Baby Bombers, Grand Finals , Optimal Age and Experience.
Below is an approximate look at Grand Final Winning Teams from 92 to 2001 that I compiled at a few years ago to see how long it might take to develop a team. ( Yes me HA!) Not much has changed.
grand-finals-ages-1992-2001.doc
Thus the 25.5 and 100 games average comes from this and GF’s since then have not changed that general trend. Also there seems to be a need to have about an average of 6 to 9 finals games and teams generally carry 70% of players between 22 and 29. Those below 22 either have 30 to 50 games or are really good players. IE Essendon 1993.( Hird / Mercuri / Misiti / Fletcher / Wanganeen etc ) And the average was pushed downwards with a core of players that were very experienced and successful in that game ( Harvey / Thompson / Salmon / Watson etc).
OPTIMAL AGE for AFL GRAND FINAL and KANGAROOS
It is often surprising to look at teams and do profiles on their age and experience. I did this in 2002 as a backdrop to studying development in sport and teams. As expected there was a real trend with teams and different sports and I have added a lecture I did on this blog that explains the trends. It is in the section “Lecture Development AFL Grand Final Conference Optimal Age” on this blog. Here it is also below.
I copied the Kangaroos team that beat the Hawks and same again…..25.7 years of age and 97 games as of RD 17. This is a distribution curve of the Kangas on word doc.
Obviously there are some teams that sit a little bit outside the trend ( EFC 93 and Carlton 95) but the trend exists and both were not far out. Takes years to develop a team.
How many teenagers in the Kangas team? But they seem to have a good group coming through at 23 to 24.
Geelong has 2 or 3 teenagers playing at times but their team you will find is very experienced and balanced around the 25 to 26 age group. Almost perfect really.
By the time Brisbanes reign was over their distribution looked like a boob. Heaps of young kids and heaps of oldies and nothing in the middle.
Also the draft system has made things equal and as we know one cannot buy a team anymore like in soccer in the UK.
So as I said this is only a trend but when teams play heaps of first years………….. OUCH!
Secrets of Loris Bertolacci
This is from 1988 and I wrote it at Essendon Football Club so all history now.
Also I am not sure if anyone read it. I would write these things then shelve them. I must admit I was always very impressed with Brian Donohue who was Sheedy’s right hand man. He always listened intently to what I had to say and really embraced concepts like 3 weeks hard and one easy. Also he was computer literate and kept strict statisitics well before John Orchard did anything. And they were very well organized. He was ahead of his time.
These sheets are a bit like the dead sea scrolls, really but I hope of some historical interest given the development at the time of the 1990 team and the 1993 flag and the implementation of these concepts in those days long gone now that Hird and Sheedy are ready to go.
Hard to read but if of interest have a look. In a way all stuff volleyballers should do in theri development anyway.
I was giving Mateyev a bad wrap in 1988. And functional cycling then was hot off the press from Bondarchuk. Track and Field training techniques were miles ahead in the 70’s and 80’s. In fact all that has changed now with sports science and the information revolution is that lots of fine tuning needs have been studied that help the specific needs of individuals and situations like heat stress and osteitis management for example. These developments are fantastic but the basics remain.
And long term physical development of juniors. HA. Big business now!
George Bertolacci
My dad loved sport. Talk about functional strength. He used to grab 100kgs at 45 and stand there and military press it for rep after rep. Then he could press me overhead. At his heaviest he was 155kgs and at his fittest was 110kgs. Big.
When I trained in Italy , all his mates in Livorno ( near Pisa) used to tell me about how he was the best arm wrestler going around and how they used to bet on Giorgio in the bars. He had massive wrists and even at my strongest he killed me.
Dad played Rugby Union in Italy with Livorno and was the kicker. He also played representative water polo and was a very good swimmer. He represented Tuscany in Athletics also and did a stint in graeco roman wrestling. All at state level.
He had a game or two of Aussie Rules in 1952, I think with Reservoir and kicked a few with place kicks. He came out to OZ in 1951 ! Apparently he replaced a player who went to Essendon so the story goes. He only had been in Australia for a year but had worked with the Americans in the war and so spoke English. He even had a training run in February with Fitzroy the next year, after a game with Reservoir and rode his bike to the wharf for work then back to the Brunswick Oval for training and promptly did his hamstring badly on the first night of training. So he started athletics again and competed with Coburg. He represented the state in the throws after that and was the anchor man for the wharfies at Port Melbourne and this shot was in the Herald Sun of those days.
