Unlike the athletes, who come and go in relatively short periods of glory and fame, coaches are working hard behind the scenes for years, sometimes decades, researching new methods, studying past performances, to try to get the best out of their athletes. In 10 years time Usain Bolt may be sitting in a hammock in Jamaica, telling his children about how he became the World’s fastest man. His coach may be training new talent, that is breaking new World records, and still nobody will know his name. It is time to put these people into the spotlight, and let the World know where the talent really lies!

The Worlds Most Important Athletics Coaches

1. George Gandy. This is the man the introduced a young Sebastian Coe to new training methods in the 1970’s, which lead to him becoming that fastest man on Earth over 800m, a record that he held for 16 years. Coe went to Loughborough University to study Economics and Social History, and here he met George Gandy, who is still working there today, raising new British talent. Coe won gold in he 1500m in the Moscow Olympics in 1980 and also in the Low Angeles Olympics in 1984, and is still the only male runner to win the Olympic 1,500m twice. Today George Gandy is training Lisa Dobriskey, another talented 1500m runner.
2. Bob Bowman is the man holding the notepad and watch while the human dolphin skims through the water. Yep, he coached Michael Phelps. He started his coaching career in 1986 with Area Tallahassee Aquatic Club while also being assistant at Florida State University, and then more recently the University of Michigan. A dedicated swimming coach with 23 years of experience, who finally has a World champion.
3. Glen Mills. A few years ago Glen Mills was a complete unknown. Today, he is more commonly known as the coach who created the fastest man on Earth. Yes, he is Usain Bolt’s coach. Glen Mills is head coach of the Jamaican Olympics athletics team. In the past he has successfully coached Kim Collins, Dwain Chambers and Ray Stewart.
4. Fred Stoner. Stoner is a black American that worked in a local community center Louisville, Kentucky, USA. As far as we know, he only ever trained one man that went on to become a World champion, but that man was Muhammad Ali.
5. Dukla Praha. Not a man, but a football team. Not any football team, but the Prague team that also coaches athletics, and helped Roman Šebrle and Tomáš Dvořák to become World champions in the Decathlon. These two Czech guys dominated the decathlon for almost a decade, and they still hold the highest two scores ever recorded – Roman Šebrle 9026 points, Tomáš Dvořák 8994 points.
6. Sławomir Nowak. For 11 years Sławomir Nowak has been coaching Wilson Kipketer, who dominated the 800m distance for a decade, remained undefeated for a three-year period and running 8 of the 11 currently all-time fastest times, and he beat Seb Coe’s record for the 800m in 1997.
7. John Wooden. John Wooden, the now retired American basketball coach, spent his life, and a long one at that, teaching, mentoring and improving lives. Wooden won 10 national championships at UCLA, winning more than 80 percent of his games over 27 seasons. He was known as the Wizard of Westwood. Wooden turned down offers to coach the L.A. Lakers that may have been ten times what UCLA was paying him. He was dedicated to teaching college kids, and ensuring that fresh talent was found and nurtured. That makes him a great coach.

2007 was Tyson Gay’s year. He was World Champion in the 100m and 200m, and like Usain the year after, also helped his team to victory in the 4×100m. He is still the fastest man in America over 100m, with a time of 9.77 seconds. In 2007 he was awarded the IAAF Male Athlete of the Year, the USOC Sportsman of the Year, the Jesse Owens Award winner and Track & Field News Man of the Year. Until Usain Bolt found his form, Tyson Gay was the man!

Tyson is currently coached by Lance Brauman and Jon Drummond. Lance Brauman is a controversial coach to say the least, as he spent a year in jail for fraud. However, even when behind bars, he guided Tyson Gay by giving him a year training plan to follow and also spoke regularly with him on the phone.

Tyson had a poor start to 2009 with a serious knee injury that lost him 6 vital weeks of training. This could have affected his chances in Berlin, as he was no match for Bolt. Tyson Gay is not just a sprinter, but also a footballer at heart. He has said that if he was not a successful runner he would take up football, and had a good time playing in college.

Tyson Gay’s Training and Workouts

Tyson follows a standard sprinter training schedule. Off season he concentrates on weight training to build muscle and functional strength. Free weights and plyometrics play a large role in this. Weight training will be split into two sessions, upper and lower body.

