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COACHING EDGE |ALBERTO SALAZAR|
‘The thing is that Mo is so coachable, he’s like a
sponge, he just takes it all in, you squeeze him in
training and in a race and it all comes out
perfectly,’ he says. ‘He trusts me and executes
exactly what I tell him, and perfectly.’
The trust is, in many ways, the key to their
success. It helps that the Somali-born Londoner is
so unbelievably relaxed. Not one of the most
organised athletes on the planet, he is usually
late and always laid back on the start line. As a
result, he does not like to stress with the minor
details. So, he just awaits his instructions each
morning and does what he’s told.
According to Salazar, the key to Farah is
twofold: one is that he has remained injury free,
the other is his brain; both in terms of his tactical
acumen but also the confidence that circulates
around it off the back of all those victories, which
have potentially made him the greatest British
athlete of all time.
That has been done by running less than the
Ethiopian and Kenyan contingents that have
habitually dominated distance running. When
Farah and training partner Galen Rupp finished
one and two in the 10,000m Olympic final last
summer, it was the first time the continent of
Africa had not held the top two in that race at
the Olympics for 28 years.
‘Since the 80s, the Africans have come to the
fore, the Americans tailed off and a lot of that is
psychological,’ Salazar said. ‘Mo probably felt
like that – that they couldn’t be beaten. They
have a head start with altitude and stuff but Mo’s
gone to altitude and you just have to make sure
you do everything perfectly to beat them.’
Part of that is a fine balancing act between
putting the miles in – Farah tends to do 100 a
week to the Africans’ 170 – and not getting
injured... Farah has effectively been injury-free
since working with Salazar. And the shortfall in
miles is made up by improved biomechanics.
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That’s how you take on the Africans, how you
get over that inherent advantage of living
at altitude.’
With his Nike Oregon Project, which was set up
12 years ago, Salazar continues to adapt, feed
off other sports and add yet more touches to his
armoury. Even if Farah and his other athletes are
at the top of their game, he still strives to push
them on further. In the case of 30-year-old Farah,
that involved spending a day with the sprint
coach John Smith this year in a bid to improve
his sprinting speed. Evidence of that being
successful was there for all to see in Moscow.
The other trick has been moving the targets.
First there was the double, then the double
double, and now the marathon – Farah is
scheduled to make his marathon debut in
London next spring. As Salazar says: ‘Athletes
need goals or else they stagnate. So with Mo,
it’s about pushing the boundaries, seeing where
he can go.’
‘He dictates everything
I do – my training, my
diet, my competition,
everything H