He played Table Tennis a lot at a high standard and at 130kgs used to play against 50kg Asian guys at Albert Park. He had a short temper so sometimes the bat went flying and his opponent was in fear of his life.
He did a lot of soccer coaching in the 60’s until he started coaching me in Athletics. He started me in shot put in 1967 and I boomed. But like so many young people by 16 I knew it all and went on a long distance running binge to lose weight and as he had told me would happen, my throwing career faltered.
The last athlete he coached was Saverio Rocca in the discus and the big Sav had to come to my dads house and tell him that he was playing with Collingwood. I could see Saverio was nervous and dad was not happy. After all Sav was a better athlete than he was a footballer and I think dad knew he had lost a huge talent. Before that he coached many athletes and the best was Paul Nandapi. Paul won a heap of titles and medals in the commonwealth games. But with dad at 16 he was throwing mid 50’s with a senior discus and almost 17 metres in the shot put. Then he went to the AIS at 18 . Dad had a real knack of getting young athletes up and he won so many championships over 20 years. He never overtrained them and always made it fun. They sprinted and jumped and did a bit of everything and not too much of anything. It worked. The AIS sent him a plaque years later for his contribution the sport
He started the second pizza shop in Melbourne ( GIPIS) after TOTOS and one day 2 drunk guys came in and started a fight. I ran in and they knocked me out. I was 16. He grabbed them both and threw them in the car and when I came to, made me hold them and we drove to the police. One was the middleweight boxing champion of Australia. One chap once grabbed a pizza and ran out, and dad at 45 sprinted out the shop and ran down High Street and rugby tackled him to the ground. Big fast twitch man. The thief coudn’t believe it. Lots of Fitzroy players lived in the Northern Suburbs and they came to GIPIS after a game. Dad was a great sketch artist and would make funny sketches of players like Gary Wilson.
We always had sportspeople around our house. Kevin Murray ( Fitzroy Captain) lived up the road in Reservoir and was a real friend of the family. Whenever Italian sportspeople would come out to OZ Dad would seek them out and invite them home and Mum ( Rosa ) would cook them a treat. Fencers, athletes, boxers. All world class sportspeople at our house. I remember once dad picked up this boxer who was going to fight Johnny Famechon as he marched to a World Title. The boxer was from Livorno ( dads town) and in the car he told us he was retired ( Ex – European Champ) and was out only to earn some money and help Famechon get up the rankings!
I think a special day was Sundays at the Bertolacci house. We would train at the Preston Athletics Track at Edwardes Lake. Often some good throwers would appear to train with us like Matt Barber and Phil Nettle and other behemoths. They would come home to Lunch with Paul Nandapi and a few other big guys and mum ( Rosa) would have about 100kgs of pasta ready and 189 Schnitzels and bowls of potatoes and so on. They ate and ate. I watched in amazement. Then they went in the lounge room and watched World of Sport and fell asleep. When carbed up they would the weights on Sunday night.
Once Saverio went to Collingwood , dad decided to wrap it up and I wish he had kept coaching. Kept him switched on and a step ahead of diabetes. After that he moved to Rosebud and lost touch with coaching and fell into ill health. Rudy Villani my cousin ( and a great athlete) said at dads funeral that George had given us our love of sport and an appreciation of all sports. He loved to watch great athletes and loved all sports ( loved AFL) and this was very important for our overall sports development.
Thank god he died before all the crap was written about me in the media in 2006. Mum and Dad would never have understood it and to be honest nor have I. Had nothing to do with sport dad. But one thing that dad left me was a love of sport, and that remains and I will coach and produce athletes and high level performance just like he did .
Sandilands, Osteitis Pubis and Rotations in the AFL
It was reported in the media that Aaron Sandilands from Fremantle has Osteitis Pubis. In 2005 especially I noticed early in the season that clubs like Sydney, West Coast and Adelaide were playing 2 Ruckmen. There had been the intervention with the centre circle to stop PCL injuries. But clubs had realized that playing 100 minutes plus for ruckmen was just too much. Almost a midfielders role and yet these guys are huge men. Some have amazing endurance capacities but still big blokes who are not going to excel in distance running. They are more like big rowers.
One exception was Jim Stynes who played so much football. He was quite light and an exceptional runner and also played in another era.
The problem that clubs had and have is that their ruckmen has to get some possessions and be a normal player unlike the lumbering giants of the past. This was the only way of justifying 2 ruck players.
