Lydiard Arthur - Arthur Lydiard: master coach

THE WORLD-STARTLING TRACK and road performances of Lydiard athletes at the Rome Olympics in 1960, followed by their even more spectacular record-breaking sweep through the world in 1961, changed Arthur Lydiards life for ever. The small, spring-steel man who masterminded those successes moved from being a misunderstood magician who really wanted to be an architect to an internationally recognised and acclaimed authority on coaching. Fame was not something he sought, but he brought it upon himself and turned a job he did not want into a success which has touched millions of people in the last half-century.

After Rome, the world well, most of it wanted to know more and sought to exploit this newly discovered talent. It is a mark of Lydiards humility and humanity that, for decades, he gave advice freely to everyone who asked.

The Rome explosion and the subsequent trail that Lydiards runners burned through the world established one dominant truth: Arthur Lydiard was an architect not in the way of his private but aborted ambition to design buildings but as a creator of superb running machines out of the most basic raw materials.

He had learnt how to lay the foundations, painstakingly build the framework and finally add the cladding of the complete runner. Many of his athletes were masterpieces of planning and design because Lydiard didnt just shape runners, he placed them exactly at the distances for which they were physically, mentally and psychologically best suited; and he prepared them so their peak performances came at precisely the time required.

How he did it became the question asked all around the globe, except in his home country. In New Zealand, where conservatism in sporting development frequently manifests in a heads-in-the-sand mentality rather than an appreciation of new concepts and ideas, Lydiard attracted as much doubt and mockery as compliments. Many foolishly attributed his successes to a freakish streak of luck in stumbling across a collection of exceptional athletes. That dismissive stance was maintained for years, even in the face of the inarguable fact that his athletes were merely a motley collection of local lads who he amalgamated into a force that would control New Zealands middle- and distance-running spotlight. The way in which these men met to determine which of the national titles each would like to win in the coming season smacked of arrogance. The way in which they then went forth and took those titles, season after season, from 800 metres upwards, demonstrated that it was not arrogance. It was confidence born of their faith in their own capabilities and faith in their coachs ability to hone them exactly for the critical races.

Jack Lovelocks sensational appearance at the Berlin Olympics lit a lonely flame for New Zealand athletics; Arthur Lydiard and his lads fanned it into a forest fire. And international awareness of how it was done came with the simultaneous development of the fitness cult of jogging for people of all ages, sizes, shapes and sexes. Suddenly, every man, woman and child had the opportunity to jog or run the Lydiard way and millions grabbed the chance with both feet.

Lydiard made it quite clear from the outset that what he knew about training athletes could be anyones merely by asking. He offered to New Zealand the seeds of a plan that could have made the country a mecca for the worlds lite runners. The seeds fell on stony ground. His idea was to acquire some land Waimauku, just north of Auckland and close to coastal forests, sandhills and beaches, was a favoured possibility where a complete training camp could be established. There he would teach all comers how to turn themselves into the Halbergs, Snells and Magees and the coaches of the future.

It never happened. One of the reasons might have been that the Arthur Lydiard of old like the man today didnt go out of his way to ingratiate himself with those who might, if their backs were rubbed the right way, supply the resources he needed. While he was completely sure of the success of his own training methods, he made no attempt to hide his disdain and even contempt for those who werent prepared to come aboard. If you werent with him, you were against him and you were the losers.