Greg Rutherford

[Geoff]

London 2012: Greg Rutherford uses Carl Lewis as model for success• Rutherford models jumping action on Olympic legend
• Great Britain athlete eager to put injury woe behind him

After yet another season ruined by injury – tearing a hamstring in the qualifying round of the long jump at the World Championships last year – Greg Rutherford believes he has finally found a technical approach to suit his body type, and it is modelled on the nine times Olympic champion Carl Lewis.

Rutherford's coach Dan Pfaff spent time working with Lewis and his long jump coach Tom Tellez two decades ago. Pfaff relocated from the US to help the British team and is renowned for coming up with preventative measures to tackle injuries. Speaking from an Aviva-funded warm weather training camp in California, Rutherford was coy about revealing the exact details of his new regime. "It's around the take off," said the 25-year-old, "I'm going to be vague because I will just be very interested to see once I get into the swing of competing whether it's noticed straight away … I think it's quite a big change and it could be key to me staying healthy."

http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/2012/ap ... d-olympics

I rate Rutherford and if he stays healthy and nail one, perhaps 8.40-8.50 he may well medal. It could be the change will see a far shorter last stride which should reduce stresses at take off and help preserve speed. Hope it works!

[jjimbojames]

A random story - surely if he really wanted to see if people noticed, he wouldn't mention the change in the first place

He and Tomlinson both have the potential to get over 8.40m, so hopefully they'll both get a bit of luck for once

[Geoff]

Plenty of videos on YouTube of Carl Lewis. Here are a couple:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rzgz-ErnF7o

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P5Sg_kACPRM

Hopefully, we get to see Greg's jumps and can then compare. Only two things really matter - stay healthy and jump long in London! A new technique will take time to bed in.

[usedtoit33]

Chris Tomlinson has had an 8.50 foul IIRC!

Whatever you think of Carl Lewis, he was a brilliant technician, 4 times OG LJ champ and a good model to learn from. Greg's a pretty quick sprinter too and has got huge amounts of talent. If they've found a way to reduce his injury risk and help him jump further then that's brilliant.

[sprintfan]

IIRC?

[trickstat]

IIRC?

If I recall correctly.

That's IIRC!

[sprintfan]

Thanks Trickstat

[Geoff]

Not the best video but this shows Greg's recent 8.20 jump:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q1sGLnku-Rw

[usedtoit33]

Not even one man and his dog there!

[Geoff]

Not even one man and his dog there!

And, I think, only 3 in the competition. More like a training comp and yet UKA impose restrictions on domestic meets that they licence! He still jumped well and it counts as an 'A' standard.

[bevone]

Woah! I thought this was the UCSD meet he did this at. Im sure uk officials will be moaing he wasnt wearing any numbers or vest!!!!! - as all the discus throwers dont seem to be.

This looks like a training session and to count that as an A standard seems extemely dubious.I think this is another example of UKA having one rule for them and another for everyone else. Im sure he is capable of the A standard but has to do it in a proper meet. . This does not appear to be a bina fide meet and his performances should face the same scrutiny as the few meets UKA have deemed suitabe in the UK.

Did Goldie throw at the same 'meet'?

[skiper]

the competition in question was the OTC pre olympic series.the meet met all required criteria ie number of officials,correct measuring,wind speed gauge etc.other competitors were Mark Dry ht 71.75m Sophie Hitchon ht 71.61,Zoe Derham ht ? Goldie Sayers jt 63m and bits.their were some spectators, but where in the rules does it state a minimum number of spectators in order to verify a performance?

[Geoff]

the competition in question was the OTC pre olympic series.the meet met all required criteria ie number of officials,correct measuring,wind speed gauge etc.other competitors were Mark Dry ht 71.75m Sophie Hitchon ht 71.61,Zoe Derham ht ? Goldie Sayers jt 63m and bits.their were some spectators, but where in the rules does it state a minimum number of spectators in order to verify a performance?