Coaches in general were scared to go 2 ruckmen in the early 2000’s ( although EFC had Alessio and Barnes) given they wanted run. So rotations and ruckman that can get their hands on the ball have become the key. And so many ruckmen were worked into the ground in this period when the game became super quick, making them look even worse given they often played 100% of game time .
I was very keen for this to happen in 2005 . IE Rotating ruck men and rotations in general. Sydney had Ball and Jolly,West Coast ( Cox and Seaby) and Adelaide ( Biglands and Hudson). All these players rotated almost predictively when interchanges were studied and also had an impact on the game both as ruckman and as general players picking up kicks and stats around the ground. Also given the increase in the speed of the game the theory was to decrease their risk of overuse injury and injury in general. But performance was the main aim.
So back to Sandilands. I don’t have his game time statistics but it seemed to me that in 2006 he played a lot of football on the ball and did some very hard running. He played 18 games and bore the brunt of the load in the ruck as far as I could see.
Just a tough gig to do it without adequate help. Ottens and Blake are working effectively in tandem now since Mark has matured. In the Sydney final of 2005 King was playing his 3rd game in 18 days ( Sun RD 22 Rich/Sat Final Melb/Fri Semi Sydney) and came up against Ball and Jolly by himself and was off with a hamstring by the 3rd quarter. Ball was the class act and Jolly is a good hard runner.
So Osteitis is often a reflection of load and the inability of the core to stand up to fatigue. I think we will see Sandilands rotated a lot more next year.
But eh I might be wrong. Trends and players often go against theories. What will be the new trend in this area? 2 * Jimmy Stynes?
Loris Bertolacci sacked
I can have empathy with the coaches that have been sacked recently. Many years ago I worked as a barman at Crystals T striptease joint in Brunswick. It catered more for hens nights so all I usually saw was blokes taking their clothes off . Wow! A friend got me the job and I needed the money since I was working in the AFL at the time. I drink very little alcohol and had zero idea of how to mix drinks. I had to learn very quickly because “crazed” women out on hens nights can put a lot away. Well I failed. I wasnt motivated and didn’t really want to look at blokes with “tied up penises” gyrating onstage. I couldn’t keep up with the complexity of the drinks and after 2 weeks I was sacked. I considered legal action but really they were correct in sacking me. I was no good at my job. So I moved on.
Next job was cleaning at a safeway at nights. It was a 3 hour gig but I made it into a fitness session and ran all night , sweeping in quick bursts, buffing at high intensity and mopping with gusto. All muscle groups were worked and the buffing was great proprioception. I changed direction a lot and ran up the stairs for the sake of it. The people stacking shelves thought i was on uppers.
Home two hours early and in bed and still I had done a great job. What a cleanathlete. If they had a cleanathlon I would be world champion. The supermarket was spic and span. Every month the supervisor would arrive at 12 and I wasnt there and he nearly sacked me a number of times. I would do the right thing for a few weeks and stay for 3 hours and then go back to high intensity cleaning again until he caught me again home fast asleep!
He had a problem. Like a junior coach who has to play his star player even though he doesn’t train, I was just too good to get rid of.
Thus I developed a periodization plan where I had one month of high intensity buffling/mopping done in an hour to low intensity recovery cleaning sessions of 3 hours.
And really this is a model that should be adapted universally to allow people the opportunity to vary their work and fitness.
Great job and left with good references and superfit.
In search of the perfect core. Thredbo and Bruce Connor and Essendon Football Club.
Bruce Connor the head physio at Essendon FC took this shot at Thredbo in 1996 and wrote the caption . We were studying the AIS facility in Thredbo for a camp for Essendon. So we went for a walk in the snow and voila “the famous core shot”.
Problem was that the next year Bruce and I went again but this time we decided to ski and I fell and ripped my rotator cuff to shreds. Thus these poses are now impossible given that skiing injury and a future career in bodybuilding ended prematurely .
Bruce is a great skier but I had only been twice and should have stayed in the gym negotiating at best a wobble board. It was October and the snow was almost gone. Only the “real” skiers were out there. I was slipping and falling but went again for another run and let rip. I definitely got my ambition mixed up with my ability. I lost complete control and flew into the air and put my arm out. Dumb. Next minute my arm was hanging and I was screaming. HA. The yeti! They had to gas me and haul me off the slopes and as they did I cursed Bruce Connor. HA. Anyway dislocated and ruptured cuff but the Thredbo disaster had occurred that year so really that put things in perspective. Bruce was driven to drink that night.
