Some athletes training for training's sake — coach

Press, 11 December 1976, Page 18

Some athletes training for training's sake — coach

By

ROD DEW

"There are lots of very talented athletes around but I sometimes wonder at the things they do. Many tend to train for training’s sake.”

This is the considered opinion of Mr Brian Taylor, the coach of the talented Christchurch-based Canadian middle distance runner, Brian Rhodes (University-Shirley), who is to make a special attempt to run the mile in less than 4min at Queen Elizabeth II Park today. It was prompted by a suggestion that Rhodes might be risking peaking too early in the season by attempting to become the first to run a sub-4min mile in Canterbury. Mr Taylor trains his athletes for specific events and he has no fears that a fast time on Saturday will jeopardise Rhodes’s chances of winning the national 1500 metres title next March.

His own theories have been built up over 14 years as a competitive runner and a coach. But he still checks what he does with the worldrenowned New Zealand

coach, Arthur Lydiard. Most of his coaching is based on the Lydiard doctrine, although Mr Taylor has modified this with his own ideas. He now has an impressive squad of young athletes under his care — three of them Canadians. This is a direct result of the period between 1971 and 1974 which be spent in Canada furthering his teaching career. “Athletics in Canada is much more sophisticated than it is here because there is a lot more money available for such things as sending athletes to Europe. But the training is different. All the goals are short term. There are some fine runners there, but this limits the development.”

It is to escape this high pressure system which has prompted Rhodes and his two fellow-countrymen, Doug Brown and John Coates, to come to New Zealand and train under Mr Taylor for long term targets such as the Commonwealth Games in 1978. Rhodes is the only one of the three to so far

make his mark on the national scene, but Brown and Coates have both been

restricted by injury. Both returned to their homeland at one stage to recuperate but are now fully fit and will be running in the mile today.

Coates has a best time of 3min 53sec for the 1500 metres and has completed the 3000 metres steeplechase in 9min Brown is regarded by Mr Taylor as a steeplechaser of considerable promise. “He is one of the best hurdlers I have seen.” * Two other athletes showing potential under Mr Taylor's guidance are Brian Kennelly and Gerry Merchant, formerly of Dunedin. Kennelly has run 1500 metres in 3min 54sec in training on the grass track at Ham and is capable of a 14min 5000 metres in the near future. Merchant covered 3000 metres at Ham in training in Bmin 23sec a little more than a week ago, which suggests that he is another bright prospect over 5000 metres. Mr Taylor is in a good position to understand the problems of his athletes because he is still a competitive runner and does the same training

they do “I can understand why they have problems. I am going through exactly the same thing myself."

The 5000 metres is his main event and he has a best time of 14min 7sec. He has also run 1500 metres in 3min 52sec. Now he is 32. “I refuse to think that I am too old to at least get close to these times. It take a bit longer to sharpen up, but that is all.”

His association with Rhodes began five years ago when he was living in Canada and had not been taking any active part in athletics. “A sixteen-year-old Brian Rhodes came to my door and asked me if 1 would run with him in an attempt to win selection in the Albertan team for the national cross-country championships. We got a free trip to Halifax — an indication of the amount of finance put into sport by the government. I finished twelth in the senior championship and Brian finished second in the junior event.

“It was then that I realised he had pretty good talent."