Speedendurance.com

Posted: 10 Jun 2010 09:00 AM PDT

Unless you were living in Southern California during the late 60's or early 70's, you've probably never heard of the name Chi Cheng until last month.

The Women's 100 yard WR is currently 10.0 or (10.10 FAT) held by Chi Cheng of Chinese Taipei back in 1970. Chinese Taipei is also commonly known as Taiwan.

Shelly Ann Fraser came up short with her 10.15 (+1.5) in Ostrava.

Who the heck is Chi Cheng?

Like most successful International athletes at the time, she was educated in the USA at Cal Poly Pomona.

She was so dominant that in a two year period, she only lost one race out of 154 events. It puts Edwin Moses to shame. (Well, not really, as I am a Moses fan, but we have to give women their fair share. Moses consecutive win streak is impressive, but he made sure the European circuit race directors did not allow "fresh athletes" into his race when he was tired. And why was Harald Schmit always in Lane 7?)

At the 1968 Mexico City Olympics, representing China, she won the bronze medal in the women’s 80-meter hurdles.

At Cal Poly Pomona, she competed in the 100m, 200m, 400m, 100mH and Long Jump. All 5 of her school records still remains today. Her abilities reminds me of Heike Drechsler or Irena Szewinska.

In 1970, in an era of hand times where world records were harder to break, she tied 3 world records in a span of 6 days. She ran the 200m (22.4 seconds) and the 100 meter Hurdles (12.8) on the same day followed by 100m (11.0 seconds +1.9 or 11.22 FAT) 6 days later.

Even today, 40 years later, 11.22 and 22.64 would still be a contender in major championships.

Chi Cheng had a very short lived career. Her career was cut short by an injury and thus did not compete at the 1972 Munich Olympics. Like Jim Ryun and Sebastian Coe, she turned her efforts into politics after her track career.

The only other female "Asian" sprinter to come close to Chi Cheng would be Wang Huei-Chen (also from Chinese Taipei), who set a personal best of 22.56 in 1992. You can argue Susanthika Jayasinghe's 22.28 of Sri Lanka is part of Asia.

You can also argue countries of the former USSR such as Ukraine, Georgia or Uzbekistan belong in the Asian category (Zhanna Pintusevich-Block 22.17, Maya Azarashvili 22.27, and Elvira Barbashina 22.27 respectively).

John Wooden and Bud Winter on Relaxing and Winning

Posted: 09 Jun 2010 09:00 AM PDT

Anyone who watches Usain Bolt before any race will notice he is loose and confident before every race. In a big pressure race of the Olympics or World Championships, he's playing and smiling to the crowd, while others are focused, staring at the finish line or staring at their belly buttons.

Asafa Powell, who is known as a "choker" at championship meets, changed his usual quiet focused demeanor to Be Like Bolt in 2009 Berlin. The result? A 3rd place 9.84 Season Best. It was a lot better than his 2004 or 2008 Olympic showing, or his 2007 Osaka 3rd place finish when he eased up to 3rd after realizing he wasn't going to win.

Coach John Wooden, 1910-2010

Rewind back a couple of decades and John Wooden is unmistakably the top coach in NCAA Basketball. John Wooden died 132 days short of his 100th birthday on June 4th, 2010.

His stats speak for themselves. Wooden won ten NCAA national championships in a 12-year period while at UCLA, had a record winning streak of 88 gamesand four perfect 30–0 seasons.

Wow.

Beyond that, he revolutionized the art of Coaching with his "Pyramid of Success", being a role model, and core human values.

The question is, how do you win without the pressure? How do you calm the nerves or adrenaline before the big race?

Relaxation is the Key

Bud Winter had a chance to interview John Wooden in his book Relax and Win.

Below is an excerpt of that chapter, which applies to any sport, including the 100 meter sprint.

Q. Some athletes are born loose and confident and let nothing bother them. However, they come along once in a long, long time. Do you think coaches would welcome a program of relaxation with which you could teach anyone to relax with good, even amazing, results?

A. All coaches would be extremely interested in that. It wouldn't be easy, however, because of the difference in people. Every individual is different and what might work for one might not work of another.

Q. Did you "pep-talk" your basketball players before a game? What about the men who were psyched up already? Did you try to calm them down to keep them from psyching themselves out?

A. No, I never believed in "pep" talks. I believed in preparation. I believe failing to prepare is preparing to fail. No "pep" talk in the world can take care of it if you fail to prepare. The importance of the game itself would cause the players to rise the occasion. As far as players completely psyching themselves out, I believe I was very fortunate in that I seldom had this. I never wanted players to take themselves too seriously. I just wanted them to do the best they could and then they'll have nothing to feel sorry about. If they are good enough, the score will be to their liking, and if not, it will be exactly as it should be.

Q. How do you explain "hot" nights and "cold" nights?

A. Well, there are many reasons for that phenomenon. It might be the physical features of the place in which you are playing. It might be the lighting. It might be the floor. It might be the backboard. There are many things that enter into "hot" and "cold" nights. When we think of this, we generally mean shooting, because defense can be fairly consistent. But offense can be inconsistent. The floor might be a little dirty and cause the ball to get a little dirty and you will not handle it as well. The ball itself might be slippery. You might not be feeling well. There might be specific reasons for each individual not doing as well as he can. Any or all of these things could cause tension and he might not have a good night and his shooting percentage might not be as good as it could be.

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