Frank Horwill: 1927 - 2012

UK Athletics coach Frank Horwill passed away earlier this week.

Although not well known in the U.S., Horwill was hugely influential in the U.K. and tributes to him have been appearing in Athletics Weekly and elsewhere.

When we say that someone is an "Old School" coach, we usually mean that they do not coddle their athletes, but instead preach hard work and personal responsibility as the true paths to success. But however we define it, when we use the phrase we probably have some specific person in mind. For me, the coach who best exemplified "old school" was Frank Horwill.

The remembrances describe him as a unique man and true eccentric, who coached a slew of international athletes over the years, but who also coached kids and pretty much anyone else who asked him for advice. He founded the British Milers Club in 1963 after observing that no British athlete had appeared in any of the world or European top ten lists for distance running. He brought a common-sense approach to training for the events that was based on analysis of the demands of the different events and observations of how successful runners trained. He then wrote out training programs that were logical but very, very hard. Indeed, he encouraged athletes to identify what was hardest for then and do more of it.

Peter Coe consulted with Horwill and used many of his ideas to design the training program for his son, Sebastian Coe, who became the only man to win back-to-back Olympic gold medals in the 1500m. Horwill explained those ideas in many articles and two books.

I remember the first time I stumbled upon Frank Horwill's articles, which you can read here.

His writing slapped you awake with its directness. Every brisk sentence crackled with energy and insight and a "let's get going" confidence. Do you want to run faster? ... Here's how you're going to do it. here's one example, from an article on improving your 5K times:

"Supposing you are a runner who doesn’t believe in all this aerobic and anaerobic stuff, you train by instinct. Fair enough. However, there are a few common sense matters to consider. If you want to run 15 mins for 5km, you have to know that’s 72 secs per 400m and get used to it for spells lasting 3-5 minutes’ duration with short rest."

He loved giving examples, especially to show that something was possible, even if it was not easy. Here's Horwill explaining why Coe's 800m record lasted so long:

"Where did Coe get his amazing endurance from? The answer came to me in 1986 when I went to Battersea Park Track one Saturday morning with a 13:11 5km performer to do a session of 7 x 800m at 5km speed with 45 secs rest. The rep times were fixed at 2:08 because the 5km runner was returning to fitness after injury. Coe was on the track and came across and asked what we were doing and could he join in? I felt a little apprehensive that an acknowledged 800m/1,500m runner would not survive a 5km pace session with a short recovery. The 800ms went like this: 2:08, 2:06, 2:04, 2:02, 2:00, 1:58 and 1:56! Coe led them all. Afterwards, he confessed that he did a 5km pace session at 13:20 speed each week. I ventured the opinion that he could run a good 5km anytime. He agreed, but said he didn't like the event! It is doubtful whether any 800m runner before or since could have completed such a session in such times."

And here's Horwill on why running to (and from) work is beneficial:

"We often hear some athletes saying that they don’t really have time to train. I recall a mediocre athlete many years ago with a best time of 4:12 per mile. His coach told him he should go for the 10km event, but the mileage the coach asked him to do was so extensive that the athlete, a carpenter by trade, who traveled long distances to work, could not fit it in. The answer was to run to and from work. However, at the time, his work-site was 15 miles away. He was undaunted by the prospect and ran the 30 miles involved daily, five days a week. He rested Saturday and Sunday. This athlete, Roger Matthews, became the 4th fastest 10km runner in the world in 1970."

There it is. A mediocre athlete becomes the 4th fastest 10K runner in the world. That's the message that Horwill communicated for over fifty years. If you were willing to put in the time and the effort, you could do great things.

The most successful athlete Horwill ever coached was probably Tim Hutchings, who won a silver medal in the World Cross Country Championships and finished 4th in the Olympic 5000m. After Horwill's death, Hutchings wrote:

"He was one of the last of the great old school of coaches: whistle, stop-watch, baseball cap and a bus ticket to get to and from the track – and he was very rarely late for a session for decade after decade of coaching at a wide variety of London tracks. And all this after living one of the most fascinating lives one could imagine before athletics became his love."