more dictatorial in some instances and insisting that athletes become even more subservient to their whims and wishes than ever. This is not the kind of action that works as a counter, and is contrary to the "Corporate Role Reversal Syndrome".  That being the case, we can not expect that these people are going to work in ways that are totally counter to their own self-perpetuation, gainful and explosive employment. Thus, drug testing and drug detection will be constrained and tainted by the needs of self reward and self promotion of the very people who are charged with stamping out drugs. Just listen to the pompous and pious pronouncements coming from these people and you can hear echoes of a distant refrain that went like this, " What is good for General Motors is good for America. ".   That statement was accepted by many as the absolute truth, and the doctrine and ideology supporting that statement was just as hollow and shallow then ( 80 plus years ago ), as it is now. The same is true of those in the drug detection and testing business. They will make sanctimonious statements about the good they are doing and how they are the only thing between sport/athletics becoming a cesspool corrupted by drugs,...... and a drug free playing field. I have waited a very long time to hear an empowered person in the drug detection and testing business state just how hard and diligently they are working themselves out of a job. I want to hear them say, " When I took this job it was by definition obsolescent, in a very short time I will see to  it that it becomes obsolete !". A person in power, strong and honest enough to make such a statement for me would represent  "The Audacity of Dope",...... with all due respect and apologies to the President-Elect and his fine book, "The Audacity of Hope", I took the first two words of the title. Further, President Barrack Obama's book, " Audacity Of Hope ", will provide the backdrop against which we will continue in the next installment. It has awakened and inspired some thoughts I consider worthy of sharing thta have direct bearing on our sport.

 

Brooks T. Johnson

Posted by Coach Brooks Johnson at January 8, 2009 | Add Comment

The drumbeat of drugs drones on.............................

There are certain inherent benefits of having had the opportunity to observe something "up close and personal" over a long period of time. Put that together with several working brain cells and the fallout can be revealing, and perhaps even beneficial. That is pretty much the case with me and the sport of track and field. I got my first track and field A.A.U.. card almost sixty years ago ( 1949 ). By 1953 I was peripherally at the elite level of the sport in the United States. By 1956, while attending law school at the University of Chicago, I was working and training with Olympians ( University of Chicago Track Club ). By 1968 I had coached my first Olympian (Esther Stroy ) onto the U.S. Olympic team. In 2008 I worked with several athletes at the Beijing Olympics, including David Oliver who won a bronze in the 110 hurdles and Tiffany Ross-Williams who was a finalist in the women's 400 meter hurdles. Over all those many decades I have seen many philosophical and physical changes take place within the sport. But the most pervasive influences and impact in the sport are drugs.  

 

The emphasis philosophically and psychologically during my early years in the sport ( 1949-1960 ) was "natural talent". It was during this time that black athletes in America, and later from Africa, started to make both a qualitative and quantitative difference. The racist and apologist excuse for blacks beating whites was the notion that " blacks are just naturally better at certain things,... and physical activity was one of them, along with music and rhythm."  Intellectual and serious cranium  activity naturally fell to, and was the preserve of whites". But I stray. The emphasis and glorification was placed upon athletes being "natural" to the point where even weight lifting was looked upon as a minor form of "cheating", and no self-respecting athlete with a scintilla of integrity would ever stoop to that level to attain success in "pure" sport.

 

Right after the 1948 and 1952 Olympics it became obvious that World War II had ravaged and decimated the male youth of Europe, and had badly stunted the development of European female athletes as well,and provided the United States with an overwhelming advantage because of its school, university and club system of sports, plus having had fewer casualties compared to Europe during World War II. At the same time, the emphasis on drug use as a means to enhance and preserve health was carried over from World War II. In addition to the drug momentum from World War II being carried on, more and more research was done in the area of health, wellness and performance drugs. So given the basic inequity as regards talent pool, facilities and opportunities favoring the U.S., the availability and knowledge about performance enhancing drugs, and the sense that drugs were a way to "level the playing field", there was a natural "justification" and progression when it came to drugs being used on Olympic European athletes. This is not to say that during this time, and after, Europe was the only area that used drugs, because it was apparent as early as the middle 50s and early 60s that certain American athletes were using and benefiting from drug use. However, in general the drug use among American athletes was limited to a few athletes in certain throwing events. There was still this myth and mentality among runners that weight training not only was unethical, it was also counterproductive because it made athletes "muscle bound" and prohibitively inflexible.

 

As the Olympics grew in stature as a world wide athletic event of great importance to the world, it also produced a geopolitical platform for competing cultures to demonstrate their superiority over each other through the medal count at the Olympics. The Cold War between the West and socialist/communist countries heightened both the need to win at all costs and the systematic development and use of drugs to achieve victory. This was done at tragic costs to athletes, both those who participated and those who did not.. It has been well documented that East German and Russian athletes encountered serious and life shortening consequences from their drug use. One estimate has it that least 10% of those who used performance enhancing drugs were

victims of some sort of serious health issue or life shortening affliction. My own reckoning is that this is a very low percentage of people who have suffered serious negative health issues as a result of drug use in sports. On the other end of the spectrum, I was recently asked in a very angry tone by a former prominent sprinter, " Do you have any freaking idea how much money I lost finishing 4th and 5th to people I knew were dirty ?" I have always wondered, just how much money Ben Johnson cost Calvin Smith by breaking his record in the 100 meters ?".

 

Right after the break up of the Soviet Union and  essentially the end of the Cold War, the U.S. won 30 medals in track and field at the 1992 Olympics in Barcelona. At the Atlanta Olympics the U.S. track and field medal count was down to 24. By 2000 it was down to 20 ( 14, if you factor in drug busts ).  In 2001 I became Chair of the High Performance Division of USATF. The High Performance Division was the USOC and USATF response to the drastic drop in medal count . The total mission and mandate of the HPD was to,... " increase the U.S. medal count in major international competition.". With that as my mission, mandate, and clear command, I set  out, with the critical and essential help of several others, to put in place projects and programs that would do just that, increase the U..S. medal count in, "major international competition". It was, and is, obvious that the most direct and straightforward strategy to increase the U.S. medal count is to eliminate drug use among athletes all over the world. If drugs are eliminated from the Olympics and World Championships, the U.S. medal count would go up expediently. Basically I am advocating " Back To The Future". In other words, if we return to the conditions of the "good ole days" when drugs were not a significant factor, the U.S. would dominate pretty much in the same way it did right after WW II. Drugs USE changed the culture of post WW II American dominance at the Olympics and drug ELIMINATION would return us to that very same lofty status. 

