Mike Smith Training Philosophy?

There are a few coaches in every sport who have it, that ability to relate to athletes and to get them to perform their best without burning them out. Robert Johnson does not have it. He has the best funded legacy program in the country and gets great results, 14 championships, but he has the best position for a recruiter in the country and at best only alienates his recruits and their parents. Worse, he burns his athletes out and causes them to transfer en masse. Joe Torre and Joe Maddon are two baseball managers who get their athletes. Mike Smith and Diljeet Taylor get their athletes about as well as anyone in the sport. Workouts are widely disseminated. Winning isn't.

There are probably 200 coaches in the NCAA (division 1,2,and 3) that could get the same results at NAU.

Not only did he inherit an NCAA winning team, he was there with Heins to see exactly what Heins did. That diminishes his "legacy" in my view because he did not build something but rather inherited it.

He benefits from being in the best running city in the nation, a hotspot where even the pro runners go to train. It's also the school at the highest altitude.

If you get sub 9 athletes in the 3200 and put them at 7,000 feet of altitude, they are going to run really fast in the 10k. He was nowhere near as successful at Georgetown.

He took over the team five years ago, this is beyond just “inheriting a team”. It’s like saying we should attribute the 1990s Yankees’ success to Buck Showalter because he set the team up for years of success, even though Torre was the manager who led them. Smith clearly has some intangibles that set him apart from the other “200 coaches” you apparently believe can equal his formula for success

raging clue wrote:

He took over the team five years ago, this is beyond just “inheriting a team”. It’s like saying we should attribute the 1990s Yankees’ success to Buck Showalter because he set the team up for years of success, even though Torre was the manager who led them. Smith clearly has some intangibles that set him apart from the other “200 coaches” you apparently believe can equal his formula for success

He literally got handed the workouts that built an NCAA championship team from Heins. Building it yourself is more impressive. It's like Lebron James leaving to join a superteam with Bosh and Wade because he couldn't win a championship. Way more respect for Dirk Nowitski who stuck with the Mavs and won in his 11th year with the team.

It's certainly no coincidence that altitude teams significantly outperform sea level teams. I have 100x more respect for Dave Smith of Oklahoma State than of Mike Smith of NAU. Same with Fox of Syracuse, etc.

Smith didn't do anything outstanding at Georgetown.

You can say anything in that accent and it sounds soothing and relaxing

Charles Bukowski wrote:

How to Recognise Different Types of Trees From Quite a Long Way wrote:

I don't really understand this. I think they both seem like complete tool bags. Especially Mike Smith with his ridiculous fake accent from nowhere.

Seriously, where is that dude from? Where did Mike Smith grow up? Where was he born? I cannot place the accent. Is it fake? Why do you think that?

I agree with the many who say the fake, conscious accent is a buzzkill. In fact, if I were interested in NCAA running, that would completely eliminate the guy from consideration. If he addressed the issue publicity, OK; as long he pretends not to be aware of it, it's a show stopper for me. You know we all notice it. You are also aware that we discuss it. Grow a spine and tell everyone what is going on.....

Smith has his bachelors in Psychology. If you want to be a coach, teacher, manager… Basically a leader in today’s society then pursuing a degree in psychology is a smart idea.

Gone are the old days of a coach just yelling to run harder or more. Now coaches have to be psychologists. Smith gets this and is part of the reason he’s so good. Yeah high mileage, a tempos emphasis, and core strength development play a role. But a lot of programs are doing that stuff well. The edge he has is in the head.

Coach C wrote:

Yeah high mileage, a tempos emphasis, and core strength development play a role. But a lot of programs are doing that stuff well. The edge he has is in the ALTITUDE.

Mike Smith probably gets 75% of his methodology from Pat Henner, formerly of Georgetown, now at ASU. He was a mentor to coach Smith and when Henner hired him at Gerogetown this website said it was an absolute mistake given the women had won NCAA’s under miltenberg the year before.

Coach C wrote:

Smith has his bachelors in Psychology. If you want to be a coach, teacher, manager… Basically a leader in today’s society then pursuing a degree in psychology is a smart idea.

.

Psychology: the new Undecided.

I think any people skills that he may or may not possess has very little to do with his college major. Most likely, psych was just easy and facilitated being a D1 athlete.

free shipping with purchases wrote:

Coach C wrote:

Smith has his bachelors in Psychology. If you want to be a coach, teacher, manager… Basically a leader in today’s society then pursuing a degree in psychology is a smart idea.

.

Psychology: the new Undecided.

I think any people skills that he may or may not possess has very little to do with his college major. Most likely, psych was just easy and facilitated being a D1 athlete.

Psychology was just that, one bump up from Undecided.

the elephant in the room wrote:

Charles Bukowski wrote:

Seriously, where is that dude from? Where did Mike Smith grow up? Where was he born? I cannot place the accent. Is it fake? Why do you think that?

I agree with the many who say the fake, conscious accent is a buzzkill. In fact, if I were interested in NCAA running, that would completely eliminate the guy from consideration. If he addressed the issue publicity, OK; as long he pretends not to be aware of it, it's a show stopper for me. You know we all notice it. You are also aware that we discuss it. Grow a spine and tell everyone what is going on.....

Where did this foolishness about an accent come from? He does have a distinctive speaking cadence, but I remember him from when in ran in San Diego around '04-'05, not long after he graduated from Georgetown, and his speaking style was the same then as what I've seen from him in recent interviews. How does this have any relevance to hos considerable coaching skills? Those of us who ran with him back then all thought that this young thoughtful guy was probably going to really go places in coaching eventually, and he certainly has.

Recruit the best HS boys....job done

It seems to me, Mike is a mentor as much as a coach and brings out the best in people. He seems focused on the whole person. Most of the time, this includes performing at the best level possible, but sometime not. I remember seeing an interview when NCAA indoors was cancelled in 2020 and seeing his concern for a devastated athlete ( I think it was Blaise Ferro). I am very impressed with his coaching of Rachel Schneider (who he recently married) also.

I'm not sure anyone else could have done what Smith has done at NAU. Yes, he inherited a great team but so have many other coaches throughout the years and they haven't replicated what Smith is doing. Also, it can't simply be that he has great athletes because we have been saying that about Oregon and Stanford for years. I personally think it comes down to the attitude of the NAU team (live and train like pros), altitude, talent, and a coach that doesn't screw you up. I think you need all of those factors to be this successful.

someone wrote:

Which approach seems to be working out better?

how many track titles have NAU won?

the programs clearly have different focuses. i'm pretty optimistic about the ability of oregon to remake itself as an xc powerhouse if it cut all the sprints, field, and 800m specialists...

your argument has fallen flat on its face after today's dominance. Smith has now led NAU to five titles in six years, only two other programs have achieved that level of dominance. They are a dynasty and this is due to Mike Smith. Accept it.

He is from Massachusetts and his voice seems normal to me. I live in a suburb of Boston and I know plenty of people that talk just like him.