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Someone has asked about my thoughts to do with MD Talent Identification.
Some of the athletes that I have developed from a basic standard to National standard have had led me to summarize as follows:
They need to display decent cross country ability even though they may have done very little training. This may simply mean that they could represent their area and not necessarily excell. eg a 15yr old girls with 12:00 3000m ability.
But they all have shown reasonable speed potential eg a 15yr old girls with 14.0s ability in 100m. I have one girl in my squad who 2 years ago had the above and had run 2:25 for 800m she now has 2:09 at age 17.
Boys can emerge very late but also follow the same as the above. I have in my squad at present a 16yr old with 1:55/4:02 ability but 2years ago he was a 2:16 athlete. The thing here may be never to underestimate how much someone with desire and talent can improve.
A few years ago I had a boy develop over 2years into running 47.30/1:48.01 at 20. He entered the sport late with initial ability across the board, he had played with the sport and other sports but had never really trained until 18 . He initially had 100m 11.20 PB although without regular racing it would have been 11.60 and what attracted my attention was his PB just playing in a 1500m of 4:25 and he was a big guy. He displayed decent XC ability although not strong talent, however his range was impressive. In the first few months he improved rapidly from his PB of 50.0/1:59.8 to 49.0/1:52.7 and then after a 9months build-up was able to run 47.3/1:49.3
Another situation was a girl with 2:16-2:20 ability who had done a little bit of local athletics where she had focused on sprints and developed a time of 58.5 in the 400m and low 26s in 200m. At age 16 she had been training herself with running around her streets over 15min a couple of times a week and walking a hilly route to school. What impressed me was the 2:16 done off almost no training other than a couple of short runs a week and obvious good speed potential. She started training in January 1998 and by March had her PBs down to 57.3/2:10.8/4:34 and then after a further 6 months to 2:06 and then 6months later to 56/2:05.4/4:21
I have a number of athletes developing. two examples are:
- a girls just 13 with PBs 58.5/2:17.9/4:48 had phenomenal 61.2 400m speed at age 11 and can excel right up to XC events. Her VO2max at 12 was already 60. She is strong and will likely develop great 400m ability as an adult and/or may end up as a great 800m athlete. Her brother age 10 has run 2:23/4:56 and jumped 1.48m in the HJ which is 15cm above his head. Both love training in every way. It is a long road from this age so it is great that athletes love variety in training and racing. Both not surprisingly are sought after by other sports.
The other area to look for in Talent ID for MD or really for any running is body dimensions i.e.. anthropometry. Not necessarily a way to count out anyone because there is great variability amongst good athletes. But some characteristics are helpful and I believe make it easier for talent to emerge:
- Long legs
- Long legs
- narrow hips
- good posture
- good feet (no need for orthotics)
- low body fat
Other areas are helpful such as
- home access to good training environments such as continuos running trails, a good track and gym.
- family diet which is healthy - this avoids problems later in controlling fat %
- supportive family
- tough personality - someone who may have overcome some adversity or is in the process of it.
- healthy - not regularly sick.
- settled and making good progress at school - indicates they can make commitment to details.
- minimal history of injury.
- knowledge of athletics history - this shows interest
Athletes need to have a very strong desire to be good so they can be committed to what needs to be done. They will not make it to the top by accident. Being talented is not necessarily motivating enough to help an athlete make it in the long haul. They have to love what they are doing in a multi-faceted way. This may be something they are led to "like a horse led to water that actually drinks like mad".
Good luck. I would also be interested in other peoples development stories.
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