Michael Johnson Motivation.com

May 15, 2008 by Jimson Lee

Michael Johnson has a new website for motivational speaking, and it’s not to be confused with his Michael Johnson Performance Center.

Who the heck is Michael Johnson?

To recap his resume:

Gold Medalist, 400m, Olympic Games, Sydney, 2000
Gold Medalist, 4×400m, Olympic Games, Sydney, 2000
Gold Medalist, 300m in 30.85 seconds, Engen Grand Prix, Pretoria, South Africa, 2000
Gold Medalist, 400m in 43.18 seconds, World Athletics Championships, Sevilla, 1999
Gold Medalist, 400m, Olympic Games, Atlanta, 1996
Gold Medalist, 200m, Olympic Games, Atlanta, 1996
Gold Medalist, 400m, World Athletics Championships, Sevilla, 1999
Gold Medalist, 4×400m Relay, World Athletics Championships, Sevilla, 1999
Gold Medalist, 400m, Goodwill Games, 1998
Gold Medalist, Goodwill Games, World Record Breaking 4 x 400m Relay, 1998
Gold Medalist, 400m, World Athletics Championships, Athens, 1997
Gold Medalist, 200m in 19.32 seconds, Olympic Games, Atlanta, 1996
Gold Medalist, 200m, World Championships, Göteborg, 1995
Gold Medalist, 400m, World Championships, Göteborg, 1995
Gold Medalist, 200m, Goodwill Games, 1994
Gold Medalist, 400m, World Athletics Championships, Stuttgart, 1993
Gold Medalist, 4×400m Relay, Olympic Games, Barcelona, 1992
Gold Medalist, 200m, World Athletics Championships, Tokyo, 1991
Gold Medalist, 200m, Goodwill Games, 1990

In addition, at the USA:

US National Champion, 200m, 1990, 1991, 1992, 1995 and 1996
US National Champion, 400m, 1993, 1995 and 1996

Here is a summary from his website that covers his career from 1990 to 2000:

MICHAEL JOHNSON

The best 200/400 meter sprinter in the history of the sport of track & field. Johnson’s progressions through the ranks of track and field were swift and stunning! A dual event world champion, the likes of which were never seen before, Johnson surpassed legends and surged to the top of record books of years gone by.

During the summer of 1990, his first year as a professional, Johnson won thirteen consecutive 200 meter races. Obtaining the six fastest 200m times recorded for the year, he secured the number one world ranking. He also defeated the world’s best 400m sprinters by running four sub 45 second races.

Johnson’s decision to run both the 200 and 400 meter sprints came mostly out of the training program developed by his coach, Clyde Hart, at Baylor. In an effort to enhance speed and strength, and to avoid leg injuries which hindered Johnson over the past year, Hart devised a simple strategy for the spring of 1990: Johnson was to mostly run relays. “Running both events fit perfectly with our program,” noted Hart. “We feel that strength is synonymous with speed-if you’re strong, then you can run fast.” Adds Johnson, “The sprint relays gave me the speed-work I needed, and the relay 400’s gave me the strength work. I got in a good base while working on my speed at the same time.” The program’s results were nothing short of spectacular.

Johnson went on to dominate the international track scene, after establishing himself in the United States. His first major international breakthrough came in Edinburgh, Scotland in July, 1990 where he raced in a field that included, defending Olympic Champion, Joe DeLoach. On a chilly 55 degree night, Johnson destroyed what he called, “the greatest field I had ever run against,” posting a personal best of 19.85.

He also planned to run, “some 400’s later in the season, just to break up the monotony of running 200 after 200.” What began largely as a training routine, and a diversion from boredom, turned into a dominating specialty. He ran four sub 45 second races at 400 meters, defeating the world’s best, including current world record-holder, Butch Reynolds. Though Johnson excelled at both distances, he decided to concentrate on the 200m at the 1991 World Championships where he produced the most convincing 200m win in a major international competition since Jesse Owens at the 1936 Olympics.