Skiper, that is not really the issue. The question is why do UKA not allow performances in most domestic meets to count as a qualifying standard? Merv Luckwell's javelin in Wrexham last year does not qualify as an 'A' standard anf Alex Smith's hammer in Hull did not count as a 'B' standard. Both were UKA licensed events. If Greg Rutherford jumped 8.20 in a southern league meeting it would not count.

Conversely, any performance done anywhere else in the world would count.

Why the difference?

Of course, athletes seek out good conditions and have travelled to California since the 70's for training and competition and who can blame them. It's just this recent addition to the criteria that grates people.

[Damocles]

I must agree with Geoff. Any foreign competition is seen as examplary and our own as substandard. I would hazard that our officials are the best in the world, yet they are disrespected in this way. OK, I'll agree that a Southern League event may be considered not 'good' enough, but why are some foreign comps not viewed with the same jaundiced eye? Go to Utube and look at Bret Morse's 66 metre throw in Sweden. It shows a training comp with a lack of officials and a barely discernable sector, it was immediately accepted as above board though. Alex Smith threw at Hull, in a thunderstorm, to throw a World's qualifier, with full officials, AS THERE WERE NO OTHER COMPETITIONS AVAILABLE IN EUROPE TO THROW AT, but this was turned down and was initially not included in the on-going rankings. There was no difference between the two, other than the Swedish one was probably even less 'official'. SO why did one count, the other not?

'the competition in question was the OTC pre olympic series.the meet met all required criteria ie number of officials,correct measuring,wind speed gauge etc.other competitors were Mark Dry ht 71.75m Sophie Hitchon ht 71.61,Zoe Derham ht ? Goldie Sayers jt 63m and bits.' Were you there Skiper, as you seem to have an intimate knowledge of the facility and the judging? A few days ago there was an inter area match, along with a team of visiting Poles at HUll. Again, despite the level of competition, and well qualified British judges, the athletes were told this would not count if anyone achieved an olympic standard?

So, from the 1st April (Quite apt really), through to the forthcoming, restricted entry, BUCS, there has been no opportunity for a thrower within the UK, to gain an olympic qualifier, as no home meets were 'good' enough!!!!!

So, it may end up, that with the lack of opportunities, that the last chance to qualify for the Olympics, will be UPHILL at Birmingham. I really don't care about naysayers coming on and saying they should already have qualified.... they couldn't for 6 weeks of the qualifying period, or that uphill is the same for eveyone. The nature of the infield was well expained last year by the National Coach Malcom Fenton, so we don't need to go there again.

[BigGut]

No it won't. You have forgotten the European champs.

[bevone]

This thread has got me scratching my head and challengin my own view. I trained there in 1998/99 off the same runn up in chula vista and threw big PB's in mock comps with officials there who were our coaches but we ddnt count them and never reeally thought about it as we threw at UCSD and Mt sac in a full event. Competing in ideal conditions with your taingin partners, ie not really a comp, where you are trying to throw/jump as far as possible isnt really the AAA's now is it. Last year we did one meet at chula vista when there was no real wind and the athlete threw a pb and much further in the wam up with 12 or so throwers from 5 different countries with independent USA TF officials there. All the marks were recognised in the world rankings so I guess you hve to accept it. IF it was three men in a field I suppose you have to draw the line somewhere. Bedford Loughborough and hendon are usally excellnet throws venues in the UK so i owuld expect disc and jav throwers to benefit, but all throws have good conditoins and excellent standards to compete against in the US whihc is why some raise their game but then again some out there have done badly which may be an indicator of their lack of preparation for that time of year.

[BigGut]

Refused to answer what?

Do you mean I havent listed all of the qualifying events?

As usual you are a poster who makes accusations, like throwers having less opportunities, then when challenged you say that others should do all the work providing the facts. How about you get the facts before making the accusations.