 

As Chair of HPD, I thought the best way to meet the drug challenge was to use "best practices" from other successful business models. The concept was based upon a case I read about of a computer hacker successfully beating the firewall of a major corporation and gaining access to their most valuable files and data. What was most informative to me was the fact that the company was more interested in how the hacker broke into their files and "beat the system" than they were in placing him behind bars. Voila and eureka, there it is ! At a meeting between the leadership of the USOC and USATF I proposed that we do the same thing as it regards drug cheats. I would recruit a number of drug cheats who would be willing to anonymously, and with immunity, explain the processes they used to defeat drug testing. These methods would be scrutinized and tested against the current testing protocols used by U.S. Anti Doping Agency (USADA ) to see if their methodology was really set up to catch and detect drug cheats. The plan was enthusiastically endorsed by the CEO ( Lloyd ward ) of the USOC as well as the president ( Bill Roe ) of USATF. At a meeting of national governing bodies at the USOC headquarters in Colorado Springs, I shared the plan with a couple of NGB representatives and was impressed with their genuine and enthusiastic response. In order to start small and expand, I got agreements from Swimming, Weightlifting, and Cycling to go with USATF. Each federation would provide input from different areas of drug use they thought most critical in their sport. For example, swimming had a doctor who was well versed in bio-engineering and what she thought might occur in this area as regards swimming. Weight lifting and cycling was charged to have input of a similar nature based upon what point on the drug compass threat to their sport would come from. USATF's contribution would be to set up the symposium/conference and get athletes to explain how they successfully cheated the tests they were made to take. Feeling the need to involve USADA in the process in June of 2002 I started to place calls to Terry Madden who was heading USADA at the time. It took until October, with a number of unanswered calls, and a bit of coercion in the interim, to finally get him on the phone to discuss what we wanted to do. I outlined the process of getting all these NGBs together for a coordinated and cooperative effort by NGBs never before attempted to this degree to strategize and map out anti-drug process and protocols. He was not enthusiastic and advised me that he and the lawyer for USDA would get back to me a week later. A week later the phone call took place and I was advised by the USADA lawyer that anyone who testified as to their drug use would be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law, and where prosecution was not possible, their names would be exposed. I naively pointed out that this would undermine the whole factual aspect of the symposium. The response was, " We do not give immunity to anyone. We do not guarantee the anonymity of drug cheats !". Of course, a little more than a year later they did exactly that for Trevor Graham, the coach for Marion Jones and Tim Montgomery.

 

Jackie "Moms" Mabley was a very wise and very funny black comedienne back in my youth. One of her famous lines was, " The only thing an OLD man can do for me,..... is to show me where a YOUNG man is !" Now that I am seventy four ( 74 )years old I can really feel the sting and impact of what she was saying. But further I understand one of the underlying messages in what black comedians were trying to communicate in those days of strict segregation and gross inequality. The message was, get a good understanding of negative and exploitative reality and find a way to turn it to your advantage. Let's try this, " The only thing a drug cheat can do for me,...... is to show me where a clean athlete will eventually get to !" This is based upon the reality and fact that drug attained marks in most events, if not all, are eventually matched and exceeded by clean athletes at some point in time. The secret and challenge is having the mental ability to "compress time".  Now here is where it gets a little

complicated if you are not paying close attention. After the October Revolution of 1917 in Russia the communist leader, Lenin, had a real dilemma and problem on his hands. Marxist/Hegelian doctrine, under which he was supposed to be operating, dictated that there were two stages preceding the communist/socialist state. The steps were FEUDAL AGRARIANISM which would give way to INDUSTRIAL DEMOCRATIC CAPITALISM, which in turn would generate conditions that would lead to the utopian communist/socialist state. It was obvious to all that in 1917 Russia was at best at agrarian status and real democratic capitalism was no where in sight.  This being the case, Lenin was faced with either giving in to true Marxist doctrine and giving power to industrialists, or he could keep power and find a methodology or concept to deal with what he really wanted to do. What he came up with was the idea that he and his followers would telescope down history and time. They would "compress time", they would bring about today what doctrine and dogma stated should not take place until much later. The same is true of coaching and training for clean athletes.. As long as we have drug agencies that are more concerned with their own existence and perpetuation, we are always going to have drugs. That means that clean athletes and coaches must find a workable philosophy and approach that realistically deals with the negative and exploitative conditions brought on by drugs. That means:

 

    1. All the druggies and cheaters have done is to show you where clean athletes can, and will, eventually go.

 

    2. What is the world record today, will eventually be exceeded by ordinary athletes tomorrow

 

    3. What is required is a mindset that understands the above and training methods necessary to achieve the above

 

There are a couple of real important points that could/should be taken away from the above:

 

    1. As hideous as drugs are, and despite all the platitudes that drug agencies spout, their real objective is self-survival and

    self-perpetuation. So we need to prepare for drugs over the long haul.

 

    2. The real and serious damage of drugs is not necessarily to clean athletes,... the real and serious damage is to the

    druggies. Because clean athletes who know history and intelligently apply history can overcome and exceed drug

    performances.  

 

    3. Clean athletes can not continue to use drugs as the reason and excuse for their not realizing their true potential. Athletes

    less gifted than they will eventually exceed  what are now drug attained marks.

 

    4. One reason for total elimination of drugs is based upon the damage it does to the integrity and essence of the sport and

    the mental and physical health to the practitioners. Further, it is simply the best and right thing to do.

 

This has been a convoluted, and perhaps complex, course to get to this point. The course taken is one that has borne fruit in the sport at the highest levels. You do not have a real grasp on drug use now unless you have a better understanding of what the root causes were in the first place. You do not have the tools to overcome adversity, unless you are aware of the tools and approaches used by those who overcame the most adverse of adversity. You do not have the grasp on how to win unless you are familiar with concepts used to overcome dogma and doctrine that hold progress back.  

 

Happy New Year !

 

Brooks T. Johnson - Teacher/Coach

Posted by Coach Brooks Johnson at December 29, 2008 | Add Comment

ROE,ROE,ROE, THE BOAT........

It has been a little over two weeks since the USATF national convention and the election of Stephanie Hightower as the new president of the organization. With her election the Bill Roe regime should come to an end as his term goes " Roe, Roe, Roe,.... gently down the stream,..... and out of power and influence.". However, it is more than obvious and apparent that a gentle and civil passing of leadership from Roe to Hightower is not what is in the cards.

There are several things standing in the way that portend of rough sledding down the line.

 

It is an all too common occurrence that service organizations start out with the very highest  and loftiest regard and concern for the protection, support and service of the constituency they are created and organized to serve. Once ensconced in power the leaders of these service organizations, in just about all cases, seek a complete reversals of roles . That is,.... instead of them, the leadership, serving the legitimate needs of the constituency,... they expect and demand that the constituency serve them !!!! 

