Master Coach

Garth Gilmour

Arthur Lydiard was the most successful and influential running coach of the last fifty years. He burst into prominence at the Rome Olympics in 1960 when his two protégés, Peter Snell and Murray Halberg, won Olympic gold medals on the same day. His team of runners, trained to brilliance, went on to dominate international track and marathon running for two decades. During this time he developed and perfected his revolutionary endurance-based training system designed to help any athlete become a better runner. Worldwide adoption of his technique by other running coaches, and by many coaches in other sports, has seen Lydiard-conditioned athletes winning Olympic, international and national titles and breaking records by the score. Lydiard also made possibly the greatest individual contribution to world health and fitness in history: his promotion of jogging has influenced millions of people around the globe.

Shortly before his death in December 2004, he told the full story of his remarkable life to his long-time friend and co-author Garth Gilmour, from his early years in New Zealand to his coaching experiences in Finland, Mexico, Venezuela and elsewhere around the world. The indefatigable Lydiard coached and lectured extensively, especially in the United States, and was on a lecture tour there when he died suddenly, aged 87. One of just 20 holders of New Zealand’s highest honour, the Order of New Zealand, he had also been awarded Finland’s premier honour, the White Star.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Garth Gilmour has had a long and distinguished career as a writer and journalist. Since 1960 he has helped Arthur Lydiard write more than a dozen training manuals and jogging philosophies, which have been published in several languages. He has also written biographies of Olympic gold medallists Peter Snell and Murray Halberg, paraplegic world champion Eve Rimmer and ultra-marathon Sandra Barwick. He lives in Auckland, New Zealand.


SPECIFICATIONS
Size: 234 x 153 mm
Format: Paperback with flaps
Extent: 248 pages
16 photos
Weight: 700 gms
Revised edition: May 2005
ISBN: 978-0-908988-63-1