Anyway this is what is called functional core and adductor work out on the slopes. Sort of! But due to Thredbo my left delt shot is now a bit off. C’est la vie.
Malthouse , Old Coaches and Young Players.
Quote in Real Footy Coaching veterans pay the penalty
Dan Silkstone | July 28, 2007
“Malthouse, who turns 54 next month and has coached three clubs across three decades, remembered that in 1984 he coached at Footscray alone. Now he commands a football staff of more than 20. Still, he says, he can communicate well with young men such as Scott Pendlebury and Dale Thomas.”
Have young players in the AFL changed? Do old coaches not have the ability to communicate to young ones? Why did Hiddink at 60 have such great success?
People in 1754 were much the same as now. They ate, they argued, they cried and they had egos. That young people are soft or have changed totally is a crap argument. Life is very tough now. Circumstances have changed and kids do want more variety and employment choices but what i am talking more about is psychology not sociology. There are changes and coaches have to be aware of what this generation wants for the future but emotions and psyche and ego. Nah………..Have people from 1971 changed so much to people now.? What has happened of course are things like the information revolution and parents having to work a lot and so on. But the psychology of growing up and socialization is really much the same.
My father coached young kids and in fact the last kid he coached was Saverio Rocca in the discus. He was awesome with kids in his 60’s . Why? Because he made the whole thing enjoyable and progressive and didnt overtrain them. But still he wanted results and he got them.
What has changed in the AFL?
Specifically what has changed is that AFL players play for a living. Probably only since 200o really. IE Many players didn’t work before that but still didn’t need to be at a club 24/7. Now they get to work at 8am and leave at 6pm. They interact and eat with their coaches. They see them all day and realize they are human becuase of that. In fact this is a worldwide trend. Rugby Union went professional in the late 90’s. Soccer was all over the place til the 80’s and 90’s.
It wasnt in the 80’s. Even the 90’s. Training would start late in the day and one could almost do a full days work. Then get to training and walk into a meeting and cop a “roast” from the coach. Train. Go home and back to work for the day or university and switch off and get “kudos” or simply interact with the real world. Have lunch with a friend and “spray” the coach. In the main a young mans “persona” often was not totally linked to his sport and there were outlets. The player simply expected to go to training and cop a belting both in the rooms and on the track and so often just created a veneer.
In the old days ( early 90’s!) the player would leave the club at 8.30pm and buy a drink on the way home and just shake his head at what the coach had said. The coach would call them the next day and explain the roast and see you at 5pm tomorrow.
But now there are so many pressures. Add peer group pressures because in sporting clubs “winners are grinners” and there is a bit of “peer group” follow the leader stuff. So in a full time environment if you have been belittled and somewhat ostracized then sometimes others do the same until they see a different “nurturing” attitude emanating from the leaders. Its called “keep your job”.
I saw the transition from the VFL to the AFL. I started in AFL at 32 from Athletics and so was not a football person and what I saw amazed amd amused me with regards to a coach having the right to abuse and berate people. Didn’t make sense and still doesn’t. Hard nosed home truths are ok. IE ” You didn’t do what I told you to do etc ” or even an animated 3/4 time address that “rams” home what has been and hasn’t been done to an individual. We all like honesty in the end. And yes the coach is allowed to swear!
For those directly involved, the AFL scene is a workplace and an environment where young men grow up and socialize. That is what changed. Professional full time sport is very new in the worlds history as we know it. Of course I dont know how the gladiators were employed or the spartans , but I presume there was a big dropout then so we are talking World War 2 onwards here!
These days coach has to be aware that 30 minutes after ripping a player to shreds he has to eat a sandwich with him in the canteen and talk about politics or family or anything. Player might just look at him and think “f&%k off”.
Sure a few things have changed in the world but I think much more has changed in the AFL. Maybe just as an example 15% the world and 65% AFL since 1984.
Coaches that are “infected” by the past ( ie VFL and suburban footy) often struggle to realize they are just at work. And so age is not the variable here. Of course most coaches in all sports probably peak in their late 40’s? Not 60’s. But that doesnt stop a 60 year old coach knowing how to manage a team. Just like it doesnt stop a 31 year old athlete winning a gold medal. Just doesnt’ happen as much. Games will be won and lost and only one club wins the flag and I dont think a coaches rantings and ravings will have hardly anything to do with it whether young or old.