 

We see this manifested all around us from the highest levels of our government down to organizations like the NCAA, USOC, and now with USATF in conjunction with the USOC. The USOC was mandated by the Amateur Sports Act in its mission statement from congress to: "Lead the world's best National Olympic Committee: Help U.S. Olympic athletes achieve sustained competitive excellence while inspiring all Americans and preserving the Olympic ideal.". Notice the prominence of " Help U.S. Olympic athletes....." in the mission statement and mandate and juxtaposed that against the manner in which the USOC goes about its daily business and demands. Picture American cyclists departing a plane in Beijing, having been bombarded with the notion that polluted air was to be expected, a few wore protective masks. They were pounced upon by Steve Roush of the USOC , head of USOC competition at the Beijing Games, scolded and made to apologize for merely taking a protective measure they thought prudent based upon the information they had gotten from USOC sources and elsewhere. After the Games, Roush was forced to back pedal and apologize to the athletes for his high handed actions against them. The question and real issue is, if the primary and basic function of the USOC and its employees is to "Help U.S. Olympic athletes....",.....why was it that athletes' rights were not, assumed, observed and protected as a pre-audit, rather than as an embarrassing and revealing post-audit ?

 

The same kind of high handed disregard for organizational mission statement was manifest in the new CEO of USATF, Doug Logan's appointments of athletes and others to his USATF Audit Panel. This panel was charged with interviewing and reviewing with people within USATF about the best practices and worse practices within USATF. The panel would evaluate what it had gathered and this form the basis for "reform" within USATF. The panel was self-described by Logan as being "dispassionate and objective". Of the seven original panelists, four had current ( 3 ) and/or past ( 1 ) USOC employment status. Further, the enabling language and mission statement of both the USOC and USATF state clearly that "...steps (be) taken to encourage the participation of women, disabled individuals, and racial minorities....". There were no physically disabled members of the panel. There were no members representing youth a category of athletes that USATF is mandated to serve and represent by the Amateur Sports Act and the USOC by-laws. Of a panel of seven, only one was a woman in a sport where approximately 50% of the Olympic team is female and women won nine ( 9 ) and men won fourteen ( 14 ) of the twenty three ( 23 ) Olympic medals won in Beijing. Racially, blacks routinely win more than 80% of the U.S. medal count at major international competitions, including the Olympics. Black representation on the original Audit Panel was approximately 33% !

 

What all of the above amounts to is a very flawed, but predictable, attempt by those in power to pervert a system that is designed to serve others in such a way as to serve their own self-serving missions and mandates. If the process surrounding the "reform" efforts is so deeply flawed, it is highly unlikely that what comes from it will be much better. Essentially what we have here is a preconceived and preordained "reform" effort seeking problems to correct. This is not to say that change and reform within USATF is not a laudable and desired objective. It most clearly is ! However, in order to achieve real and legitimate reform, you can not start with illegitimate and ill-conceived processes and policies that violate the very concepts and principles the "reforms" are supposedly aimed at addressing and redressing.

 

During the Roe regime, the minority of board members that stood up and objected to women and minorities being strategically omitted in the USATF board processes, and also supported the rights and privileges of the youth constituency, were categorized as the dissidents. It was reported out that this group was causing dysfunctionality within the board. The pit bull for this disinformation was Lynn Cannon, the secretary of the board. She went on a constant and comprehensive campaign to discredit the "dissenters" and "dissidents" as the cause of board conflicts despite the fact that it was she who struck another board member and shouted an obscene expletive as she stormed out of a meeting, abdicating her secretarial responsibility in the process. Her animosity and disruptive presence became so troublesome that she was asked off several USATF committees.. She projected the idea that some board members were abusing their budgets and requesting suites at the various meeting they were mandated to attend. It was made to seem that these board members simply made a unilateral decision and on their own authority exceeded their budgets. What was strategically and sleazily ommited was the fact that the Budget and Audit Committee of USATF reviewed and scrutinized any and all budget overages and reported them to the board. If a board member exceeded their budget, an explanation was demanded and the board voted on whether or not the overage was legitimate and acceptable,....not the individual involved. Knowing this, and despite this, she spread the notion that board members were acting exclusively on their own and essentially illegitimately abusing their budgets.  She persisted in her personal attacks on the character of certain board members, even going up to the election volunteer table for Stephanie Hightower at the convention and raging tearfully, " How can you support this person ? She is the most evil person in track and field ! ".

 

Later she was to ask another board member, " Where is there a place for me in the next quadrennium ?".    That is the question, and most pressing issue, as we move into the next four years leading up to London, " What place do self-serving people willing to pervert the processes and system have in the affairs of USATF for the next four years ? ". Tragically, it appears that there are plenty already in place and willing to step forward and assume this role.  There are two areas that we can depend on as something of a brake on some of these executive excesses. First, Stephanie Hightower is a product of elite athletics, who has gone to great lengths to get familiar and informed about the other constituencies within the sport. She is a very strong and natural leader, but woefully outnumbered on the administrative and executive level. However, she won the election because she was able to bring significant support from athletes to her candidacy. The restructuring mandated by the USOC makes this combination very important, even essential, because the best brake on administrative and executive excesses will be the athletes and their unwillingness to be manipulated out of their rights and privileges under the law.

Posted by Coach Brooks Johnson at December 23, 2008 | Add Comment

Olympic Gaming


The last couple of installments talked about instances of Olympic "gaming", or the games people play that have direct impact on Olympic results. In many cases Olympic "gaming" can rival the actual Olympic Games in terms of humor, importance, and interest. But Olympic "gaming", just like everything else in life, does not occur in a vacuum. All events, including "gaming", take place in a sort of continuum and historical flow and never in total isolation. Here's an example of a "gaming" experience that started in 1983, with direct impact on the Olympics of 1984, World Championships of 2007 and Olympics of 2008.

 

At the World Championships in Helsinki, Finland in 1983 I was approached by Bobby Kersee who advised me to take a couple of athletes he was coaching into the World Championships Village so they could have the experience of being there as part of the team, despite the fact that they had not made the team at the nationals. My sense of the situation was that I was being "gamed" by Bobby to take these athletes into the Village so he would not have to pay for them to stay in a local hotel on his dime.   He was irate and pressed on with, " Brooks look, these two athletes will both win medals in L. A. next year. Valerie will win three medals all by herself. " To which I replied, Bobby, for Christ sakes, she is only barely breaking 24 seconds in the 200 !" He confidently replied, "I am telling you that she will win the 200 and 400 at the Olympic Games in Los Angeles, California in 1984 and come back and win another medal on the relay." " Bobby get real ! You telling me she is going to win as many medals as Wilma Rudolph ? Listen, I do not know what the hell you on, but when they make it legal I want to make sure you get me some." He retorted, " You are just like all the other dumb asses in this sport. You can not see beyond your nose. Just wait and you'll see what I'm telling you is true and I wonder what the hell your answer is going to be then." I'm really hot now because he has challenged my intelligence, " Bobby, first of all let me tell you that I am NOT a dumb ass, and the second thing I am telling you is these two athletes are NOT going to be allowed to stay in the Village. So I won't miss these medalists in Los Angeles, other than Valerie Briscoe-Hooks, who is the other athlete ?" " It's Florence, she won the NCAA 400 last year ('82). Now you know what you can do with those rooms don't you ?".

