Alan Webb is one of the best American Middle Distance Runners of all time. He is currently the national high school mile record holder at 3;53 and is the American Record holder of the mile as well at 3:46:93.
I just saw your recent video on Alan Webb and you have improved your presentation skills dramatically in a relatively short period of time. Phenomenal job man!
Webb had possibly the best arm carriage for a distance runner ever. His arms are perfectly in synch with the rotation of his shoulders. You describe it as timing of his arm pull with his leg timing, which a perfect description. The key to everything is the arms have to also be in synch with the shoulders to mechanically connect the timing with the legs. I'll never forget how tired my shoulders got after 5 minutes when I first tried running this way. Letesenbet Gidey also is a great example of this.
Rondie Rice I remember that too! He was just a nervous, excited kid looking forward to going to Michigan. I remember him saying “hey coach” to Ron Warhurst from Michigan. Definitely a good memory of Webb.
Great runner, with fast times but a fair comparison would be with Nick Willis also a product of the US college system. Webb ,no major international medals and a couple of big race wins. Willis , 2 Olympic medals. big wins in Europe and US , fast times , ( admittedly not as fast as Webb)and a long career heading for his 5th Olympics.
@MK27 PILOT and yet Willis struggled to go sub 3.50 for many years , whereas Webb is some 3 seconds faster than Nick over the mile. The point being that times are somewhat irrelevant ,(in my opinion), many good runners,(Webb) can run fast times but go to water in major championships and as I said , potential unfulfilled.
@MK27 PILOT on the contrary, I think they both, (Willis and Webb) are very similarly talented runners. Webb with possibly more "natural " talent but Willis with perhaps a better "big championship" temperament. This is displayed in their relative individual successes.
How many gold medals did that form take him? The most talented runners do not always make greatest runners. In my estimation the greatest middle runner talent Daniel Komen had a pretty dismal career: No Olympic medals, he did win something like 65 races in the 2 years he raced in Europe but zero important races. Webb is similar to him but not as talented...
Komen was unique. I think the guy got bored and quit. At the time he was among the best in the 1500 all the way up to the 5000 m. Him and Geb kept on challenging each other and that's it.
Please remember, Webb only ever won TWO races internationally. Both in July 2007. A 1500m in Paris and a Mile in Brasschat, Belgium. That's it! No big championships. Now that doesn't detract from some of the great times he ran but you have to keep things in perspective. He qualified for the Olympics in 2004 at a young age then never got past the first round. He failed to make the US Olympic team for 2008, in spite of his great 2007 year. So his international achievements were: NIL. Meaning he wouldn't make the top 1,000 runners. Remember, over 100 runners have run under 3.50 for the mile alone. He only shines if you compare him to USA High School runners.
@@o3_o3_28 I agree. A huge point. I'd have given my left nut to run times anywhere near what he achieved. Sadly, his times didn't translate to race results internationally. He was and is, a fantastic athlete. Cheers.
Always though Webb was an ugly looking runner. He certainly got the most out of that chunky body. Never thought he was smooth or graceful in the least.
carrjeep lol, I totally agree with you. Nothing smooth or graceful about Webb’s running stride. He is just way to blocky. To me Rudisha and Coe has very slick running form.
I'm not at all into running but I grew up in Reston, graduated from South lakes in 97. His brother Greg was on my little league team and I can still remember this little red faced 5 year old doing laps around the baseball field. Around 2003 I was playing a round at Reston National and this guy glides by on the cart path taking these enormous leaps but his head doesn't move, looked like an android. For a second I was like wtf? Then I remembered, oh yeah Alan Webb.
He was a great swimmer (National age group Champion) before he started running seriously in H.S. His VOX2 Max was already in overdrive in grade-school!
Jakob Ingebrigtsen is the Norwegian Alan Webb Kevin Sullivan is the Canadian Alan Webb Ryan Gregson is the Australian Alan Webb Steve Cram is the English Alan Webb Graham Williamson is the Scottish Alan Webb Jake Heyward is the Welsh Alan Webb Kiyoharu Sato is the Japanese Alan Webb Reyes Estevez is the Spanish Alan Webb Gert-Jan Liefers is the Dutch Alan Webb Jean Verster is the South African Alan Webb Ari Paunonen is the Finnish Alan Webb Hansjörg Kunze is the German Alan Webb Dalibor Balgac is the Croatian Alan Webb Lukas Verzbicas is the Lithuanian Alan Webb Tim Van De Velde is the Belgian Alan Webb Elzan Bibic is the Serbian Alan Webb
@@tedallison6112 I'm Norwegian, myself and I love Jakob Ingebrigtsen. I was sort of half-kidding. Jakob is the greatest prodigy in the 1500m and 5000m EVER. The reasons why I made those comparisons to Webb is because "he came first" (he's 17 year older than Jakob) and because majority of TRP audience seems to be Americans, and many of them seem to be familiar with Webb (or have him as the high school G.O.A.T.) but not runners from other nationalitites. That's why I made him a "reference point"
@@tedallison6112 Good points. I'm a bit too young to remember Ingrid Kristiansen, but she, and Grete Waitz, are the greatest runners this country has ever had. The single greatest running achievement, however, is Vebjørn Rodal's Olympic Gold and Olympic record in Atlanta 1996. Audun Boysen was also great (800m runner as well). With that being said, I am certain that Jakob can become the greatest Norwegian runner ever. I think he'll get a plethora of records and medals. He also has great versatility, so he'll probably achieve well in many events. (Not only the 1500 and 5k). I'm also very excited for Max Burgin (GBR) in the 800m&1500m, and Axel Vang Christensen (DEN) in the 5000m&10000m. Extremely talented, both of them. (I really like Kiplimo and Barega as well. The next years in distance running will be extremely exciting)
