Comments

1. Ken Moncrieff says:

   May 6, 2011 at 10:11 pm

   Hi, enjoying your blog and comments. Your results have strong parallels with mine although your shot good bit stronger & 400m beyond me …. so far!
   Shall be good to watch your progress on blog n pwr of ten as season unfolds.
   Keep to the yellow brick road.
   Cheers,
   Ken

   Reply
   • Yong Sheng says:

     May 9, 2011 at 9:19 am

     Hi Ken! Thanks for dropping by the blog. Just attempted another dec at woodford, got a few pbs but didn’t complete it due to a pulled hamstring on the 400m. Hopefully your season is going ahead well, cheers!

     Reply
     • Ken Moncrieff says:

       May 9, 2011 at 10:34 am

       Yong,
       well done on the improved LJ & HJ marks, I shall need to match your HJ soon to retain my lead. I hope the muscle pull not to bad and you get some physio work on it quickly. My first multi outdoors this year in GB Masters Pentathlon in early June – Oxford so focussing for that.
       Cheers, K
     • Yong Sheng says:

       May 9, 2011 at 3:54 pm

       Thank you and cheers mate! Wishing you all the best for your season ahead!
       -Yong
2. Samuel Goldberg says:

   August 26, 2011 at 4:55 am

   Hello from Sam Goldberg,

   Please see the attached invitation to become head coach for Thailand’s men’s decathlon and women’s heptathlon events.

   My name is Sam Goldberg, I am former head coach for decathlon running events at the 1st US National Decathlon Training Center at University of California, Santa Barbara. Please see the reasons below for my selection to this position by former US National Decathlon Chairman, Sam Adams.

   I am an expert in the running events/hurdles and decathlon/heptathlon with strong knowledge in the throws and jumping events.

   During my career I ran the 8th fastest all-time world decathlon 400m (48.4) and the 13th fastest all-time decathlon 100m (10.7)-these marks remain competItive even now as you can see by the results of the recent University Games decathlon in Shenzhen and the 2008 Olympics.

   It may be good for you to know the reasons I was chosen to become our 1st US decathlon running coach was due to the tremendous improvements I was able to attain, since my first decathlon 100m time was only (12.3) and my first decathlon 400m was (58.9) all as a high school senior, and without resorting to the use of performance enhancing drugs.

   I set our USA National Junior College(2 year college level) decathlon 400m record (48.4). I was 5th in our open decathlon championships. I was ranked #1 for both the USA national Junior College and NCAA freshman decathlon divisions.

   It may also interest you to know that my olympic weight shot putt (PR of 45 feet), while standing 5’11” and only weighing 157 lbs, established me as pound for pound the all-time best US decathlon shot putter-a record which still stands to my knowledge.

   Of all my achievement, it is the fact that I have since 1967 held the all-time world mark for decathlon “net” points. Net points are the difference between an athletes first and best decathlon score, and I still remain the only athlete in world decathlon history to have exceeded 3000 net points- I am now seeking official recognition for this mark for addition into the official decathlon record book both in the US and internationally.

   It is my ability to excel based on a superior mental discipline, imagination and deep belief in my dream that I know I can be of great assistance to you.

   In addition to my own accomplishments in decathlon, I was the running coach for Canada’s two time Olympic decathlon entrant, Mr. Gery Moro at Munich in 1972. I have also coached our US National 800 meter champion, Mr. James Robinson while I was his Junior College coach, and assisted in the run training for America’s first 16’6″ High School pole vaulter.

   Finally, it may also interest you to know that while coaching at our USA Decathlon Training Center in 1973, I defeated Mr. Alan Pascoe in the 70yd HH. This was while the English National team was training at our center and was just one year after Mr. Pascoe, had won Silver at the 72 Games in the 4×400 meter relay. He also placed 4th in the 72 Olympic 400m Hurdles, had run 13.5 in the 110M HH and was at that time regarded as Europe’s best all-around hurdler.

   I am currently attempting to contact and assist your nation’s decathlon prospect Mr. Tan, in his current and future plans and I have offered my expertise and assistance to insure his success in his efforts to exceed the 7500pt level for decathlon qualification for London. Oh by the way, my first decathlon total was 3550 and my best score was 7,276pts.

   Please allow me to suggest, that while many others have had greater personal success, I think it is obvious, by virtue of my decathlon “net” points score, to say none have matched, let alone exceeded my capacity to reach one’s latent potential. In other words, almost any informed coach can successfully train a great or talented athlete, however I have never found one who had my capacity to develop a poor but dedicated athlete to the levels I reached. This is because, as already gifted athletes, they lack the authentic experiences, insights and understanding of the normally unspoken fears held by the “common” student athlete. They also lack the ability to say “look how poorly I began and see what I was able to accomplish.

   While lesser quality athletes may admire what the gifted athlete accomplished, they also know in their heart of hearts, these men and women had abilities the “common” athlete did and does not have at their disposal-at the moment. Thus, these psychological limits haunt them both consciously and unconsciously. Perhaps a brief reflection on you own personal experiences will confirm my assertion here.

   Allow me suggest what is generally lacking even in the best of modern coaches-even at your national level is the intimate knowledge of how to win and the experience of actually doing it. I firmly believe it is my personal mastery over this psychological component that is a key experience that separates me from other applicants who seek to lead your student-athletes to victory over time, gravity and their own psychological and physical limits.

   Finally, may I suggest an essential quality any winning coach must have-and most “by the book” coaches, even at our and your national level lack, is the capacity to be successfully creative. The art of teaching students to not only excel, but to win is not covered in our science of athletics libraries. It is however covered in the personal experiences of those very few athletes, who like myself chose to travel a road usually reserved for the highly talented and gifted athlete.

   If this has reached you in time, please feel free to contact me at samsuramanee@yahoo.com

   Thank you in advance for your kind considerations
   Sammy Goldberg, retired head running events coach USA National Decathlon Training Center

   Reply
   • Yong Sheng says:

     August 26, 2011 at 11:42 am

     Hello Sam,

     Thank you for your kind words. That certainly sounds like an interesting opportunity, however I am not looking for any full time employment currently as I will still be a full time student at Loughborough University for another year. It’s good to hear about your acheivements as a decathlete and I hope that someday I’ll be able to achieve that performance level too. Thank you for your interest and I wish you all the best. =)

     Yong

     Reply
     • Yong Sheng says:

       August 26, 2011 at 12:41 pm

       Ah i think I’ve gotten your message wrongly. Recieved an email from SAA about you as well. Thank you for your offer to help, but I would be here in Loughborough to continue my studies so unfortunately I will not be able to work with you in SE Asia. Cheers for your kind words nevertheless!