Will Kevin Sheedy Coach the Toscana Club? Italian AFL team of 2 Milleniums.
Photo above is of the Great 1973 Toscana Football team and thats me on far right with hair. This article was in IL GLOBO. A win by the Toscana club at the famous Bulleen Venue against the Valguarnera Club ( who?).
This was my greatest football highlight. Not the 93 Grand Final with EFC or the 2004 Finals with Geelong. Not the NAB Cup win in 2006 with GFC ( NAB Cup: The win thats not a win!). Not the VCFL win in 2006 at Southport with Leigh Colbert as coach! No it was this game. And I am an Italian “true blue” who has dual citizenship. I have fond memories of this game and recognise its true place in the history of the AFL. Peter Riccardi is, I hope a good friend but even though he looks more italian than an italian he doesnt speak a word. How can he get in the team of the century? If I asked most of those boys in “that” team of the century ( except Alessio) to name me who was the famous porn star that made it into the Italian Government would they know? ( La Cicciolina) And they call themselves Italian? I think the selection criteria should have been based on questions like the above. Maybe 10 questions that can identify if you are Italian. After all there is no soul or spirit in some errant “wog” gene that might be present in John Kennedy!
Now Steve Alessio and Rocca are real Ities Downunder. When you go and have coffee with them they order a short black, not a flat white or a skinny cappucino or a “laaarte”! And why didn’t the team of a century have a fitness adviser? This was a glaring omission from this team and I wonder why? The selection committee from the recent AFL team of the century of Ron Barassi , Brendon Gale, Kevin Bartlett, Frank Costa, Kevin Sheedy, Bob Skilton, Bill Stephen and former field umpire John Russo must take accountability for this because I am sure the ALL CROATION AFL team will be lean, fit and strong and these boys of Italian Heritage need to be pushed. Too much “La Dolce Vita” sometimes. The Croatians all stars have been bought up on war and conflict so one just winds them up and off they go. Not that they are better mind you! Just a different approach is needed. We Tuscans are thinking of our next major cultural achievement so sport is just a catharsis for the “arty-farty” brain. We have excellent decision making skills and evasive skills as can be evidenced by the number of warring nations that went up and down Italy and minimal collateral damage compared to Vladivostock.. Who is there to yell “forza ragazzi” for “that all star team”. My grandmother Nonna Tina and mum Rosa were there at the Veneto Club that day and they were amazed at my skills.
This was a tough day. As you can see we had no bench. The umpire I remember was Renato Serafini ( ex Fitzroy) . One rule change was to allow headers and if it went through it was a point. We practised our “acting and falling” for free kicks in the warmup and Serafini fell for this a number of times. And only now can I make the startling revelation that some of the boys in the Toscana team were not from Tuscan descent. My dad was Livornese so I couldn’t be more Tuscan. We had a few guys from Veneto and I think one Aussie that looked Italian and could say ciao. We taught him to say. Mi Chiamo Frederico. His name was Fred McDonaghy. We had to play the veneto dudes because then we could use the Veneto Club.
We were sponsored by Lago Smallgoods (which was owned by Rosalba Stocco, my dads other sister and also a Tuscan). and they supplied pregame salami and mortadellas. This was the 70’s remember. Beer and a smoke for recovery after a game at Moorabin. The mortadellas were really good to warm up with because they were like heavy footballs so when we kicked the sherrins they felt like tennis balls. We used the salamis like foam rollers for massage. I have learnt to use any aid I can in my quest to seek out cutting edge cost efficient Sports Science needs. After all I had about 20 Italian Lire at Geelong to run Sports Science when I got there.
Tactically we played a 1 6 4 3 3 1 formation but when the game got tough we played the 17 1 formation ( We had an all in brawl and smashed the shits out of the Valguarnerans ( Who?) !) . My cousin Rudy Villani who could play a bit got about 78 possessions.
The Angele family ( now own Brunettis) supplied carbohydrates with lots of cakes and lots of chinotto as sportsdrink. George Angele is Roman but we accepted his offer because he married my dads sister Gigliola ( a Tuscan of course!). Also they had a special mobile expresso coffee machine for half time and the breaks. We had to be careful with caffeine because 3 short blacks could get us over the limit with caffeine which was illegal then if overdosed. So I worked out using my sports science background that 1 short black, then 1 latte and 1 skinny macchiatto would have us under the limit for caffeine at the end of a game ( or 17 nescafes).