 

As it turned out, Valerie won the 400 and 200 double at the 1984 Olympics, long before Michael Johnson became famous for doing the same thing at the Olympics 12 years later in 1996 at the Atlanta Olympic Games. Further, unlike Michael, she was able to come back and anchor the 4 x 400 relay for her third Olympic medal, matching Wilma Rudolph's legendary total. Florence medaled in 1984 at 200 meters and became Flo-Jo in 1988 and as they say, "the rest is history .". When Bobby and I next met after Valerie's three medals he approached me with a self-satisfied smirk on his face. " I told you what she was going to do, but you didn't see it.....". I cut him off before he went further, " Look Bobby, you were right about her winning the three medals, but before you get any further, I still am NOT a dumb ass ! Only YOU could have seen what she see was capable of and was going to do. So leave it right there !" He broke into a broad condescending smile saying, " I ain't leaving nothing right there,..... you need to learn to trust what I tell you."

 

Fast forward to the 2007 World Championships in Osaka, Japan. Dominique Arnold pulls out of the 110 meter hurdles two days before his race. Sandy Snow who is the Team Leader for the team, and in charge of all managerial and logistics support for the team approaches me, " Brooks we just lost one of your hurdlers. What do you want to do ? ". I reply, " Sandy David Payne missed the team by just one hundredth of a second. Get him over here.". "Brooks he will barely have enough time to get over here before his race starts. Plus Jim Elias ( C.F.O. of USATF ) will complain about the cost of the ticket.". With a mild tone of upsetment in my voice I respond, " Sandy, it is not his call. We need to get this guy over here so he can go through the experience and benefit from just being here so if he makes the team for 2008 he will not be a first timer."

 

Dear reader, do you hear echoes of 1983/84, with the "dumb ass" and Bobby Kersee resonating throughout all this ?

 

Later Sandy comes back and says, " I just want to make sure you want to go ahead with this Payne thing. Here are the facts. He will get here the night before his event. It will cost us $3,800.00 and Jim is not pleased. As you know, the studies say he needs a day in country for each hour differential between here and the States. ". "Sandy, it is not Jim's call. If he complains we can take it out of the High Performance Division budget.  I am sure I can it get approved later. For now, do it on my personal approval and I'll take responsibility for any negative feedback.". The following is the David Payne 2007 World Championships 110 meter hurdles saga:

 

    He arrives at the American hotel and is checked in with temporary

    credential at 11:00 PM the night before his race.

 

    9:00 AM the next morning, the day of his race, he has to go to the processing center for a

    permanent credential.

 

    11:45 AM is the first round of the men's 110 meter hurdles and he runs the

    fastest time of all the heats.   

 

    A day or so later he finishes third in the finals, winning a bronze medal.

 

I silently walk around for several days, almost dislocating my right shoulder from patting myself on the back for being such a damned genius.. However,I can still see Bobby Kersee with that smug smirk on his face and sensing he would have commented, " I told your dumb ass about this more than twenty years ago. Glad to see you finally caught on.". But the like everything else, a good story and life's lessons never stop, there is almost always an addendum. In this case I refer to the Olympic finals in the men's 110 hurdles in Beijing. David Payne beats David Oliver by one hundredth of a second for the silver medal. I have the good fortune of coaching David Oliver. I wonder if that one hundredth of a second for David Payne might not have been there if I had left David Payne at home in 2007, and not allowed him to get the positive experience referred and subscribed to by Bobby Kersee in 1983,..... 25 years earlier. In the end, all this proves is that "dumb ass" or "genius", the Olympics can and does "game" us all in the end.  

Posted by Coach Brooks Johnson at December 15, 2008 | Add Comment

Olympic Gaming

Since we were previously discussing events at the 1972 Olympics, there is another case of Olympic Gaming I would like to share. In 1972 the Germans were very keen on making a very strong statement on many different levels through hosting the Olympic Games in Munich. They were essentially walking a tightrope between trying to make the Games as secure as possible, while at the same time trying to distance themselves from the image of a police state. One person taking advantage of their sensitivity on this point and their extreme need not to appear racist was John Carlos. There was a front page article in the Village newspaper stating that John Carlos had the capacity to shut down the Olympic Games . John essentially became the "mayor" of the Village for a while and with a black cape flowing in his wake, walked unchallenged and without credentials in, out, and throughout the Village. One day this led him to the training/practice track in the Village. We were sitting in the stands

swapping lies about track and field, while quietly observing  several sprinters working on sprint drills and starts. Edwin Roberts of Trinidad, who finished fourth behind John's third in  the 200 meters in 1968 at Mexico City, was among the group. Edwin, or "Latin Louie" as he was dubbed, perhaps still stinging from being beaten out of a medal in 1968 and now obviously impressed with his fitness and preparedness for 1972, and brimming with confidence  saw John and saw fit to call John out. I am sure that Edwin figured his ego was safe because Carlos was in street garb and his signature black cape gave him a Dracula effect. John's initial response was , " Hey Louie, leave me the hell alone. I'm sitting here minding my own damned business and you coming up with a lot of mouth."  Edwin persisted and John continued, " Listen here, I haven't run in two years, but I can still come down there and whip your no-running ass and take your heart with me at the same damned time.". By now a small crowd had gathered and both men were more or less committed. Edwin, sensing the crowd's attention and feeling he could make big points at Carlos' expense, challenged John to come down and back up his words.    

 

"Louie, stay here with your big mouth. I'm going to go up to the PUMA shop and get me a pair of shoes and come back and kick your butt in my street clothes.". John ran up the stairs with his cape flapping behind him, back to the Village. When he returned with his red PUMA sprint spikes it was obvious that "Latin Louie" felt he had "gamed" John into a "payback" and an ego/confidence boosting situation. "Brooks hold my cape while I go down and take this little fool's heart. ". Seeing how serious and angry he was, I quickly swallowed any idea of objecting to him falling into Edwin's trap.

 

"Carlos, since I know you are not in shape, let's just do starts so there's not too much room for you to be embarrassed.", was "Latin Louie's"   greeting to him as Carlos joined him and the other sprinters on the track. Being much smaller and much  more explosive than John, Edwin knew there was a definite advantage to him when it came to starts. " Little nigger it don't make no difference what we do. You got an ass kicking coming today,.... right here in front of all your boys. By the way, any of you other punks want some this, then set up your blocks.", Carlos called out. Several of the fastest men in the world took up the challenge and six lanes were quickly filled with John and Edwin in the two middle lanes. Athletes who had been working in other events around the track, gathered at the sprint start to watch Carlos get slaughtered. "Let's race to the first hurdle. That is 15 yards.", offered Edwin. " Fine with me,.........boy!" was Carlos' disdainful reply.

