Michael Johnson

When I started my professional career in 1990, I began training more specifically for the 400 meters and eventually broke the world record in 1999. My keys to success were focusing on my 200-meter performance throughout college and then using that as a foundation to shift my focus to the 400 meters, and running 4x100 and 4x400 relays to get used to the race distance.
 
Transcript: ""From 1987 to 1999, you dropped over 3 seconds on your 400 meters. What were your training keys for that success?" So it was more than just training. In 1987, I was a senior in high school and going into my college career. I had never run an open 400 meters ever. I was a 100- 200-meter sprinter in high school. And I did run on the 4-by-400-meter relay. And I was pretty good on the 4-by-400-meter relay. So I knew that I had the potential to be a good 400-meter runner but just didn't know how good, because I was an excellent 200-meter runner. And that was my focus. When I got to Baylor University in 1987, I still never focused on the 400 meters. I ran a total of three 400-meter races throughout my college career, my four years there because, again, I was always focused on the 200 meters. And we were always having to prepare for something-- conference championships, national championships. So there wasn't a lot of time to switch back and forth between the 200 and 400 meters, because I was trying to get my 200 meters improved so I could be ready to try to win conference and national championships. And I was running the 4-by-100-meter and 4-by-400-meter relays. So it wasn't until I actually finished and left my college career and started my professional career in 1990 that I started really attacking and running the 400 meters and immediately showed that-- I was ranked number one in the world the first year I started running it. So I knew that I had that potential. And then it was from there for nine years. I knew that I could break the world record. And I was just trying to break that world record. I probably would have broken it much sooner than 1999 had I just focused on the 400 meters. But as you know, throughout my career, I was a 200-meter runner and a 400-meter runner. In the first six years, I really focused more on trying to break the world record in the 200. And it wasn't until after I did that and then I switched and really started to just focus 100% on trying to break that 400-meter world record, which I finally did in 1999."

Track and field's biggest strength is the variety of events, but this can also be a weakness as it makes it difficult to market the sport and appeal to a new fan base. It is important for the sport to carve out a professional identity, separate from its Olympic identity, in order for it to grow positively in the long-term.
 
Transcript: "What is track and field's biggest strength and biggest weakness for positive long-term growth? I think with this sport-- and I love the sport, and I certainly have been very vocal and want to see it improve as a sport for the spectators, but also for the great athletes in the sport who-- for many they struggle to even carve out a professional life financially in the sport. I think its biggest strength is also its biggest weakness, and that is that there are so many various different events in the sport, so there are a lot of athletes, a lot of different types of athletes. You have your distance runners. You have your sprinters. You have your pole vaulters. You have your shot putters and your javelin throwers. It's almost like every competition is a mini Olympics, and it's very difficult to market a sport like that and appeal to a fan base, a new fan base. I mean, there are people like me and people that in the sport-- I mean, we have to be very careful and understand that the people who are diehard fans of the sport are very few. If you're trying to compete against the tennis and golfs of the world and team sports of the world, you have to follow that sort of formatting and understand that people don't typically have that sort of a wide span of interest where they're equally interested in watching someone run a 10,000 meters over 26 minutes, and also want to watch you know sprinters run 100 meters in 9 seconds, and then try to watch somebody and understand the pole vault, and also have an equal interest in the shot put. That typically doesn't happen. So that's a big problem for the sport. I think this sport has struggled to carve out a true professional identity. I think it's sometimes seen as an Olympic sport, purely an Olympic sport, because people really do pay attention to the sport every four years. In some ways, it's still an amateur sport. In some ways it's a professional sport. So I think that's a big problem in the sport-- needs to really carve out a an identity for itself and probably separate the professional side of the sport from the Olympic identity of the sport. That's easier said than done, but I would love to see it happen."

I knew I had some talent when I was in high school, but it wasn't until I got to university and started a world-class training program that I realized I had the talent to become one of the best in the world. This combined with my passion made me realize I could pursue a career as an Olympic athlete.
 
Transcript: "Hi, Greg. So, when did I realize I had some talent to match my passion? I think I knew early on that, I had talent but I didn't know how far it would take me. So I was always faster than all of the other kids and every sport that I played, I was fast. So I knew that I had that talent, but once I got I think the pivotal moment for me was when I got to University got to Baylor University and really Started to train for the first time and got into a world-class training program. It's with that point that I recognized, that I had the talent to be one of the best in the world. And of course, my passion was was matched by that. So both sort of happened at the same time because prior to that when I was a school kid in high school, I knew I had some talent and I know that I enjoyed it, but I didn't have this passion to go on and become a world-class athlete or an Olympian at that point because I didn't quite fit. Frankly know that. I even, you know, that was even possible for me. So a little bit different Journey for me than, maybe athletes, who were sort of pegged as a young kid, and sort of targeted that, hey, this kid has tremendous talent and now you're in Stilton, still the new that, you know, you could be a great, you could be an Olympian that wasn't my situation."

To set actionable plans to achieve goals, one must first believe that it is achievable, understand what sacrifice it will take, and commit to those sacrifices.
 