We tried to get sponsored with fruit from the market for postgame recovery and then sought out other big food chains but the rackets of the time ( 50 cents a case racket) with fruit meant that we were also hands off and there was no money left over for sponsorships . Things have changed thankfully.
At the time we made huge offers to get Mario Bortolotto and Vinny Cattogio to play. Not enough. They wanted a years supply of cappricciosa pizzas from Totos ( which was owned by a Tuscan) and we couldn’t crunch the deal. Didn’t need them anyway and they haven’t made any teams since so would not have helped it seems.
At the end in the rooms we sang the TUSCAN NATIONAL ANTHEM and had some “pasta dura” loaves and mozzarella sandwiches which did the carbs and protein thing. Lygon Street was abuzz that night. Horns honked and the chianti flowed. Shots were fired in celebration of course ( this was way before the gangland wars.) Al Grassby sent us a telegram and the celebrations could be heard on top of the leaning tower of PISA. We received an invite to go to Siena and il palio which is the famous horserace in the centre of Tuscany and race some Aussie horses there. It would have interfered with a game we had to play against the Italian Werribee Social Club in Werribee so we cancelled the trip. But still we are looking at it because I think one can fit an MCG size ground in the square in Siena.
Joe Misit, Mark Mercuri and Steve Alessio were at the game as little kiddies and they were inspired to play AFL given they saw us play at this level. They were dribbling their soccer balls and saw us and destiny beckoned. Of course they are not toscani but we accept that Italy has unified now. Steve Alessio is driving a lot of free agency issues in the AFL now and I think we will use him to develop a system to allow free agency between Italian Provinces ( Social Clubs) but there is a long way to go given since the Kingdom of Italy was formed in 1861 and the current flag only evolved in 1946 when Italy became a republic. So just like the Serbians and the Croations there are a lot of underlying tensions between provinces ( Social Clubs) which would make free agency hard to work. I know this day is what drove these boys on to great sporting feats.
And do you know that Mr and Mrs Rocca were there watching in their car on the sidelines and little Sav hadn’t even been thought of but the game was so inspiring that during the 3rd quarter their car fogged up and thats where little Sav er became the big Saveloid.
Imagine what Kevin Sheedy could do with this team. He is available and he loves wine. He also loves his sweets and I would think he is at that stage in life where he could combine sport and culture. Imagine that. The first AFL game in Siena straight after IL PALIO RACE is over in the square ( after they have swept up all the horseshit). Sheedy in Siena. A marketing coup. I reckon Silvio Berlusconi should have a word to Sheeds. Forza Sheeds.
Anyway these are the links to the “ugh” team of the century and some other obscure italian team.
http://www.italianteamofthecentury.com.au/final-team.php
http://www.italydownunder.com.au/issueone/afl.htmll
And here a link to La Cicciolina
CIAO
Ages and Track and Field
Development is wrapped up in lots of “science” but there seems to be a certain predictability with different sports and stages of development. Whilst there is a change from year to year the one constant seems to be the age 25 and 2 to 3 years either way. Seems simple and is but gets lost given that 16 years of age is a long way from 24 for instance. 2007 to 2015.
As Michael Poulton outlined using results from a model that looks at the number of athletes per event in the world’s top 100 at the end of the 2006 season , OZ has some numbers there. My statistics are at best a trend only but do reflect the mature status of elite performers. Obvious really but often people think there are heaps of 20 year olds stacked in top 100 even 500 for each event. And my main thrust is simply that structures have to be in place to keep athletes in the sport from 16 to 22 for example.
Now the competition is with things like the TAC development squads and the lure of Soccer for example. Little Athletics should provide the base ( but in my opinion is a bit too young ) and then ideally there should be structures in place to foster development with professionally run clubs. Wishful thinking I know but athletics would explode and feed off the sports science and “institute” driven revival since the “1976 no medal debacle” in Montreal.
We see the AIS employing heaps of full time after school positions in OZ and I cant see why we couldn’t have regional coaches employed at varied venues to keep young people training in athletics and in fact active. Maybe wishful thinking. Again these days money is needed and that is tough for Athletics to generate . Again I am heading to the sad fact that these days most people won’t and can’t coach for hours for zero money night after night in the cold ( and the heat!) . This is one of the strange expectations that exists when parents will pay for swimming and other sports. Odd. IE That is that athletics should often be coached for nix!
I have attached a rough calculation of ages for 100m rankings now and also in 2000 and a look at different events which changes the averages.
loris bertolacci 