 

Carlos beat the whole field three times over 15 yards. Despite this, there were more and more takers, so all lanes were filled when Edwin said, " Starts don't mean nothing. Let's go to a man's distance. Let's go to 50 meters.". "Look little nigger, we can stop this while you still have some heart left. Or we can go 50 meters and really get your feelings hurt." , was Carlos' reply. After thirty five meters Carlos was looking back at Edwin and the rest, laughing and talking trash. This should have been sufficient proof for "Latin Louie" that he had tried to "game" the wrong man. So I was surprised when he offered, " I am just getting warmed up. Let's go to real a Olympic distance. Let's go to 100 meters.". " Carlos, ever aware and sensitive to the reality around him, and candid to the extreme, stated, " Louie, look man, you can not beat me ! What you need to do is focus on these niggers who are actually running in the Olympics and leave me the hell alone.". Edwin insisted on the one last race over 100 meters. " Y'all heard me tell this man not to do this. I told him this for his own good. If he keeps messing with me I'm gonna take his heart and his soul.".

 

All eight lanes were filled and the anticipatory excitement hung heavy in the air. By 50 meters Carlos again had gapped the field and was turning his head around laughing and talking trash all the way to the line. "Latin Louie" finished well back and ran past the finish line and out of the track facility. When John returned to reclaim his black cape I queried, " John, why did you do him like that ? The man has a chance at a medal.". "He ain't got no chance at no medal now. Gimme my cape,... and leave me the hell alone.". That represented one of the very few times that I did exactly as directed.  

 

P.S. Edwin "Latin Louis" Roberts, who had finished fourth at 200 meters in '64 and '68 didn't medal in '72. 

 

Posted by Coach Brooks Johnson at December 9, 2008 | Add Comment

OLYMPIC GAMES AND OLYMPIC GAMING

The first Olympic medalist I worked with was on the 1960 Olympic team. Starting in 1968 I have had the good luck and good fortune to have an athlete I have coached at every Olympics Games from 1968 through 2008. I have personally served on the coaching staffs of four U.S. Olympic teams. As result of that up close and personal involvement, there are several significant facts that have emerged:

 

    1. The Olympic athletes I have coached have ranged from 100 meters to

    3,000 meters, including long jumpers, hurdlers, high jumpers and discus

    throwers. Despite the diversity in gender, race, personality, and events,

    they all had one thing in common. They all had a screw loose. There is no

    way an athlete can prepare in the extremes necessary to make an Olympic

    team and be "well adjusted". The simple fact of the matter is, "well

    adjusted" people do not, and perhaps can not , push themselves to the

    limits and extremes necessary to perform up to the Olympic level.

 

    2. The observation I want to expand on now has to do with what I call

    "OLYMPIC GAMING " The things that go on behind the scenes that

    ultimately determine who is going to be successful and who is going to fall

    short. In short, "the games people play" that impact performances.

 

At the 1972 Olympics there was the famous case of two American sprinters missing  one of the qualifying rounds of the 100 meters. The genesis for this travesty goes back to the Olympic Games of 1968 with Smith and Carlos raising the black gloved fists in protest. There was a calculated judgment made for the 1972 Olympic team that black coaches were going to coach the sprints and take full responsibility for whatever  blacks did in Munich.  Hoover Wright ( 400 and 4 x 400 )of Prairie View and Stan Wright ( 100/200, 4 x 100 ) of Texas Southern were the designated coaches to "control" black athletes and take responsibility for any "misbehaving" on the part of blacks. This arrangement would absolve the white head coach and/or his staff of any blame and totally "game" the system in their favor.

 

Prior to the start of the Games, there was a schedule change for the day of the 100 meters. Unfortunately, the managerial staff was off on a sightseeing junket when the changes were made and never got the changes. So the schedule posted in the American dorm was not the correct one. Dave Maggard, who coached Eddie Hart the #1 American sprinter, came up to the head coach and an assistant coach and advised them that there was a mix up in the schedule and that Eddie Hart was not aware of the change in the schedule.. The coaches were intent on watching Dave Wottle qualify in the 800 meters and essentially blew Maggard off stating that they had nothing to do with the sprinters and that Stan Wright was responsible for getting the athletes to the races on time. I was sitting directly in front of the people involved as this conversation was going on. Lee Evans, who was also sitting close by, volunteered to run back to the Olympic village and get the sprinters. In the mean time, the American sprinters were watching the next round of the sprints on a monitor in the dorm and thought at first it was a replay of the sprints from the morning session. When they discovered the truth, they raced back to the Olympic stadium , passing Lee coming towards them, with only one getting there in time for his race.  

 

Stan Wright later went on ABC television where Howard Cossell was scathing in his criticism of Stan and went on, and on, about how unacceptable Stan's dereliction of duty was, and what an insult it was to the athletes and the people of the United States. Stan accepted the blame and responsibility and it was never brought to light that the real culprits were the managerial staff whose responsibility it was to get the schedule changes, alert coaches and athletes about the changes, and then post them. According to Olympic protocol, only the designated manager could access these changes from the Technical Information Center. In their efforts to distance themselves from any responsibility associated with black athletes, the coaching staff and managerial staff "gamed" itself right out of any blame for the athletes missing their race.

 

More "OLYMPIC GAMING" to come.

Posted by Coach Brooks Johnson at December 8, 2008 | Add Comment

THE REAL DEAL IN RENO - A STACKED DECK ?

In a couple of days USA Track and Field will host its national convention in Reno, Nevada. There are at least two extremely important actions and activities that will take place:

    

    1. Review and perhaps action on restructuring of USATF governance

 

    2. Election of officers

 

Both of these activities are fraught and filled with smokey political power plays by several entities who have their own self-serving agendas to institute:

 

    1. The USOC ( Jim Scheer, Jay Warwick ), Doug Logan ( USATF CEO ), Bill Roe ( USATF president ), Lynn Cannon ( USATF Secretary ),  Ed Koch ( USATF treasurer ),David Greifinger ( counsel to the board ) all want to see a unitary form of governance where most of the power and authority is centered in the hands of the CEO, at the greatly reduced influence and decision- making authority of volunteers and athletes. This would be a mistake even if we had a CEO that was knowledgeable about the history, legacy and nuances of the sport.. But given the self-declared ignorance of the CEO and lack of experience upon which we can make a judicious assessment of his fit for the job, it is sheer lunacy to concentrate that much power into such untested hands.  Much of what is being proffered ranges from the ill-advised to the illegal. For example, The Amateur Sports Act ( Ted Stevens Act ), mandates that USATF represents and is governance for: Disabled Athletics, Youth Athletics, Masters Athletics, Long Distance Running, and Elite and Emerging Elite Athletes.  At present, except for disabled, these different constituencies all have direct representation on the Board of Directors in the form of a seat and voting power. The new restructure plan would greatly reduce their number and representation on the Board. In some instances they would not have a direct voice and influence in matters that directly impact what they do, and how they do it.  This is ill-advised and contrary to the intent of the Amateur Sports Act. Gratuitously disenfranchising some of these constituencies that USATF is mandated to serve, in order to meet some sort of arbitrary USOC approved number, is in direct violation of the tenet that legislation should be the result of fair, equal and proper representation. The USOC is mandating a smaller board because they have been convinced by certain officers on the board, that the current board is too large and dysfunctional. Further, they would like to see a board more along the lines of their own. It should be noted that at last year's national convention, Jim Scheer, executive director of the USOC, spoke to the board of USATF about what he saw as the needs, possible time lines and demands of USATF restructuring. The board, that had no prior notice that Scheer would be on the agenda, and that is supposed to be so divided and dysfunctional, spontaneously voted virtually unanimously to reject the demands made by Scheer.      