Lower Body Sprinters Workout

Athletic strength requires intensive weight training, with emphasis on lifting heavy weights with 8-12 reps for 2 or 3 sets per exercise.

• Squats
• Deadlifts
• Front Lunges
• Reverse Lunges
• Straight-leg deadlift
• Standing calf raise
• Hanging leg raises

Upper Body Sprinters Workout

Upper body workouts for sprinters are very important, as the upper body helps to power the body forwards. Sprinting is certainly not all about strong and quick legs!

• Flat Bench Press
• Incline Bench Press
• Shoulder Press
• Barbell Curls
• Triceps Extension
• Dumbbell Shrugs
• Back Extensions
• Twisting Medicine Ball Crunches
• The Plank

During the running season weight training is reduced to maintenance workouts, which ensure muscle mass is not lost. Also repetitions are increased up to 15 per set to start build on greater muscular endurance. Plyometric and jump exercises are increased, plus of course serious track work, building on sprint speed, flexibility and endurance training and circuit training.

Tyson Gay’s Diet

Sprinters need to eat a lot of protein to build their functional, athletic muscles. Typically breakfast will consist of eggs and sometimes bacon. Lunches and dinners will provide lean meats, chicken and fish with healthy salads, pulses and whole grains. Of course, protein supplements and other recovery drinks will be drunk to ensure that minerals, proteins and carbohydrates are all kept at optimum levels.

He eats chicken everyday at 6pm. But he gives himself weekends off and goes crazy with Mc Donalds and ice cream.

Tyson certainly likes to eat. Apparently one of his favorite meals is a dish called Grilled Mahi Mahi St. Charles, which consists of fish, lobster, shrimp, sauted mushrooms and spinach in a Dijon cream sauce, served with dirty rice (a traditional Cajun dish made from white rice cooked with small pieces of chicken liver or giblets). Possibly a perfect feast of protein and carbs for his training needs.

Tyson Gay talks about his workouts compared to Usain Bolts’

He also talks about his shoes, his protein shakes and supplements, the fact that he is so regimental with his daily routine.

So, what does it take to be a World Heptathlon Champion?

The Heptathlon consists of 7 track and field events:

• 100m Hurdles
• The High Jump
• Shot Put
• 200m Sprint
• The Long Jump
• Javelin Throw
• 800m

Only the best all round athletes can compete in the Heptathlon. Contestants require strength for the javelin and shot put, plus speed and agility in the high jump, hurdles and 200m sprint, and endurance for the 800m.

Circuit training is going to play a large role in conditioning for a heptathlon event. Lots of bodyweight training, including push ups, pulls ups and core exercises. Weight training is needed to increase upper body strength for the shot put and javelin throws.

Obviously running will have to play a large part. A lot of stretching is also required to prevent injury, and to train the body to remain supple throughout an event. Ceasing up before the 800m could turn a gold medal contender to a loser in a matter of minutes.

Weight Training Routines foe Heptathlon (can also be used in other events such as Decathlon)

Without doubt weight training is a key part to successful heptathlon training. The whole body needs to be worked to ensure a high level of athletic strength and muscular endurance. It is best to split the body up into sections so that weight training workouts can be split to allow skills training (jumping, throwing, sprinting) and endurance training, without risk of overtraining.

Arms:

• Biceps: Perform various curls, including standard bicep curls, hammer curls & concentration curls
• Triceps: Triceps power the arms, so perform tricep dips, tricep kickbacks, tricep extensions, and skull crushers

Upper Body:

• Chest: A mixture of Bench press, Chest press, Chest fly, Pushups to build functional strength in the chest
• Back: Push ups, pull ups, rear flyes, bent over row, straight legged dead lifts
• Shoulders: Perform lateral raises, front raises, military presses, overhead presses

Core:

• Abdominals: Core strength training is always vital – Weighted crunches, Bicycles, Hanging leg raises

Legs:

• Glutes, Hamstrings and Quads: Squat, Lunges, Walking lunges, Straight leg dead lifts
• Calves: Calf raises and toe raises

Obviously every athlete will require different workouts, and do not forget that good nutrition is vital to ensuring that you get maximum gains from your workouts, and achieve the fastest recovery possible.