Johnson had the greatest consecutive seasons of any sprinter in history in 1990 and 1991. He also became the first athlete ever to be ranked No. 1 in the world in both the 200 and 400 meters. Equally impressive, he became the only sprinter in history to run sub 20.00 for 200m and sub 44.00 for 400m during a career, and in the same competition. All of these achievements earned him the popular title of, “World’s Fastest Human”.

In the 1992 Olympic Trials, Johnson won the 200m with a blazing time of 19.79 seconds, breaking Carl Lewis’s 19.84 meet record held since 1984. In the 1992 Olympics in Barcelona, he was plagued with food poisoning, but competed nonetheless as a member of the 4×400m relay team that set a new Olympic record and brought home the Gold medal.

Since Johnson had primarily been recognized as a 200 meter sprinter and had not contested the 400 meters at a major championship, the talk of the 1993 USA Track and Field Championships was whether he could last the rounds, gain a top three finish, and qualify for the World Championships. With the World Record Holder, Butch Reynolds, and 1992 Olympic Champion, Quincy Watts, in the race, his task appeared formidable. However, he took no mercy on the field and won the race in a personal record time of 43.74, the fastest 400 meters ever run on American soil.

Johnson entered the 1993 World Championships in Stuttgart as the favorite and emerged as a champion, winning the 400m in a Championship Record time of 43.65, and anchored the World Record setting American 4×400 relay in 42.94, history’s first sub 43.00 relay leg.

Throughout 1994, Johnson won all of his 400m races and repeated a Gold Medal performance at the Goodwill Games in St. Petersburg, Russia in July. In the fall of 1994 he was awarded the prestigious Jesse Owens Award along with being ranked #1 in the World for the third time in his career in both the 200m and 400m. He continued his incredible winning streak as he blazed through the 1995 Indoor season with his 40th win in a row, in the 400m. He broke his previous World Record – only three weeks old – with a time of 44.63.

At the 1995 US National Championships in Sacramento, California, Johnson became the first athlete since 1899, to win both the 200m and 400m US National Champion titles! During the World Championships in Göteborg, Sweden, he performed another historic feat – he ran nine races over nine days and left Sweden as the first man ever to attain World Championship titles at both 200m and 400m in the same championship.

1996 was the year for Johnson’s unprecedented Olympic double record breaking victories in both the 200 and 400 meters in Atlanta. He began his quest to win two gold medals at the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta in top form; seeking redemption for the bout with food poisoning that killed his individual medal chances in 1992. At the U.S. Olympic Trials in June, he smashed the seventeen-year-old 200m World Record with a time of 19.66. At the Olympic Games, he went on to break his own 200m World Record with a time of 19.32, only three days after winning the 400m in an Olympic-record 43.49.

Either of Johnson’s victories in Atlanta would have stood alone as a significant accomplishment in Olympic history. That one athlete was able to win both events so convincingly in a span of just four days is purely stunning (Olympian Jan. /Feb. 1997). “I’ve always wanted to bring the two events together in a way that nobody else had ever done,” said Johnson, “this sums up what my career is about.”

In 1998, Johnson was part of the World Record breaking 4 x 400m relay at the Goodwill Games in New York during which he also ran the fastest 400m of the year (43.76). He enjoyed continued success in 1999 when he convincingly broke the 11 year old World Record in the 400m at the World Track & Field Championships in Sevilla, Spain. With a remarkable time of 43.18, he offered fans an exciting glimpse of what to expect at the 2000 Summer Olympics.

At the 2000 Olympic Games, Johnson again dazzled the world under the stadium lights in Sydney when he became the first sprinter in history to win consecutive Olympic Gold Medals in the 400m. To top off his career total eighteen gold medals, Johnson earned grand number 19 in the 4×400m relay. Johnson chose to end his career after his double Olympic gold medal effort at the 2000 Olympic Games, finishing his career with an impressive total of 19 championship gold medals, 0 bronze, and 0 silver.

Written by Jimson Lee · Filed Under Success, 400 meters

Speed Training in Youth Brazilian Soccer Training

May 14, 2008 by Jimson Lee

Watch youth Brazilian soccer training video and it can be very helpful for you to learn the various soccer skills. Particularly, the coaches can use these ultimate videos for speed training sessions. Soccer is a sport that demands your endurance and speed to remain active in the field for the complete 90 minutes of the game.