 

    2. The second area of grave concern centers around the idea that the president, elected by the duly representative body of delegates at the convention, would have to be elected again by the board in order to serve as chair of the board. Up until this very date, the president has always chaired the board meetings. But when it became more and more apparent that Stephanie Hightower was going to win the election, a new restructuring caveat was inserted. Under the amended restructure plan the elected president would be a member of the board, but would have to run for the chair. The meatless bone thrown to mitigate this break with tradition and broad representation, was that if the president did not win the election for chair, then she/he would automatically be the vice-chair. This all too transparent attempt to pre-empt Stephanie Hightower from automatically enjoying the same status and influence as past presidents, is a shameless ploy to strip her and the assembly voters of having an automatic voice in governance at the highest level of the federation.  The new restructuring calls for approximately 20% " outside/independent " seats on the board. That means that people who have even less credibility, connection and understanding about the sport than Doug Logan, could/would have more voting power than volunteers and committees that have run their affairs and ably supported the sport for years.

 

It has been said that in a democracy, you get exactly what you deserve because you have the ability and capacity to elect the people you want to represent you. Make no mistake about it, there are malicious, sinister, and self-serving efforts a foot to take that right away from too many people who have devoted a significant portion of their life learning and supporting the sport. Within the past couple of weeks we lost two such people, Dr Harmon Brown and Larry James. Between the two of them there is more than 100 years of affiliation and affinity for the support. They have just about as many years of service in the sport as our CEO has official days in office. Larry James was on a USATF conference call the very night before he died,... still trying to be of service to this sport. I was personally in touch with Dr Brown within weeks before he passed. He was still concerned and offering up advice. Will our legacy be to people like this, and thousands others, that there voices and hard won expertise within the sport and elsewhere will not be directly heard and/or severely limited at the decision-making levels of our sport ? Just the thought of such a tragic travesty should fill honest and clear thinking people with disgust. 

 

At the end of the day it is rather prophetic that this convention is in Reno, Nevada. It is the home of quickie divorces, where people lie  in order to get the outcome they want. It is also a legal gambling site and that is exactly what the voting delegates at the convention are being asked to do. They are being asked to gamble on some changes that in some instances have been rushed to print based upon certain people's disingenuous and dastardly designs on power and who should or should not wield it. The deck is stacked because many are going to be stampeded into feeling they have to act because of the USOC threat of de-certification. The fact of the matter, as long as USATF is making good faith efforts at reform, the USOC has no legitimate grounds for de-certification. No judicial process would support a serious process like this being deliberately and prematurely forced on a legally instituted and properly functioning organization.  

 

It is hoped that the board and the voting assembly will take note of what is really being done and raise up, like the board did a year ago, and resist being stampeded into something that serves no general interests. As the Supreme Court once stated, we ought move forward, "..with all deliberate speed.".  The operative word is "deliberate". That will allow for sufficient and in-depth discussion on all the critical issues and concerns in a non-coercive atmosphere that most definitely does not exist at present.         

 

 

Posted by Coach Brooks Johnson at December 1, 2008 | Add Comment

FROM EUGENE TO BEIJING

The Olympic Trials in Eugene, Oregon were an unequalled success. Everything possible was done to assure the most competitive and successful Trials of all time. The Trials results bore ample witness to this fact. The Trials ended on Sunday, July 7 and entries to the USOC were due on Monday, July 8. The Chinese had arranged for the Games to start on 08-08-08 ( 8 is a lucky number for Chinese ), or August 8 of 2008. Track and Field started on August 15 ,a week later. That gave American athletes approximately six weeks recovery between the time they made the team and the start of track and field events in Beijing. The time in between, and how it was used, was naturally a huge challenge.

 

Some athletes, departed for Europe immediately after the Trials to cash in on their Olympic Trials success. In the case of the sprint relay ( 4 x 100 ) candidates, they were required to be in Stockholm, Sweden on the 19th of July for a series of relay competitions and training. The first event was the 22 of July in Stockholm, then the 25th of July in London, and the 29th in Monaco. Each training session and competition was filmed using the DARTFISH video system and we employed two DARTFISH cameras. One of the cameras was manned by a PHD in bio-mechanics, Dr. Iain Hunter. There were extensive drills that preceded each training session, including stationary drills that emphasized proper hand presentation and grasping of the baton once it was inserted into into the hand. Imagine the surprise when this was the aspect of the passing exercise that failed us in Beijing after we had worked so long, often and hard at this precise execution technique.

 

What we found when we collected all the candidates in Stockholm was a wide range of degree of recovery from the Trials. There were some athletes who had remained at home, rested and recovered from the Trails and as a result were fresh and ready to go. On the other hand, there were some who had come directly from the Trials to Europe and were just about totally expended and on their very last legs, a mere three plus weeks before they were to start the Games. One athlete advised me, " Brooks I just want to go home ! I came over here right after the Trials and I haven't run or felt well the whole time I have been here. I can not go on to London and Monaco. Can I meet you guys in China after Stockholm ?". This athlete was excused and went home and came within a week or so of making a full recovery by the time the Games started. Another athlete made two trips to and from Europe after the Trials until we met in Stockholm on the 19th. This athlete was still able to get almost all the way back by the Games, winning a silver and gold medal.

 

The head coaches of the U.S. team, based upon input from scientists and empirical experience from the previous year's World Championships in Osaka, Japan, decreed that athletes needed to be in the Beijing time zone at least 10 days before the start of their event. Athletes were required to check in with the Olympic staff in the Village five days before the start of their event. There was a training camp set up in Dalian, China where athletes could come and train prior to going to Beijing. They were allowed 10 days at no cost to themselves. Provisions were made for their support and medical teams to be housed there as well. We were housed in a deluxe resort hotel, with an American chef, and police escort to and from training sessions twice a day. The training facilities were "A" level and the Chinese support staff could not do enough to make our experience there a rewarding one.

 

Despite the fact that our water had been tested and cleared by American technicians, and even with our having our own American chef at the training camp, there was still more cases of stomach issues than usual. I was working with David Oliver and Tiffany-Ross Williams, both of whom had to miss work days at the training  camp because of stomach issues and diarrhea. During the rounds of the 110 hurdles at the Games, Oliver suddenly bent over in obvious discomfort on his way to the Call Room just prior to his race. I held my breath that he would be able to finish his race and advance and not "lose it " in the process. These two certainly were not isolated cases and to some degree just about everyone on the team and staff had some sort of stomach episodes. I can remember talking with Bubba Thornton, the men's head coach, about this issue.. He once stated, " Brooks, when I go to a new place, the first thing I do is to find out where the nearest toilet is.". I laughed because we shared the same survival strategy.

