I see Rupp's greatest skill over Webb is his coachability. So many highly talented and very hard working athletes have a really hard time focusing their energy on the truly important things, that are best seen from an objective source like a coach.
I see Rupp's greatest skill over Webb is his coachability. So many highly talented and very hard working athletes have a really hard time focusing their energy on the truly important things, that are best seen from an objective source like a coach.
Who cares about talent? He has one very important thing that Webb does not, and will never have.
He also has more National Records than Webb.
0/10
Talent is useless if you are dumb...[ dropping 11s 100m in middle of 1500m]
Galen has made a steady progress, and he will still improve.
Allan Webb has 1% chance to get into same shape he was.....
Perhaps, but Rupp trained smarter, and with more consistency.
Webb desperately needed his Timmons, or Lydiard or Salazar, to guide him through his growth as an athlete,
And in hindsight, I think Webb made a terrible, terrible mistake by taking the easy money and going pro, instead of doing the college circuit. It deprived him of the chance to toughen up mentally against real competition.
Instead, he developed into an excellent time trialer who got slapped around like a prison b*tch in races that actually counted.
Alan Webb is one of the top 3 most talented runners of all time, in my opinion. So what if Rupp isn't as talented?
Webb doesn't look very smooth in my opinion. He does this weird jockeying with his body and it looks like has to take some kinda poop while running really fast.
I think mental toughness is no less of a talent than speed or endurance. While it can be developed like any other gift, it is also an ingrained trait. Athletes that demonstrate it consistently become the stuff of legend (Michael Jordan immediately comes to mind).
With his performances in big moments this year, Rupp appears to have a greater abundance of this talent than Webb. If Rupp can show it consistently in the future, he won't even be compared with Webb.
talent show wrote:
all of rupps races stem from DESIRE. almost exactly like steve prefontaines.
rupp has alot of desire and dedication, and thats why he is performing well, but he will never have the natural TALENT that alan webb does. rupps facial expression is strenuous while running, and alan webb still looks smooth and acts like he isnt even trying.
i respect rupps desire and dedication, but i will never recognize it as talent.
Totally agree. Talent is God-given. Rupp does not strike me as a religious guy. So it's not surprising.
Rupp's consistent and coachable and does not try to set records in all of his workouts, and he listened to Mo DURING the race and hence stayed back until the finish. With a little more confidence he would have been pushing hard that whole last lap from the front like Mo. If he could run 52 at trials at 5000m maybe he could have done that at the oly 10 after that pedestrian 9600m.
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