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The real "harsh fact" is how many athletes of somewhere between Usain Bolt and Asafa Powell has Jamaica thrown away in say just since the DQ era, mid 70's to now.
This is reinforcing Historian's "harsh facts" but also stands behind Mills as a phenomenal coach as it is one thing to have a prodigy but a whole nother thing to lead the prodigy to an incredible height of greatness, to facilitate that, to let the prodigy understand the gravity of what they are doing, keep them focused and to produce at the right time, just doing that for one athlete at the level that we have seen from Bolt is an incredible feat, we have bnever seen it before and Mills must have known all along and kept it under cover as he can see the times he was running in practice and pushed him even harder which we now know that Mills is not a rest on your laurels kind of coach.
We know how critical we all were of some of Bolt's coaches before Mills and how it seemed at one point that we were not going to get anything from Bolt (I know this is not my imagination, I remember a lot of negativity after Athens).
The truth is we have seen this time and time again in terms of talent, what happen to even one of the great Calabar 4*100 team that class 1 team that broke the 41 second barrier, man like Inches Palmer who was at least 6'1" or so who ran 10.5 in first year class one, again man like Evrod Samuels who ran 20.6 as a schoolboy, the Calabar 4*100 class two team with the phenomenal talent of Laing and that team that tore up the class two record if I remember rightly, and a ton more from Camperdown to St Jago to KC. Funnily I can remember any outstanding JC athletes, except one really great one at the turn of the 20th century.
Just joking!!
What happened at all those guy and girls, not to forget the girls, we lost an entire generation harvest.
Again in keeping with either Don1 or Gamma's point this should not be a a "mano a mano" competition between Franno and Mills, however it is good to have a level of competitiveness between the camps.
Michael Porter a Harvard Business school don wrote a book on competitive advantage in firms and another about countries developing a competitive advantage in industries like say Italy in the the Textiles business or Germany in the car industry, but it all starts at the firm level where competition between rivals fosters innovation, foster deeper investment in talent, resources, processes etc, we are seeing one of those unusual times, where we may if it develops right have a Franno and Mills schools of athletics in the future long beyond the life of these guys, this is where the competition needs to be that will be real legacy. Also another truth that Historian did not recognise in his harsh facts is the impact of GC Foster and UTech in developing local athletics. I remember as far back as 1986 when Cast with DJ was producing guys like Rohan Wade, ah think him did name, him was running 10.3 or so in them days after high scool days long gone, DJ was laying down the infrastructure from dem days. Please do not underestimate that.
I share Historian's philosophy somewhat but where he sees pessimism I see optimism, we are at one hell of a tipping point, the pieces in the Jakan track and field arsenal have been building for 100 years piece by piece starting with schoolboy championships to the point now where everybody have champs, the Jamaican people are fully engaged even before all this "gold torrent", the talent ID system is fully engaged, the infra is partially laid down now between high school and developing pro athletes, now what we need is to build on what has been created by Mills and Franno they have amassed something of worth and have created for Jamaica an unbelievable competitive advantage in the sprints for the moment, the question is can we capitalize on it can we continue those Franno and Mills schools the MVP and Racers and build on it beyond the life or involvement of these two men, that is the real task, can the JAAA create a superstructure that truly facilitates the emergence of these firms and create an environment of keeping intense competitiveness in a more structured environment, where both coaches and their charges recognise the authority of the JAAA and the JAAA ensures that all camp are taken care of weill ahead of time and issues are resolved in private long before any major competition, that is the "real harsh facts" can we step up to the next level, we know what we can do with our eyes shut 2-4 medals, no gold, we can see now what we can do with 3 of four pistons pumping and some great talent and coaching, now we need the last piston in place, that is the challenge.
This is reinforcing Historian's "harsh facts" but also stands behind Mills as a phenomenal coach as it is one thing to have a prodigy but a whole nother thing to lead the prodigy to an incredible height of greatness, to facilitate that, to let the prodigy understand the gravity of what they are doing, keep them focused and to produce at the right time, just doing that for one athlete at the level that we have seen from Bolt is an incredible feat, we have bnever seen it before and Mills must have known all along and kept it under cover as he can see the times he was running in practice and pushed him even harder which we now know that Mills is not a rest on your laurels kind of coach.
We know how critical we all were of some of Bolt's coaches before Mills and how it seemed at one point that we were not going to get anything from Bolt (I know this is not my imagination, I remember a lot of negativity after Athens).
The truth is we have seen this time and time again in terms of talent, what happen to even one of the great Calabar 4*100 team that class 1 team that broke the 41 second barrier, man like Inches Palmer who was at least 6'1" or so who ran 10.5 in first year class one, again man like Evrod Samuels who ran 20.6 as a schoolboy, the Calabar 4*100 class two team with the phenomenal talent of Laing and that team that tore up the class two record if I remember rightly, and a ton more from Camperdown to St Jago to KC. Funnily I can remember any outstanding JC athletes, except one really great one at the turn of the 20th century.
Just joking!!What happened at all those guy and girls, not to forget the girls, we lost an entire generation harvest.
Again in keeping with either Don1 or Gamma's point this should not be a a "mano a mano" competition between Franno and Mills, however it is good to have a level of competitiveness between the camps.
Michael Porter a Harvard Business school don wrote a book on competitive advantage in firms and another about countries developing a competitive advantage in industries like say Italy in the the Textiles business or Germany in the car industry, but it all starts at the firm level where competition between rivals fosters innovation, foster deeper investment in talent, resources, processes etc, we are seeing one of those unusual times, where we may if it develops right have a Franno and Mills schools of athletics in the future long beyond the life of these guys, this is where the competition needs to be that will be real legacy. Also another truth that Historian did not recognise in his harsh facts is the impact of GC Foster and UTech in developing local athletics. I remember as far back as 1986 when Cast with DJ was producing guys like Rohan Wade, ah think him did name, him was running 10.3 or so in them days after high scool days long gone, DJ was laying down the infrastructure from dem days. Please do not underestimate that.
I share Historian's philosophy somewhat but where he sees pessimism I see optimism, we are at one hell of a tipping point, the pieces in the Jakan track and field arsenal have been building for 100 years piece by piece starting with schoolboy championships to the point now where everybody have champs, the Jamaican people are fully engaged even before all this "gold torrent", the talent ID system is fully engaged, the infra is partially laid down now between high school and developing pro athletes, now what we need is to build on what has been created by Mills and Franno they have amassed something of worth and have created for Jamaica an unbelievable competitive advantage in the sprints for the moment, the question is can we capitalize on it can we continue those Franno and Mills schools the MVP and Racers and build on it beyond the life or involvement of these two men, that is the real task, can the JAAA create a superstructure that truly facilitates the emergence of these firms and create an environment of keeping intense competitiveness in a more structured environment, where both coaches and their charges recognise the authority of the JAAA and the JAAA ensures that all camp are taken care of weill ahead of time and issues are resolved in private long before any major competition, that is the "real harsh facts" can we step up to the next level, we know what we can do with our eyes shut 2-4 medals, no gold, we can see now what we can do with 3 of four pistons pumping and some great talent and coaching, now we need the last piston in place, that is the challenge.
Just my two cents. But it is the facts!
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