 

On just about every level possible, China in general, and Beijing in particular, was a study in contrasts and surprises. We had been prepared by the media and USOC scientific studies to expect polluted air. The air never presented a problem. Polluting factories were shut down and automobile traffic was halved each day by alternating by license plate numbers who could drive on each day. As a boy and young man, I had often read stories about the Chinese not having enough food to feed themselves. Once in China, I was surprised to see a very robust restaurant industry with Chinese filling these establishments and themselves on a nightly basis. I had been advised that the Chinese were racists and considered blacks inferior. Yet we blacks were singled out, in some cases embarrassingly so, to pose with them for pictures, and in general given preferential treatment. The traffic, both on foot and streets, was extremely intense and crowded, but in the more than two weeks I spent in China, I do not remember a horn being blown in anger. China is supposedly one of the last remaining communist/socialist countries, but the amount of private enterprise and emphasis on materialism and materialist consumption was truly amazing. The Chinese dislike America, but it is obvious that they like Americans. In order for a student to move from middle school to high school, she/he must pass an English exam, or be assigned to a trade school. In a country we viewed as being desperately poor and backward not that long ago, there was evidence all around of a very robust, well-ordered, and upward spiraling economy and society.. A popular joke among foreigners was, " What is the national bird of China ? " The answer, " The crane,.....the building crane.".

 

As stated above, China and Beijing were a source of great contrasts and surprises. I have been on national teams since making the U.S. Pan American team in 1963. I have been on four Olympic staffs and numerous other teams as well. In my personal experience over that more than four decades, we have never had a logistical and management support staff as well trained and knowledgeable as the one we had in Beijing. Sandy Snow was the Team Leader and put together a staff that was both very hard working and carried out their respective tasks with a level of effectiveness and efficiency unseen prior to 2008. I recall the World Championships in 2003 in Paris, France where the food, to everyone's surprise, was horrible. Yet no one had stomach issues. In Beijing, the food was at an all time high. Yet we had too many people with stomach issues. 

 

Somewhere in all this there is a lesson. Perhaps George Williams, the 2004 men's Olympic head coach, stated it best, " You do not know the play unless you are in the huddle.". There has been a great deal of remote armchair criticism and consternation about the performances of U.S. track and field athletes in Beijing. A great deal of that criticism has been leveled at the Olympic coaching staff. What is being missed is the fact that the same personal coaches and support people that worked with our athletes in Eugene, where we had outstanding performances, were the exact same people, in almost all cases, supporting them in Beijing. Did these personal coaches and support people become cretins in a little over a month ? Hardly ! It is a fact of life that we lose between 3-5 medals between the Olympic Trials and the Olympic Games. That figure is based upon the fact that if our athletes perform as well at the Olympic Games as they do at the Olympic Trials, we would win 3-5 more medals. The High Performance Division of USATF has recognized this and over the past several years has held conferences and seminars with coaches, athletes, scientists, and stake holders to identify the secret to being able to replicate at the Games what we do at the Trials.   

 

As Chair of the High Performance Division, it was my responsibility to see to it that we had the plans,programs and projects in place to " maintain current medal count and increase the medal count where ever possible in major international competition." When the HPD came into existence ( 2001 ) the U.S. was down to less than 15 medals with drug busts for 2000. We reached a high water mark in 2005 and 2007 at 25/26. It was always our ultimate and endgame mission and mandate, however, to win the medal count,... which we did in 2008. The planning for 2008 was based upon replicating the successful modalities and models that had worked so well for 2004, 2005, and 2007. It did not produce the same number of medals. That was/is perhaps the greatest surprise and contrast that Beijing had in store for us.   

  

 

 

Posted by Coach Brooks Johnson at November 28, 2008 | Add Comment

2008/2012 OLYMPIC TRIALS BIDDING PROCESSES

Recently I was asked by an interested party in the Northern California chapter of USATF about the bidding process that went on for the 2008 Olympic Trials.

He had been persuaded that the process was flawed and unfairly influenced by people trying to enrich themselves in the process. Nothing could be further from the truth. This grossly mistaken impression had been enriched and embellished by a member and officer of the board of directors of USATF for her own personal and political purposes. This disinformation campaign by this person is part of a larger and more malevolent  mosaic to accomplish three things:

 

    1. Settle old political scores through slandering those who opposed her.

 

    2. Set up a scenario to continue herself in some sort position of power with

    the restructured board, since she can not, on her own, win an elective

    position.

 

    3. Disenfranchise volunteers and volunteer committees from having final

    decision-making power over their areas of activity and expertise. With final

    word and authority resting with the new CEO ( who literally, and self-

    admittedly has no expertise when it comes to USATF's basic mission and

    mandate ) . Under the new restructuring, the president of USATF would

    have to be first elected by the volunteer body and popular vote, and then

    elected again by the board of directors to be its chair.  In order for this

    convoluted lunacy to take place, the previous USATF structure and

    volunteer regimes have to be made to seem corrupt, inept, and grossly

    ineffective. There is coercive use of the USOC threat of decertification as

    the stick to beat everyone into accepting the travesty that much of the

    restructuring represents.

 

Here is the scenario that took place as regards the bidding process for the 2008 Trials, which in turn bear directly on the 2012 bidding process as well.

 

As the time approached to select the site for the 2008 Olympic Trials, John Chaplin, Chair of Men's Track and Field, proposed a committee of nine (9) people to start the process. The committee had three (3) athletes, Women's Chair, High Performance Chair, LDR Chair, and Craig Masback . There was almost unanimous support for Sacramento, California because of the two prior( 2000 and 2004 ) successful Olympic Trials hosted there. It was decided that based upon USATF by-laws that allow the Olympic Trials to awarded as a "business decision" in some cases without a bid process, that Sacramento would be the likely choice made by the committee based upon the previous contract terms of the 2000 and 2004. There was one very critical and pivotal caveat that centered around the need of the Athletes Advisory Committee to have another major track meet in the U.S. for open and elite athletes to use for qualifying performances. There was/is a special need for such a meet in most of the throwing areas and some jumps. These meets over the next quadrennium were to be funded by a $500,000.00 budget carve out for just this use. The athletes, who after all generate the money in the first place, would have control over how these funds were going to be dispersed and used. The High Performance Division had agreed to fund transportation and housing for the top six "A" qualifiers in each event, assuming the AAC funds were used as prize money for athletes in attendance. 

 

The committee had settled on making this decision the Thursday following a Monday meeting between John McCasey representing the Sacramento Sports Commission and Craig Masback, CEO of USATF. They were to meet to iron out details of the contract for the 2008 Olympic Trials, report back to the committee for approval of the terms. Prior to Mccasey's trip to Indianapolis, I was contacted by a person close to him asking about the process.. I outlined what I sensed the mood of the committee was as regards Sacramento. I also emphatically stated several times that the deal maker or breaker was the funding for the meets that the AAC wanted make sure got funded through them. He agreed that he understood this as being critical and pivotal and advised me that he would have John McCasey call me to make sure there was not any misunderstanding about what was required.