As a coach, if you want to get the most out of your player’s performance, you must design the speed training that could help the players attain the desired speed and endurance. This is where the youth soccer training videos from Brazil will prove very helpful both for you and for the players.

Warm Up Plan

The training video will tell you that before you start the speed training session for the players of your team, you should have them go for a warm up plan. The warm up session is the key to speed training because it will prepare the players to compete at high speeds and intensities throughout the session.

There are several warm up methods, but the methods that Brazilian speed training video include the following.

A series of dynamic and active movements starting with low impact,
Low intensity exercises are another great way, but the coaches must make sure that these exercises progress naturally to high intensity as the training moves on,
Then there are full speed exercises. These exercise can play a very important role in simulating the intensity of the upcoming practice or competition
An effective warm up training on a regular basis will eventually help your players become loose, powerful and fast.

Agility Training

Agility training must be designed in a way to help the young players achieve exceptional speed and quickness levels. The training video will pave the path for you to train your players how to improve foot speed, quickness, starting/stopping, change of direction, switching gears, acceleration, cutting, and reaction.

What is more, the training video also helps you understand how to prevent injuries during the speed training session. The Brazilian youth soccer video gives much emphasis on body control through proper movement mechanics.

Speed is directly associated with power. If you can increase the speed, the power will automatically be increased and vice versa. This is where training video come into play. The youth Brazilian soccer training video will help you understand how to increase your strength and how to convert that strength into speed and power.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Andre Botelho is a recognized authority on the subject of soccer coaching. His web site, http://www.soccerdrillstips.com, provides a wealth of informative articles, resources and tips for soccer coaches, parents and players.

Written by Jimson Lee · Filed Under Soccer

Inspirational and Motivational Sports Team Stories

May 13, 2008 by Jimson Lee

Caroline Kluft and JJK, step aside.

Last week I covered some good sportsmanship and bad sportsmanship stories. Now we need some motivational sports team stories.

In High School and College Track and Field, I cannot stress the importance of scoring points. Even scoring a single point makes a difference between winning or losing a conference. The ultimate goal is the team championship.

I remember competing in 6 events for points while at McGill: 60m, 300m, Long Jump, Triple Jump, 4×200m and 4×400m relays. The running events had heats and finals, so over two days I competed in 8 events with a total of 12 jumps. What hurt the most about that Conference Championship meet was we lost by a single point!

While it’s nice to win each event, scoring points is more important. False starting and getting disqualified is the ultimate “No NO”!

Last year, I wrote about the importance of building a winning team. But what happens if that Team is just one person?

In the news last weekend on Sportsillustrated was a great story of how one person can win the entire TEAM championships

High School Junior Bonnie Richardson of Rochelle, Texas earned a total of 42 team points over the entire TEAM of Chilton with 36 points. To recap her performance:

won high jump (5 feet, 5 inches)
second in the long jump (18′-7″)
third in the discus (121′-0″)
won the 200 meters (25.03)
second in the 100 meters (12.19)

She didn’t win every event, but she still scored enough points to secure the team title. Now that’s impressive!

Click here for the full article on Sportsillustrated:

Richardson’s title march began with field events on Friday when she won the high jump (5 feet, 5 inches), placed second in the long jump (18-7) and was third in the discus (121-0).

On Saturday, she won the 200 meters in 25.03 seconds and nearly pulled off a huge upset in the 100 before finishing second (12.19) to defending champion Kendra Coleman of Santa Anna. Richardson, a junior, earned a total of 42 team points to edge team runner-up Chilton (36).

It was a good thing the 1A events were split over two days because Richardson said the heat — temperatures were in the high 90s both days — might have knocked her down. She laughed off a suggestion that she could have won more if UIL rules didn’t limit individual participation to five events.

“I don’t think I could handle any more,” she said. “It was hot and I was tired.”

Many outstanding girls athletes have dominated state meets, but few cross over from the sprints to the field events with Richardson’s success, Breithaupt said.

“The way she did it is really impressive,” Breithaupt said. “A lady like that could be a heptathlete.”

Written by Jimson Lee · Filed Under Success, Witty

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