We then have another brilliant example

Have posters noted that it was the L'boro hammer throwers who have been to the States and only one is on funding.Who paid for the rest and who paid for the coaching from the head of L'boro Hi Pac ??? Remember lottery funding may have been misused.Are UKS aware of this ???

What facts do you have? Do you know how they are funded to be out there? What do you mean by lottery funding may have been misused. Unless you know it has been misused why are you trying to insinuate it has been. INstead of making slurs why don't you did out the facts and then post, rather than post questions to a forum where nobody is likely to know the answer and making out that people not giving you the answers to your questions means you are right.

Classic conspiracy mud slinging.

[BigGut]

By the way it's 73.80 qualifying for the Euro men's hammer. Do you think that anyone looking to get the Olympic A standard will not have thrown this prior to the Euros? Can you tell me who you think will not be given opportunity to compete abroad who is capable of throwing the Olympic A standard. I have asked you that before, but you didn't name anybody.

[BigGut]

If nobody is going to miss out then what is all the fuss about. Its just trolling of the worst sort. You have now admitted that tere is no issue so please stop polluting threads about great performances by uk athletes with this nonsense.

[BigGut]

Overseas comps are relevant because you dont have to throw the qualifier in tis country. If nobody is going to miss out then there is no issue. You have been told point blank by an elite throws coach that he hss neverr had an isdue finding comps.

Name the athletes who will miss out because of the restriction on domestic comps.

[BigGut]

If everybody who has a chance of qualifying is given competitions to achieve it in then there is no issue as far as I can see. The fact some 50m hammer thrower cant get 4 oppotunities to throw an olympic b standard is completely irrelevant.

If Alex Smith isnt given foreign comps to get the standard you will have a point, but until then it is pretty clear that the standard must be achieved in the listed comps or abroad. Rutherfords was achieved in a USATF comp so it counts. As far as this thread goes that is all that can be said, anything else is just off topic troublemaking.

BTW he appears to be wearing both a vest and a number in the video on youtube.

[AllanW]

As far as this thread goes that is all that can be said, anything else is just off topic troublemaking.

Ah! The ‘troublemaker’ accusation. A phrase never uttered by anyone outside a position of authority that feels itself under attack except ironically. So it serves as a reliable marker of defensive activity by an authoritarian speaker and should be worn as a badge of honour by any target.

‘Troublemaker’ is an unspeak word.

http://unspeak.net/introduction/

[Geoff]

Can we please leave this thread for postings specifically on Greg Rutherford. Has anyone spotted any technical changes which was the original topic?

[flemaldinhio]

It's a bit hard to tell of any major technique changes from the video but its a great start to the season, lets hope he keeps injury free and can build on this

[usedtoit33]

It's a bit hard to tell of any major technique changes from the video but its a great start to the season, lets hope he keeps injury free and can build on this

Totally agree with this. Too difficult to say what specifically has changed.

[Geoff]

I think what he is doing is lowering his centre of mass slightly more than before on the penultimate stride and shortening his last stride a little bit as well. Not a great video but looks that way. Whatever he is trying he did jump 8.20 and, is not injured.

[usedtoit33]

I'm no long jump expert so I didn't post it before Geoff, but I did notice that about Lewis' last stride before the board in the vids above. It seems more pronounced than other jumpers.

[bevone]

He still over rotates in the air, especially on his downward flight phase - his head is in his knees - and too early - but what do I know. Im an incompetent coach/javelin thrower - i know my place having been put in it!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vTIC3ufWiJY

Check out the grouchos drills - these are supposed to get use to doing either one or two grouchos before you jump which looks like you are stuttering before the board - which it looks liek rutherford did - also it mentions drills to prevent over rotation. Amazing what you can find on utube - and then nick for your lessons/coaching!

[Mr Halibut]

Word on Twitter: Greg has just jumped 8.35 with 2.0 wind

[Geoff]

Word on Twitter: Greg has just jumped 8.35 with 2.0 wind

Equals UK record. Great early season form and hope he stays heathy for the rest of the summer.