 

John McCasey called on the Friday before he was to leave for Indianapolis.

I advised him about the non-bid circumstance based a "business decision" that could be made in behalf of Sacramento the following Thursday. Again, I emphasized that the AAC wanted and needed funding in order to support a meet that was solely needed by several of its constituent groups. I advised him that there had been a reluctance by the national office to have that funding go directly to the control of athletes. He was told that anything less could possibly be a deal breaker and that the athletes' direct votes and votes they influenced would be the deciding factor in the award process.

 

McCasey indicated that he was very comfortable with that arrangement and he would gaurantee that he would make sure the meet was at Sacramento, or even have the Save Mart people in Modesto host the event. Bottom line, at the end of that conversation there was absolutely no confusion about the need to have the funds go directly to the AAC for them to disperse for the meet(s). He advised me that he and his finance guy were heading for Indianapolis on Sunday and would meet with Craig Masback on Monday to present the contract and budget arrangements. The agreement that came back to the committee did not have the funding for the meet(s) being in control of the AAC, but was rather included in the "general funds" segment of the 2008 Olympic Trials budget, meaning that the national office could distribute the funds as it saw fit, rather than the athletes. This came as a shock and surprise and since the basic request of the athletes had been ignored, it was decided to open up the 2008 Olympic Trials to a bidding process.

 

Once the bidding process started, I was approached by someone close to Oregon Track Club interests and I advised them of the above scenario and told them that the athletes' request for the funding and the meet was absolutely essential to any successful bid. Having advised both sides of what was crucial and critical for success in the process, I excused myself and appointed Vince Peters, Race Walking chair in my stead.

 

There are several truths that should come out of the 2008 Olympic Trials process:

    1. Sacramento had the 2008 bid if not allowing its bid to be influenced in

    the wrong direction by the national office.

 

    2.   Having won the 2008 bid, they could/would have done exactly what

    Eugene did with it, convert it into the 2012 bid ( business decision ) if that

    was their wish.

 

    3. John McCasey had the necessary knowledge and advice to assure the bid

    for Sacramento, he simply chose not to implement it.

 

    4. The assertion that people connected with the AAC or PAA were

    attempting to use the bidding process to create a "slush fund" for their

    personal use is simply malicious slander and serves the perverted political

    and power purposes of people who can not win with legitimate means.

 

    5. The idea that Eugene/NIKE has some insider advantage is totally false as

    each side had the same deal making/deal breaking information. The 2008

    bid process was basically athlete centered because they carried the day in

    terms of votes. However, since the Olympic Trials are to select athletes

    onto the U.S. Olympic team, then who better to have such influence as it is

    their sweat and efforts that generate the dollars in the first place ?  

 

I Hope this helps clear up some of the confusion and consternation over the 2008 bid. There are those who are using it for their own political and professional purposes. They are spreading slanderous slime at innocent people and engaging in malicious misinformation. This kind of action should not be allowed to win the day. Delegates to the upcoming USATF convention need to be keenly aware of what they are being asked to give up in the name of restructuring. The decertification stick is the same as the ruse of Weaponse of Mass Destruction (WMD). We have the USOC and some self-serving members of USATF who would have USATF volunteers stampede into making ill- considered changes with the threat of decertification. Among other things they would like for America to belive that we "lost" the Olympics. There were more than 200 countries represented in track and field in Beijing. Every last one of them would exchange places with us as regards medal count. The mission and mandate of the U.S. Track and Field Team in Beijing was to win the qualitative ( gold medals ) and quantitative ( total medal count ) competitions. We won both the gold medal count and we won the total medal count. The USOC had the exact same mission and mandate charged to it. They were only 50% successful. They won the quantitative count, but lost the qualitative count to the Chinese. Who is threatening them with decertification ?  Who are they to threaten USATF with decertification when we were 50% more effective and successful than they were ?

 

Some times we are to be measured as to how really good we are by what gets done on "off" performances. There is absolutely no question that we could have won more gold medals in Beijing if things had gone better. But they didn't. But we still emerged as the "The World's #1 Track and Field Team "  The previous year at the World Championships, with 215 countries competing, we won 26 total medals and swamped the rest of the world.. The same support team that was in Osaka for 2007, was in place for the Olympics in 2008. Did all these people all of a sudden become ignorant and ineffective in 2008 ?     

 

          

Posted by Coach Brooks Johnson at November 26, 2008 | Add Comment

Olympic Trials - Comments of a Coach


There was a whirlwind of activity concerning the Olympic Trials being held in Eugene, Oregon after two very successful Trials in Sacramento, California. I personally favored Sacramento because we could count on hot weather for sprinters during the day and cool and favorable weather at night for distance runners. In addition, the stands capacity at Sacramento was greater and thus more revenue to USATF. I should have known better than to doubt Vinnie Linanna, the moving force behind the Eugene bid. He had succeeded me as Director of Track and Field/Cross Country at Stanford University and far exceeded anything I had accomplished in the previous 13 years. That was not an all too easy feat as we had produced 8 Olympians in both 1988 and 1992 from the program, along with some very high finishes at the NCAA Championships. However, Vinnie did take the program to new NCAA heights and successes. The question then became, could he pull off the same kind of unparalleled success with the Olympic Trials.

 

After the Trials, Vinnie, his wife Betty and I collected for a time at the HIlton Hotel for something of winding down. I advised him that the Olympic Trials had been the best track and field experience I had witnessed and enjoyed since the Olympics in 1984 in Los Angeles. Every possible support amenity for coaches and athletes was provided. There was not only room for medical and massage support staff provided by the meet, but there was also space for personal medical and support staff for athletes as well. There were television monitors in these areas so that coaches could attend to athletes yet to compete, and also observe athletes that were competing on the track. This was a very big plus for coaches who had more than one or two athletes in the meet. No amenity was overlooked from people coming by on a regular basis to clean up area, to fruit, replacement fluids, and protein bars being made available for free.

 

With all of the basic support necessary for a quality meet in place and working, yet it was the very knowledgeable crowds and their responses that made the event so very special. The crowds were instrumental in inspiring certain athletes to ascend heights of excellence that many were not sure possible. The stands were filled for almost every session and the stands literally bordered the track in south cases and this provided a coziness unequalled anywhere else. The electricity and chemistry that reciprocated between the fans and athletes was beyond anything I had experienced in my more than 50 years in the sport. I remember advising an athlete I coached, " Hey,....if you can not get up for this, let me know and I'll call a mortician !". The psyche job didn't work,.... but the concept was accurate and valid.

 

Eugene will host the 2009, and 2011 USA Track and Field Nationals. It will also host the Olympic Trials for 2012. I have this lingering question in the back of my head, " Can they exceed our expectations again ? ". My doubts were put to rest in 2008, Vinnie and the Oregon Track Club, based upon their record, will do the same for 2009, 2011, and 2012.

Posted by Coach Brooks Johnson at November 19, 2008 | Add Comment
Newer Entries
Copyright Spikes and Flats 2008, all rights reserved.