Transcript: "What's your process for setting goals and how do you set actionable plans to achieve them? I think the second part of that question is most important, setting actionable plans to achieve goals because many people sort of stop with just setting the goal which in that way is just a hope, it's not an actual goal. The most important part of setting a goal is making sure that you believe first and foremost that the goal is actually achievable. Second, it's understanding what sacrifice is. What's it going to take from you to actually achieve that goal and then committing to that as opposed to-- it's easy for me to commit to a goal of hey, this year I want to win a gold medal. That's easy. But now what's it going to take for me to win the gold medal? So the year that I committed to trying to make history and win the 200 meters and 400 meters at the Olympic games, my coach said OK, in order for us to do that if we're going to run both events at the Olympic games, four round of the 400 meters, four rounds of the 200 meters. This is what it's going to take from a training standpoint. This is what we're going to have to do over the next two years in order to get there. And those were the things that I had to commit to. And it wasn't easy. Those were things that you know as he kind of ran down the list which I already knew these are the things you're going to have to do. This is what practice is going to look like. This is how much more difficult. This is how much more volume is going to be in order than what it's previously been when I was only running one event. I, had to think about those things and then go, OK, yeah I'm willing to do those things. I'm committed to doing those things to achieve the goal. So that's how you set goals. It's committing to the things that are required to achieve the goal rather than just committing to the goal itself."

On acceleration, you need to have bigger arm movements in order to generate more power. When you reach top speed, your arms should move in a sweeping motion with the hands coming right by your pockets and almost sweeping the side of your hip each time. This will help create left-right synergy and prevent your arms from crossing your body.
 
Transcript: "How should my arms look on acceleration versus top speed? It's a great question because it's not the same on acceleration. So first of all, obviously, you already understand with the question that the arms drive the legs. So arms are very, very important in sprinting. So on acceleration, even out of the blocks, it's very different. You're going to have a much bigger expanse of the arms when you're coming from a static position out of the blocks trying to drive yourself forward. So imagine you're trying to generate enough power to actually pull yourself from a static position into motion. So that takes a lot, and so you're-- the bigger your arms at that point, the more you-- power you're going to be able to generate with your legs. Once you get up into your maximum speed or maximum velocity, then you're not as big with your arms when you're in an upright position. The most important thing are when you're at top speed or at max velocity is making sure that left-side right-side synergy is absolutely identical, not crossing your body, making sure that the arms are just going straight up and down. And you want about a 90-degree angle. It varies from athletes to athlete, but somewhere around there. You don't want to have a straight arm because then you're not generating enough power. So you want to imagine as if you if you're standing and you've got a gun in a holster on each side or in a pocket, and you're pulling it out, like the quick draw back in the westerns, that sort of thing. That's the sort of motion that you want to mimic. So the arm, that hand, just comes right by your pocket and almost sweeps the side of your hip each time, and it just goes right past the hip and then comes right back up. So that's a general rule of thumb. But arms are very, very important. And you want to make sure-- again, the most important thing is synergy at max velocity. And at any point, whether it's acceleration, or whether it's max velocity, or maximum speed, full speed, you don't want your body-- your arms crossing your body."

As a 200/400-meter sprinter, my longest distance was 400 meters. To prepare for this, I worked on speed endurance and endurance in my training, and focused on doing sets of 350 meters with very short rest periods to maximize the effects of the training.
 
Transcript: "What's the longest distance I've ever raced? And how long was the preparation in training for that run? So as a 200/400-meter sprinter, my longest distance was 400 meters. And starting off as a 200-meter sprinter, and rarely running the 400 other than being a member of the 4 X 400 meter relay, the 400 meters was not my first event. I was a 100/200-meter sprinter, then just pure 200. And it wasn't until later that I added the 400. And as a 200/400-meter combination sprinter, and typically, where the 200-meter sprinters are just 100/200 sprinters, the 400 was a bit of a stretch for me from an endurance standpoint. Although I won gold medals in it, and broke the world record, competing against other 400-meter runners, they had a strength and endurance advantage on me. Where I had the advantage was with my speed and my ability to maintain and carry that speed for a majority of that 400 meters. So if you imagine where the speed can come into to play, is the first 200 meters doesn't take nearly as much out of me because I'm able to run it faster than my competitors, that I can be a little bit more relaxed through that first 200 meters. And then on the back end, when they're starting to get their endurance, I can match them because I've conserved on the front end of the race. So with the speed advantage, I worked a lot in practice, and in training, on speed endurance, and also on endurance itself. So that was what we really focused on in my 400-meter training, so that I could-- I sort of trained to my weakness in that way. So the furthest I would go in training would be 600 meters, or 500 meters, but repeats of those. So two times, 500 meters, or two times, 600 meters, or [? a 6,4,2 ?] step down. But the biggest training advantage, I think I had in preparation for the 400, was focusing on a three times, or a four times 350 meters, so just short of the distance. But the rest factor was very, very short. And that was the key."